Several major grocery chains are having to reduce their daily hours to restock and clean

Publix, which has more than 1200 stores in southern states, will be closing at 8pm, or two hours early

The Giant Company, a chain with 200 stores in the mid-Atlantic, will close its 24-hour stores at midnight

Wegmans, a Northeast chain, will close its 24-hour stores at 11pm or midnight to clean and restock

Harris Teeter, a large supermarket chain serving the Southeast, will close stores at 9pm instead of midnight

Panic buyers have been stripping the shelves of stores across the country and fights have even broken out

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A gaggle of major grocery store chains will begin closing early daily or scaling back from 24-hour service in order to restock and clean stores, as the coronavirus pandemic drives panic buying.

Chains such as Publix, Giant, Harris Teeter and Wegmans are all scaling back hours, while retail titan Walmart has admitted it is evaluating whether to close 24-hour stores at night during the crisis.

Across the country, desperate scenes have played out as shoppers prepare to quarantine, whether via a period of self-isolation or possible containment measures imposed by authorities.

In Fairfield, California, police were called when fights broke out over shopping carts at a Costco, according to KNTV reporter Jodi Hernandez.

At the same store, a fight also erupted when a man took a package of toilet paper out of someone else’s cart, an employee told Hernandez.