panic buying

Chinese panic buying salt amid Japan nuclear scare

by rhoor on Mar 17, 2011

Chinese retailers on Thursday reported panic buying of salt, partly because shoppers believe it could help ward off the effects of potential radioactivity from Japan's crippled nuclear power plant.

"Salt sold out early this morning," an employee with a branch of French supermarket chain Carrefour in Shanghai told AFP, declining to give her name. (episode: tungsten carbide wedding band )



She said all the salt was snapped up within 30 minutes of the store's opening on Thursday by anxious shoppers, adding that many customers reported salt prices at other shops in the city had risen as much as six-fold.

A staff member at a supermarket in the southern city of Guangzhou said salt demand had spiked so sharply that the store had imposed temporary limits on what each customer can buy.

"There are many people queueing to buy iodised salt in our store. We have to control it. One client can only buy two bags of salt,"...Read More >>