WILMINGTON — Thanksgiving and Christmas are a long way away, but it feels like the holidays as local stores have been packed the past two days due to the coronavirus situation.

“It feels like Christmas Eve,” Wilmington Kroger store manager Brandon Hoggatt told the News Journal Friday morning. “We’ve been extremely busy.”

Most of the shelves in the store are as full as people are accustomed to, with a few exceptions including toilet paper, tissues and hand sanitizer.

Hoggatt said Kroger is working with manufacturers and parts of the supply chain to get more of those items in; he expects a shipment of paper products including “a limited amount of varieties of toilet paper” to arrive Friday evening.

He added that the store is working to ensure a balance between stocking everything the community needs while limiting the amounts consumers are allowed to purchase to ensure all community members have the essentials — for example, a limit of three packs of toilet paper and a limit of two cartons of eggs and two cartons of milk.

The toilet paper shelves were empty at the Wilmington Aldi Friday morning.

https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/03/web1_Aldi-1.jpgThe toilet paper shelves were empty at the Wilmington Aldi Friday morning. Tom Barr | News Journal

These little shoppers’ carts are well-stocked as they checked out at Kroger Friday morning.

https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/03/web1_kids-at-kroger-1.jpgThese little shoppers’ carts are well-stocked as they checked out at Kroger Friday morning. Tom Barr | News Journal

Most all items were in stock, but toilet paper and tissues were in short supply at the Wilmington Kroger Friday morning, although more is on the way.

https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/03/web1_Kroger-1-1.jpgMost all items were in stock, but toilet paper and tissues were in short supply at the Wilmington Kroger Friday morning, although more is on the way. Tom Barr | News Journal