When we had kids growing up, our local grocery ran a canned goods sale in the Fall so then I bought a flat of each vegetable plus chili beans, flour, sugar, soup, some paper products. The shelves in the basement were like a mini store. It did save some money but more importantly it was convenience.

Check your bakeries for flour, sugary,yeast., shortening and the such. They aren't using as much now and would be glad to .
make the money/

I went to Walmart today, parking lot was full but easy to stay a good distance from everyone inside. Flour was stocked and I saw jars of yeast, not the three small packs as normal. One shopper told her DH that she couldn't use that yeast because it said for Bread Machines. LOL. I started to tell her it was the same yeast just marketed differently but decided she probably wouldn't believe me. Besides there was plenty of frozen yeast rolls available and the bakery had lots of bread.

I think that what people are forgetting when they go to the store is that the hundreds and hundreds of people that would normally be eating out every day are now shopping for groceries at your local stores so the demand is much greater. If you recall driving past any restaurant at mealtimes, the parking lots are always full and now most of those people are shopping for groceries. The same holds true for people with children. Many of their kids were eating breakfast and lunch at school and now they are eating at home every day.

We have the same problem with flour, sugar, cold cereal, eggs, canned goods, even pasta. Our Walmart has a sign up to be considerate but doesn't state "Limit" so folks so think that means them. Luckily I always keep an extra with what I use the most so when I pull out my "extra" I can go looking to replace it then. This will give me hopefully a couple weeks or more to find it. Plus my garden produced quite a bit last year and what I couldn't give away I chopped up and froze for soups. I even tried my hand at making my own tomato soup using carrots, onions, red peppers, celery and of course tomatoes, then pureed it a little. Came out pretty good......made 52 pints and 1 quart in total. Have given some to my neighbors and friends.

I have kept six months of staples in my pantry for years. Learned this during the lean dollar times of my life. DH and I were fine when the isolated hit and still are as far as food goes. I go once every two weeks to replace what we use. Still have six months of food stuff. Been giving some to my kids but they learned from me, they had a fully stocked pantry to begin with. This keeps us from rushing to buy what others need to buy. I hope everyone keeps a good supply of basics when this settles. No rushing or doing without when another emergency occurs.

No more flour around here. The other day, I went through my pantry and pulled out all of the grains I have in stock s/a quinoa, bulgar, rye berries, oatmeal, etc. I put them in the blender and made my own, multi-grain flour for my bread making. It was fast and easy. The bread turned out a little dense, but delicious!

I did the same for nut butter. The peanut butter is now gone from the shelves too. I have a big stash of almonds, so I made almond butter in my food processor. (I have done this a few time before.) It's super loud when I first start grinding and it does take awhile before it changes into butter, but it's a fraction of the cost, it's available and my DH is forever grateful.

We really are blessed to have so much food available to us, even in these times.

~ C

This last time I went to Costco there was lots of yeast but very few bags of flour (like 8??) with a "limit 1" on the flour.

I bought a 2 lb yeast for my friend in Arizona who has flour but no yeast and sent it to her as a Seattle Care Package. I used a medium flat rate box and included 2 rolls of "the good stuff" Charmin toilet paper as packing material, a small box of tea (she's an ice tea drinker), two packages of her favorite snack cake, and a small rock from my yard.

I wrote on the bag I put the rock in: Yes -- it's a rock. Why? Because it's a flat rate box and I think I'm funny.

Fortunately, she thinks I'm funny too. Even if sometimes it requires explanation and it's still defies explanation...

I don't understand why people are hoarding either. It is very annoying and stressful in an already stressful circumstance. I find that now I have to shop more often and go to more stores to get essentials when I'm suppose to stay home. At least some stores are putting limits on how many you can buy of certain items which has helped some. We eat fresh food, nothing canned. So the local stores seem to have lots of fruits and veggies and are well stocked with meat. But flour and paper goods are scarce.

I found flour at the natural food store today - white wheat instead of all purpose, but at least it's organic flour. I had to buy 10 pounds which is a little generous, but better too much than too little. They had a decent amount of whole wheat, but I bought the only bag of white. I also found sugar, so it was a good trip, though the fresh vegetables were non existent. My big outing - the only store I'm 'allowed' to go to. Two weeks ago, I was the only customer in the store. Today there were quite a few younger people and they were definitely not 'social distancing'. I just avoided the aisles they were in and washed my hands and face when I got home.
I have a little yeast, but will put more on my list for my daughter to look for. I bake the communion bread for church the first Sunday of the month, but I doubt if communion will be served even if our state opens up enough so we can attend church.