The headlines might blare "panic buying" - and it was panic of a sort, but more like orderly chaos.
Outside all the supermarkets in Majura Park, there were long queues as people turned up even before the lockdown announcement.
By the beginning of the afternoon on this year's lockdown day, the toilet paper shelves in Woolworths were running low, with acres of empty space.
Store workers in Costco were shifting the big 48-roll bundles off the pallets into stacks as fast as the hordes of shoppers could get them into their trolleys.
"It's a bit crazy in there," shopper Bill Carruthers said.
"Everyone's just getting panicky because of the announcement," he said as he wheeled away his trolley, loaded with a big pack of toilet paper.
He said he had just bought his normal groceries but had bulked up on the paper. "They're big packs so if you only get one, you're doing well for a couple of months," he said.
Even though the ACT government said supermarkets would remain open for essential supplies, shoppers took no chances.
Mr Carruthers said there was no trouble at Costco. "They had a person warning that there was going to be one pack per trolley, so a couple of people had to put their rolls back, but there wasn't any fuss," he said.
Was he overreacting with his buying? "No, I don't think so. I've already had to cancel a trip down to the coast. This is something we've been waiting for for a few weeks now. It's the way it is," he said.
Mother-of-two Courtney Stewart said she had been at Majura Park before the announcement of the lockdown. She said there were already people there when she arrived, some with two trolleys.
"I got lucky. I got the toilet paper and the essentials for the children," she said.
The queues at Majura Park were patient and passive - but stocks seemed sufficient.
The longest was outside Costco but Woolworths and Aldi were also controlling numbers allowed to enter. At Costco, a manager inside relayed messages on a walkie-talkie to a lady at the door.
Queues for each checkout stretched for about 100 metres. The queue to get in snaked around the building.
By midday, one hour after the announcement, the vast Majura Park carpark was packed with new arrivals having to cruise and wait to park. The crush made a normal Saturday look quiet.
It was a similar scene elsewhere, even at the Coles in Manuka which had been named as a place where an infected person had been.
Woolworths introduced buying limits.
The chain's ACT general manager Michael McKenzie told The Canberra Times stores would remain open during lockdown for essential supplies. "We have plenty of stock in our supply chain, and our team members will be hard at work making sure it flows into our store in large volumes for our customers," he said.
"As always, we encourage our customers to be mindful of others in the community and buy only what they need.
"Please treat our team members and each other with respect as we work through this unsettling time together."
And there were signs of kindness and solidarity across the city.
At the Covid testing centre at Exhibition Park, someone brought a big pack of bottles and gave water to the parking attendants.
