Just came from Kroger I didn't see any

[Hortensis]

41. :) I knew there must have been someone who hung around in markets

waiting for people whose needs they knew in order to evaluate their choices against those needs.

Of course you observed what you did, but for going on two years now I've been taking posts about pandemic shopping on various forums as probably saying as much about the posters than anything else. There are strong patterns to posts on this subject, which falls into its own definite patterns.

My observations don't corroborate most, but I have a solid bias toward thinking people are supposed to be stocking up in those situations; also that some would be stocking for different sizes and numbers of households than my one empty-nesters', making it impossible to determine greed over need. Four cans of Dinty Moore beef stew would have to be assumed to be stocking up on a staple, as long as they weren't the last cans, with no alternatives. And a little person sitting in the cart seems more than adequate explanation and justification for grabbing two large bags of frozen chicken nuggets. I have a 15-year-old grandson who still eats nothing else reliably.

It may well be, though, that your markets and their shoppers are different from mine serving nondense populations in GA and FL. Certainly, smaller, busy markets that get people rushing home from work, like my old Trader Joes, get Black Fridayish for a while most days.