The calls come every five minutes, Chris Rouse said, all asking for the same thing: a small chest freezer. That’s a problem for Mr. Rouse, an appliance salesman in the Town of Wallkill, N.Y. He has no more to sell.

“As far as I know, everyone’s sold out,” said Mr. Rouse, who has worked at Appliance City, a store about 75 miles north of New York City, for 30 years. “It’s crazy.”

As the coronavirus continues to spread, and people stock up to hunker down for weeks or longer, freezers are getting harder to find, making them another unexpectedly hot commodity for consumers.

The demand is for small chest freezers of about five cubic feet, Mr. Rouse said. They’re also mostly made in China, which makes restocking even harder.