Consumers fearful of food shortages, or of not being able to leave their homes to shop, have stocked up on food.
Now they are looking for a way to store it, and home freezers are the latest hot commodity in this coronavirus-ravaged economy.
"They are out of them from here to wherever," said Manny Rovithis, owner of Manny's TV & Appliances, which has nine locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire. "People are buying. They are hoarding. Manufacturers, they ran out."
Rovithis said his store recently got a negative online review from someone who came in for a freezer and was told the floor demonstrator wasn't for sale.
"I can't sell you're the floor model even if it is the only one I've got. Because then I can't sell any if people can't see one on the floor. And in a day or two I have more in," Rovithis said. "But then we learned there were no more coming. We sold the floor model, too. Then the customer comes back in and is mad because the floor model is gone."
He said some consumers are buying an extra refrigerator instead.
Brian Zippin, owner of Contractors Home Appliances in West Springfield and East Granby, Connecticut, said the shortage is compounded by the fact that home freezers are usually less in demand than stoves, refrigerators and clothes washers. Fewer folks find a need for a freezer unless they have a large family, hunt large game, have a big garden, or all three.
"They make fewer of them anyway," Zippin said. "Now everybody wants them."
Zippin and Rovithis said manufacturers started warning about a possible shortage weeks ago. Today backorders appear to be in the hundreds.
Few companies make freezers in the U.S., Zippin said. GE makes them at its Appliance Park facility in Louisville, Kentucky. Frigidaire makes freezers in Canada.
Rovithis said parts that go into those products might come from China even if the products are assembled here.
And Zippin said GE has already warned its dealers that its factories are slowing down. The company has fewer workers reporting each day so it can comply with social distancing rules.
The appliance shops are open but adjusting to a new reality. Rovithis said he's selling appliances, just not freezers right now, and replacements for critical equipment that breaks beyond repair. No one is upgrading.
Zippin said he's allowing customers worried about being in crowds to call ahead and ensure they'll be the only people in the store.
Both men said customers are putting off service and delivery appointments because they don't want anyone in their homes.
Zippin said his crews can leave some appliances outside if requested. Other customers ask that theirs be the first delivery of the day, when people and equipment are presumably cleaner. Some customers tell him that they'll wait in another room until delivery people and installers are gone.
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