short-term crowd

Yesterday night I went to Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries. They were out of everything! I got the last box of Roma tomatoes and the second-to-last loaf of sour batard, and the bagged salad section was completely empty. The checkout guy explained that "this happens every year" because people make New Year's resolutions to be healthy and then go grocery shopping. He said everything would be back to normal well before February. I laughed and told him that it's the same story at the gym; lots of people wearing jeans and/or shiny new gym clothes show up for two, maybe three weeks every January, and then promptly disappear. Let the countdown begin?