German supermarkets are having to adapt on the fly to ongoing waves of panic buying and the increasing danger to their own staff. For its cashiers and shelve stockers, the company is making gloves and masks available while installing plexiglass barriers to protect its cashiers from the coughs and sneezes of paying customers. It’s also warned that the the stockpiling of bottled products was leading to an imbalance in the number of total bottles in circulation. Customers need to return their empties as soon as possible to ensure the system continues to function, said retailers. The General Anzeiger reports that physical fights are beginning to break out for the most sought after items. In order to reduce the panic buying of the most obvious of these, one store in Germany has begun putting a surcharge on every pack of toilet paper after the first one. Officials in Germany continue to insist that there is no danger of food shortages and that “hamster buying” as the act of hoarding is called in German is pointless and counterproductive
