The White Death

As I write this blog, I am watching the weather channel playing in the coffeeshop, and I see that the white death is approaching. We are expecting 5-9 inches of heavy, thick snow in the next day or so. And I know what is going to happen at the grocery store. The question I want to raise in this post is this-why do people panic in the supermarkets like it is the New Ice Age.
Again, I work in a supermarket, and I see it every time. 3 inches of snow in the forecast, and everything comes loose. I have seen people wipe out the canned beets section of the store in seconds as they sweep the whole lot into their cart. I have seen people ramming each other out of the way as they attempt to reach the tomato soup. I have seen Grandma driving the motorized scooter like a Daytona 500 driver to reach the condensed milk. Again, I ask; why?
For one thing, it is Wisconsin. Everyone drives trucks and SUVs (I can't afford one yet), we have an army of snowplows to rival Siberia's, and it still happens every single year. If we were getting two feet, I could understand a stock-up. But with the amount of snowplows that we have, which are constantly going through the night (thanks, guys), anything less than that will not shut down the world.
The snowfall we are about to get will not really affect us quite as much as everyone thinks. Wisconsin is now used to winter driving (as much as possible) and the snowplows still exist. School, church, and a few other nonessential things might shut down for a day, but everything else will go on. We will not be snowbound in a raging blizzard this time around, so lighten up everyone.