Experts think it's completely unnecessary, but some apparently can't resist the urge to panic buy right now.

The nationwide port strike is being blamed for a run on products like toilet paper and bottled water, nightmarish reminders of the pandemic.

“I think it's really crazy,” Brenda Campbell said outside a Costco in Duncanville.

Campbell and her husband, Ben, came to Costco every month to stock up on essentials.

But on Wednesday they left without her.

“It’s a madhouse,” Ben Campbell said.

Inside, the floor stacked with pallets of toilet paper, paper towels and water bottles was empty.

The line to check out was about 20 people long.

“They've bought up all the paper towels, all the toilet paper, all the water, the chickens, the eggs, and they're just buying up everything, and I saw a guy a while back with like ten cases of beer,” said Brenda Campbell.

Things weren't quite as bad at a nearby Walmart in Duncanville. The toilet paper shelves were almost empty but were soon restocked.

“People will be people, right?” said Michael Davis, an economics professor at the SMU Cox School of Business.

Davis said the lack of staples on shelves is not due to the longshoremen's strike that has brought 14 major U.S. ports to a standstill, but rather to panic buying as consumers stockpile in anticipation of a disaster.

“The best I can say is that it's premature and frankly silly, because even if the strike goes on for a long time, there will be ways to get essentials on the shelves,” Davis explained.

Davis says companies regularly prepare for supply chain issues.

That's one of the reasons why HEB. It said in a statement posted on social media that it “does not expect the port strike to impact customers at this time.”

At a Sam's Club in Plano, there were still plenty of paper goods on the shelves.

Back in Duncanville, the Campbells say they'll try again Thursday to track down products they normally have trouble finding.

“That means we have to get out early in the morning,” Ben Campbell said.

The Longshoremen's Association, the union that represents 45,000 longshoremen, including many in Galveston, went on strike at midnight Tuesday as collective bargaining with the US Maritime Alliance collapsed.

Workers have reportedly been offered a 50% wage increase, but union leaders want more, including a $5 hourly increase per year for a new six-year contract.

The union is also calling for a halt to automation projects at ports that could jeopardize union jobs.