I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time there. A crude generalisation would be most Italian families eat far less processed and preprepared food, shopping more in local bakeries, greengrocers, delis and butchers. You don’t really panic buy the kind of stuff you use to make a freshly cooked meal every day. Panic buying in your local shops, as opposed to faceless supermarkets, wouldn’t be a good look.
I cook most nights and would it find hard to not need to go shopping every week for milk, eggs, fruit, veg and meat anyway. I reckon three weeks eating through the freezer and cupboard would be as long as we could last, which thankfully is the maximum amount of time any individual needs to isolate in a 2-person household under current UK guidance!
I think you're right. In our small shop, there is still a queue at the deli counter, as there always is - I won't buy from there now because the food is uncovered. The fruit and veg is all Italian produce, and the delivery lorries turn up every day (we've been eating strawberries from Basilicata for weeks now). No shortages of anything.
There are no chilled or frozen ready meals to panic-buy because they don't ever have that type of thing, except in the really big shops and even then, the range is very small. Tinned food - only fish and veg really, and those are the things that have been moving the quickest off the shelves.
Italians eat pasta every day, so there are massive amounts for sale in every shop all the time, plus it's all made in Italy. I can say with confidence that it will never run out! Loo paper panic-buying doesn't happen because people use bidets.
And yes, the shop staff know you (by name, usually). So there's a sense of community spirit that you don't really get in a huge superstore in the UK.