In early March, panic buying gripped the nation with shoppers stockpiling staples like toilet paper, tissues, rice, flour, canned goods, bottled water, and hand sanitiser.
Store shelves were stripped bare creating acute shortages of goods and forcing supermarkets to place hard limits on the number of items that could be purchased across a wide variety of products.
Four months on and history is repeating in Victoria amid the spike in COVID-19 infections and widening lockdowns.
Photos shared on social media yesterday once again showed empty shelves after staples were raided.
For example, hereβs a store in Chapel Street Melbourne:
Coles a wee bit empty, on the shelves of inner East Melbourne.
{πΊ Real Dads of Melbourne 03/07}. pic.twitter.com/r2YaAP79Wv
β Lisa Brassington π (@AgPeriUrban) July 3, 2020
And no, that is not the USSR but a Coles store in Footscray:
Meanwhile, Coles Footscray looks like a supermarket in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. pic.twitter.com/7rVib5S2OF
β Cade Lucas (@cadelucas) July 5, 2020
Search the web and you will find loads of similar photos and videos published online.
Coles and Woolworths have once again implemented two item limits on 18 different products including frozen vegetables, bread loaves, chilled fresh milk, prepacked sausages, burger patties and tissues.
History never repeats but it sure does rhyme.