Butchers and grocers across the Hunter are recording better sales than they do before Christmas as a result of the pandemonium amid the coronavirus outbreak.
A day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians to stop hoarding goods, Hunter businesses said produce and products continued to fly out the door.
The Newcastle Herald spoke to half a dozen butchers on Thursday morning and none of them could spare more than a few minutes - if any - for a chat.
Adam's Family Meats on Brunker Road in Adamstown closed its doors for two hours yesterday morning to restock and replenish supplies.
One customer had arrived at 6am and bought $300 worth of meat to be distributed among three families.
At Dunns Butchers in New Lambton, owner Lewis Dunn said he was doing "triple" the amount of trade he usually would at this time of the year.
He said the past week had been "like the Christmas rush". He was doing 14-hour shifts and the butchery was struggling to produce mince.
"People are panic buying. They're buying more than they normally would do and it's having a flow-on effect because other people are doing the same thing," he said.
"Once the orders are done, there's [no mince] we can sell to people off the street."
Mr Dunn said his family had run the butchery since 1965 and he had never seen trade as good as now.
"It's good for business but you wonder how long it's going to last," he said.
Only one hotel had cancelled its regular order of meat trays for raffles but Mr Dunn was concerned there would be more as patronage in venues dropped off.
At Sutcliffe Meats Glendale, which is near two major supermarkets, manager Sam Delaney said he was having difficulty getting meat in.
"It's been crazy, but the worst thing is none of the suppliers have got any meat at the moment. They're trying to divide it out between everyone and we just can't get any orders," he said.
"We've already done more [sales] than we did in Christmas week and it's only Thursday morning. The trucks and deliveries are days behind at the moment."
Mr Delaney said the issue was not so much hoarding customers, but "the fact that everyone is coming in and buying a decent amount".
"People who normally go to the supermarket are now coming to us because they've got no meat," he said. "Some smaller butchers are only open half-days because they can't keep on top of stuff."
Small Hunter grocers are also experiencing a huge boost in sales as eager shoppers search beyond depleted urban supermarkets.
Paterson Friendly Grocer owner Wayne Charnock said this week had been "madness" and his store had "taken as much in three days as what we do in a week".
"I don't know if they're stockpiling but they couldn't be using what they're buying," he said. "It's very sad because it makes it hard for the customers that need it. We're only a little store but it's just out of control."
Mr Charnock said the wholesale price of produce had risen and he had been forced to pay twice as much as usual on Thursday.
"The prices have gone out of control," he said. "A box of capsicums, you usually pay $40 or $50 for a 10-kilo box, it was up to $120 today.
"That's costing me $12 a kilo and then I've got to make something out of it. I usually sell them for $5 to $7 a kilo. They cost me $10 the other day and I put $12.99 on them, but they're still selling."
James Lovegrove, owner of Lovey's IGA at Dungog, said his store had been stripped of the common essentials.
"We were reasonably prepared for it but it's taken everybody by surprise," he said. "People panic, it's the power of social media, but it's a lot of undue panic."
There has been reports of people in mini-buses or vans visiting towns in regional Victoria and parts of NSW to buy bulk amounts of goods. The owners the Herald spoke to said they had seen "unfamiliar faces" shopping in their stores, but they were yet to deal with those incidents.
"We had faces in here that I've never seen before," East Gresford FoodWorks owner Kelly Cowley said. "People are coming from other places, but if they're buying up big I'm starting to limit [purchases] because I want to look after my locals."
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Wednesday he believed the original panic buying of toilet paper and other items in Australia was sparked by profiteers.
He said authorities would "come down like a tonne of bricks on these individuals" because "they're the ones who have created this pattern of behaviour of hoarding and clearing out shelves".
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