They're bringing cash. They're bringing credit cards. They're wipers. And some, Mexico assumes, are good people. Americans are going over the Mexican border in search of toilet paper and other household goods that are in short supply in the U.S., according to WKBN 27 News.
They're also going to Mexico for water. One Costco in Tijuana recently had a line of at least 600 people waiting for the store to open at 10 a.m. One shopper who waited at least an hour to get inside said she was in the market for "everything."
An Angeleno named Maria Castro drove more than two hours to shop at the nearby Calimax Supermarket because the Costco by her house was struggling to keep items like water, canned goods, rice and toilet paper on its shelves.
Carmen Jimenez, who lives north of the border in San Diego, said she and her husband make the trek to Mexico to load up on paper towels, bathroom tissue and that sort of thing. "It's still not very bad right now here, they have a lot of products," Jimenez said.
Her biggest issue is that places like Calimax Supermarket have set limits to curb stockpiling. She said Calimax caps purchases of any one item at four per person.
That store's manager told WKBN that his store's biggest problem is maintaining an inventory to accommodate Californians who want to buy everything they can get their hands on.
Mexicans surely hope that Americans heading south of the border remember to wash their hands.
According to Johns Hopkins University, 11,238 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the U.S. Only 118 cases have been confirmed in Mexico.
President Donald Trump said last weekend that his administration was "very strongly" considering shutting down the U.S. border with Mexico to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The U.S. and Canada agreed to stop non-essential travel over the border between those countries Wednesday.