Grocery stores in Dartmouth were more crowded than usual on Friday afternoon, March 13, as shoppers stocked up on supplies to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic. 

“It’s like we’re having the worst blizzard ever,” said Trisha Rodrigues, as she pushed her shopping cart out of Shaw’s. 

The New Bedford resident added that the store was so crowded, it was difficult to get in line at the cash registers. “It’s nuts,” she said.

Steve Dexter wore a surgical mask and gloves into the Stop and Shop on Faunce Corner Road. He said that he took the extra precaution because he has leukemia, meaning the coronavirus could impact him more severely than others. 

Melissa Bessette described a scene of “mass hysteria” in response to the coronavirus, as she pushed a cart full of food supplies out of Stop and Shop.

She said she went to the Dartmouth Walmart early in the morning before work to beat the crowds, but when she got there the parking lot “looked like Black Friday.”  

While some shoppers stocked up on specific items, such as bottled water, others didn’t change their shopping habits much. “I’m buying what I always buy every week,” Ray Nunes said outside of Stop and Shop. 

Nunes said the only real difference on March 13, was that he bought extra dog food, just in case the store runs out of it in the near future.

Employees at both Shaw’s and Stop and Shop declined to comment on how business has been impacted by the coronavirus.