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As the holidays draw close and coronavirus cases continue to surge across the U.S., Kroger was one of the national grocers that has started to limit purchases on toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer and other disinfectant products temporarily.

\"It was really learnings we had early in the pandemic and what we found was that we didn't have limits on early enough,\" he explained. \"There is plenty of product in the supply chain and we just thought it would be much better to be proactive because as long as people only buy what they need, there's plenty of supply in the supply chain.\"

\"PHOTO:
Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Frozen turkeys are scanned at check by a cashier at a Walmart store in Burbank, Calif., Nov. 26, 2019.
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People have continued on the homecooking trend amid the pandemic and McMullen said that paired with the holidays, means greater demand for ingredients.

\"They're still continuing to do more things from scratch. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays where you always have a lot of flour, baking products, all of that, just to prep for the holiday,\" he said. \"There's going to be a ton of people buying [baking ingredients] and comfort food is definitely back in style.\"

In order to prevent shoppers from stockpiling, McMullen reiterated that Kroger urges its customers to do what they can to reduce food waste.

\"To me it's buying what you need -- and only what you need,\" he said, adding that \"one of the things very important to Kroger is zero hunger, zero waste.\"

\"You don't want to have somebody preparing way more than they need and throwing something away. It's not good for anything,\" he said.

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