Air quality has obviously been an issue in the Bay Area, and it’s gotten so bad that face masks are becoming harder to find.

On Thursday, KRON4 spoke to the owner of a hardware store in Hayward about the depleting mask inventory.

Air quality has remained unhealthy in the Bay Area for the last week, and as smoke and particles fly through the air, dust masks like these are flying off the shelf.

At Hayward Hardware Store, the owner Jim Wieder says keeping these dust and particulate masks in stock has been tough.

Customers have been coming in all day asking for them, depleting the store’s inventory almost as fast as they get shipped in.

So, the limit is 3 per customer.

Wieder says these masks are in such high demand, that the vendor they buy from has no more in stock.

He says that he doesn’t look at this situation as a profit for his store.

He sees it as a community service.

“I grabbed the last hundred cases that were available in Northern California through our vendor at 5 this morning,” Wieder said. “By 5:30 this morning, they were out. There’s 20 in a case, so we have roughly 2,000 coming in tomorrow morning. As long as the truck gets here, we’ll have about 2,000 tomorrow to get us through the weekend.”

Now, Wieder emphasizes the importance of getting the right mask.

He says the N95 model is the way to go because it’s the model that filters out the most bad air.

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