Rumours are rife that minibuses from Canberra, or Albury, are arriving in Cootamundra and Harden to strip our supermarket shelves bare.
They are, as far as we can work out, just that - rumours.
There are some customers who seem like they might have come from elsewhere by car, but by and large demand seems to be local, i.e. it's mainly us who are bulk buying.
The Woollworths car park, normally lucky to have four or five cars in it at 7am, has been full to overflowing for the past couple of days since the special shopping hour for seniors and concession card holders was announced.
One Cootamundra senior who phoned the Herald said there was "not a potato" at that time at Woolworths, and it seemed the shelves had not been restocked.
When we checked yesterday mid-morning there were some supplies of potatoes available, but within half an hour the cheaper varieties had sold out and all that were left were the more expensive low-carb and mini varieties.
The same is happening with meat, with sausages and mince selling out but chops and steaks still there.
Apart from the absurdly empty shelves of paper products it seems staples such as milk and bread are in reasonable supply.
Yesterday mid-morning Woolworths had clearly received a recent delivery of frozen goods, as staff were flat out breaking open cardboard boxes and lowering them into freezer compartments.
One rumour was that a large "orange" bus had been turned away from the IGA at Harden, but when we checked a spokesman said there had been a few unfamiliar faces, but only three or four, and no-one hard been turned away.
The owner of Cootamundra IGA, Ian Mahwood, said the situation was "not as positive as it was two days ago" but IGA was doing the best it could to service the local community.
"The wholesalers are running 48 hours behind time and the deliveries are limited in what we are receiving," he said. "The increase in demand has been incredible, country-wide.
"The flow-on effect of the city stores running out and not being able to be replenished flows through to the country."
"There are restrictions in place on some items, but it's more difficult in Cootamundra with some customers that come in who might normally only do a monthly shop."
"It's unprecedented - how do you restrict someone who comes in 100km and tell them to come back next week?"
The final word should probably go to the minister for agriculture David Littleproud: "people need to take a deep breath, have a cold shower, and understand that if they shop normally, the shelves will be stocked normally".
