I work for a food company. Not gonna name brand names, but it's all non-perishable, so a lot of what we sell is precisely what's now being panic-bought. A thread about why panic-buying is so unnecessary... Here's how the grocery trade works. Every shop knows exactly how much it's sold during the past week, 100 of X, 300 of Y, etc. So our sales rep goes in and the shop orders 100 of X and 300 of Y to replace what they've sold. They keep some back-up stock to keep the shelves pretty.