Big Costco Lines as Seniors Shop for Necessities

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You were lucky if you got a parking place, much less toilet paper and paper towels at Costco locations in Sonoma County today.

On the first week that Costco stores nationwide instituted a policy to open early for seniors on three consecutive days, huge lines formed at the chain’s Sonoma County locations in Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa.

Last week, Costco announced that it would extend its new hours for seniors over the age of 60 and the physically disabled to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8AM to 9AM, adding Wednesday to the schedule.

This morning, Costco locations in Sonoma County and elsewhere across California were thronged, as long lines formed before 7AM and snaked around the stores and out into the parking lots.

With seniors and others stocking up on essential items like toilet paper and paper towels, the supplies were soon gone. The Costco in Rohnert Park ran out of paper towels by around 8:30AM, and the last toilet paper was handed out around 9AM.

Like many other retailers, Costco is well stocked with most items, but paper products and alcohol-based sanitation products are quickly sold out.

National distributors say the U.S. supply chain of all of those items is doing fine, but an initial run on products has left them in short supply, for now, as people continue to snap them up due to the coronavirus emergency.