Coronavirus is officially a pandemic. The U.S. has officially declared a national emergency. And this morning, all the shelves at Whole Foods, Costco, and Trader Joe’s around the city were wiped clean. In my work Slack, on text, and in Facebook and Instagram, endless people were posting photos of all the empty grocery store shelves in their local neighborhoods. Toilet paper was nowhere to be found. Packaged instant ramen, clearly a hot commodity in times of crisis like this, are sold out everywhere.

We walked into Whole Foods in Columbus Circle today just to see what it looked like. Almost all the beef and poultry were gone. Dried pastas, rice, oats, and cereal were about 90 percent wiped clean. Yet… we still saw plenty of dairy (not much oat milk left, though!), yogurt, and the usual full supply of fruits and vegetables. The frozen fruit and vegetables were gone, though. And the eggs…… completely sold out. Those shelves have been replaced with more juice.

What, people don’t want juice in times of disease?