COLUMBIA, S.C. —
Before we got word that the strike was over, fears over its potential impact led to panic buying.
Combining that with storm victims needing supplies, store shelves have been looking bare over the last couple of days.
"I do think they panicking, they are over panicking,” said Columbia resident, Clarice Robinson.
Robinson said that she was confused when she noticed that people were filling their shopping carts and buying everything on the grocery store's shelves. She later realized that people were panicking over the port worker's strike.
"It's just due to the anticipated shortage that might occur in the future, and so that just leads to the desire to stock up on your own personal inventory today," said research economist at University of South Carolina, Joseph Von Nessen said.
Kroger has put out a statement saying, "To ensure all customers have access to what they need, we have proactively and temporarily set purchase limits per customer on certain products including paper towels, toilet paper and water."
Each customer can only buy six bath tissues, paper towels, and eight packs of bottled water.
"You know cause you don't want to be without these items, you need your toiletries and stuff like that. You make sure you have enough water, you want to make sure you got all these supplies that you need," said Robinson.
American Forest and Paper Association President and CEO, Heidi Brock, also released a statement saying, "Approximately 85% of tissue paper demand (which includes toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue) in the U.S. is supplied by U.S. tissue producers."
They are also not aware of any impacts on tissue products.
"If consumers are looking to stock up or are worried about a future potential shortage, then that can create a current shortage," said Von Nessen.