During these tough times, everyone is scrambling around to try to find the bare essentials. All across the country, people have been panic buying and stocking up on essentials like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper towels, and sanitizing wipes. People might be thinking “it’s going to be impossible to find these products anywhere,” but that is not the case. There are still some stores that have a supply of these items whether that be online or in the store itself. 

“Everything is hard to come by because I’m trying to stay out of the stores as much as possible. My parents go to Costco now and again to buy in bulk for the whole family so that really decreases the necessary trips, but I’ve really had to change my mindset in what is truly necessary,” said Melissa Hunt, science teacher.

The first item on the list is what everyone seems to be buying and there isn’t usually any in stores. This item would be toilet paper, and it can be found online on the BJ’s wholesale club’s website. They still have some good quality toilet paper and it can be shipped straight to your house. 

“I actually get toilet paper and other essentials through a subscription service called ‘The Grove,’ I had just received my order and had a whole box of toilet paper already when things got crazy,” said Hunt.

The only downside is that a membership is required to shop at BJ’s, and the membership is about 50 dollars per year. Another website that has toilet paper is Amazon, and a membership is not required to order off of Amazon. One good in store option to buy toilet paper would be the Wegmans located off of Wake Forest Road. They seem to usually have an ample supply of toilet paper available. 

The second item on the list is hand sanitizer. A good place to buy hand sanitizer would be Amazon. Although Amazon has a good supply of it, the prices will be higher than usual. For example, a five pack of BushKlawz Eco hand sanitizer is going for 42 dollars (including shipping but not including tax). Another place to buy hand sanitizer is going to be CVS pharmacy, but only in stores. When looking on the website it gives many results for hand sanitizer and says they are only in stores. This is about it for hand sanitizers, as many places do not have it. 

The next item would be paper towels, and these are going to be hard to find since they are a highly sought after item right now. There are some places where you can find it though, one of those places would be the dollar store. This will mostly likely only be available in store, so make sure you pick up some quickly. The best place right now to buy paper towels is Amazon. When on Amazon’s website, there is a very large supply of paper towels that aren’t too expensive. There are big name brands in stock; like Brawny and Sparkle, which you might want to check out if you have been running low on paper towels. 

Finally, the last item on the list is disinfecting wipes. Ever since the corona virus started sweeping the nation, cleaning and germ killing products have been flying off the shelves. Again, Amazon comes through with having a good amount of top name brands like Lysol and Clorox disinfecting wipes. Amazon is coming through big time with having most of the things in this list on their website available for purchase. 

When asked if she had any encouraging words that she wanted to give to people during these tough times, Hunt was very supportive and positive. 

“Focus on the good things! It’s easy to dwell on the bad right now but if you start being thankful for small things it can really change your outlook for the better and help you to be a ray of sunshine for someone else who may need it,” said Hunt.