FREEZERS have been hot items at Harvey Norman Bathurst Electrical amid the coronavirus uncertainty, but proprietor Ryan Morgan says most customers have been "happy and calm".
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"It was chest freezers and then moved into upright freezers and now that we've basically sold out of those, they're now looking at top mount freezers that have the largest capacity in the freezer," he said.
Even with the sudden influx, though, he said he hadn't seen the rudeness being reported in some supermarkets around the country amid panic grocery buying.
"Most people [coming into Harvey Norman Electrical] are still happy and calm, to be perfectly honest," he said.
"There are a few people who have been nervous. You can see it.
"I have been in retail for coming up on 14 years now, so you can tell when people are a bit on edge.
"We're just doing what we can to help them out with what they need.
"We're not seeing that [rudeness] here. We're getting the opposite. Most people are having a chat and getting on with their day."
Mr Morgan's interpretation of the spike in freezer sales was that "people are trying to prepare themselves so they can feel more comfortable and more secure with what's going on", but he said the Australian dollar might also have something to do with it.
"With the dollar where it is at the moment, we're definitely seeing people taking advantage of the pricing that is available now," he said.
"We were already experiencing a price rise during January from a lot of our partners and where the dollar is at the moment, we can only see that eventuating again."
He said he couldn't say for sure when the store's freezer stock would be replenished, but said some of the signs from China as its coronavirus restrictions ease were positive.
"We are waiting on China to fire back up fully so they can then provide the componentry to the manufacturers and it flows on from there," he said.
Mr Morgan said the store remained open, but was taking health precautions during the coronavirus outbreak.
"We're cleaning the store significantly more than ever before," he said.
"The staff are practising social distancing and washing their hands between customers where appropriate - just everything we can do."
He said Harvey Normal Electrical had shifted to a store-to-garage home delivery, as opposed to bringing the item inside the customer's house, but was making concessions for the elderly and frail.
