Many shoppers on a quest to buy toilet paper in Potsdam Sunday afternoon came home empty handed.

Stores throughout St. Lawrence County ran short of tissue paper, as well as crucial sanitizers and masks this weekend as shoppers stocked up to get ready for the COVID-19 threat.

One Potsdam grocery store, Aldi, has temporarily closed, while Walmart and Price Chopper announced they will close overnight to sanitize and restock the stores.

In Potsdam, toilet paper could not be found Sunday afternoon, despite a check of more than a dozen stores.

NCNow photos by Cheryl Shumway

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Mengying Xia, a St. Lawrence University student, finds no toilet paper left at Canton’s Price Chopper Saturday afternoon. The store has placed limits on purchases of toilet paper and household wipes. She is working on her college classes remotely, staying in an SLU dorm, unable to return to her home in China at this point.

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Crystal Burdick, with Hunter Woods, from Brushton, search the Potsdam Walmart for Enfamil baby formula in a size accepted by the WIC program. She said she was unable to find any at the Walmart stores in Malone and Massena.

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The Potsdam Aldi store announced it was temporarily closing Sunday “in an effort to support our supply chain and give them time to replenish to meeting increasing demand for product.” No reopening date had yet been determined.

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William Watson, a Potsdam Big Lots employee, shows empty shelves normally filled with tissue paper. Another shipment is expected early Tuesday morning, but it is not known whether it will include toilet paper.

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The thermometer section at Kinney Drugs on Maple Street in Potsdam was empty Sunday.

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This sign at both Kinney Drugs stores in Potsdam notified customers of limits on purchases of sanitizing items. The stores were also sold out of masks, thermometers, toilet paper, alcohol and hand sanitizers.