(La Porte, IN) - The upsurge in COVID-19 cases has people once again rushing to grocery stores across the country and locally to stockpile.

I Street Meats in La Porte, for example, estimates a 50% increase in sales within just the past few days.  Owner Ryan Mrozinski said some people are stocking up especially on hamburger, chicken and other meats along with toilet paper just as they did when the pandemic first hit in the spring.

“Toilet paper is gold,” he chuckled.

For now, he said the hoarding of grocery products hasn't eclipsed the rate at which it was occurring more than six months ago.  Mrozinski said he’s not a major carrier of toilet paper so it’s possible he could run out of toilet paper if sales, eventually, outpace how quickly he can have more delivered.  However, he doesn’t expect any shortages of meat or poultry at least in the short term since he keeps a lot of meat and poultry in stock and there’s good supply  from processing plants right now.