Barbecue season is at least a month away in Woodstock, a community of 20,000 people 60 miles north-west of Chicago, yet several shoppers at the checkout at Wisted’s supermarket have loaded their trolleys to the brim with meat and poultry.

“It’s the first of the month and I just got money on my Link card,” one woman customer said last week. “I’m restocking my freezer. I haven’t been grocery shopping for two weeks.”