From the “No kidding, Sherlock”-Dept:
Told you. This isn’t anything that someone with a modicum of sense couldn’t have figured out on their own. In fact, its probably the reason people were stockpiling toilet paper. Even if they didn’t figure it out consciously, some part of them realized that toilet paper, bags of rice, and trays of meat do not deliver themselves to the grocery. It takes humans to create the product, load the truck, drive the truck, maintain the truck, offload the truck, and a million other things. And, yeah, they are cogs in a machine…and once you bust a couple teeth off a cog the machine starts acting weird.
You’re going to see this happen as cops, doctors, merchants, mechanics,infrastructure operators, computer techs, delivery people, and just about everyone who does things you don’t normally do on your own either becomes sick, stays home to avoid being sick, stays home to avoid violence, or is quarantined to stay home. Doctors appointemnts? Rescheduled? Car repair? Rescheduled. Contractor? Rescheduled. Mortgage broker? Rescheduled.
Might not happen that way, I suppose. Nature, and commerce, abhor a vacuum. Someone, somewhere, will see a need and fill it to make a few bucks. However, i’ts still a good idea to have stuff put back for when the WalMart is closed and there’s a curfew.
I imagine that the suburban and rural areas will weather it out better than the big cities, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be without it’s exciting moments.
Also, note that .gov has a way of saying “nothing to worry about” and then becomes “there’s a possibility” which is then later retold as “may be isolated cases” and eventually winds up as “expected in some areas”. In short, when .gov tells you ‘everything is fine, nothing to worry about’ thats when you need to back the pickup up to the loading dock at Walmart.
One reason people bought more toilet paper is because they needed more. People use 40 perccent more toilet paper at home if they are not shitting at work or at school.
I think this has finally penetrated the Wifely Unit’s particularly thick skull.
Love the woman but she is Norwegian stubborn and is never wrong, about anything.
Except this time. She still absolutely refuses to give me credit for seeing the writing on the wall weeks ago and going out and buying a new chest freezer.
I did notice that when she has gone to Wally World for groceries the last two times that she has bought 3X as many groceries as she normally does and wonder of wonders, there is a bunch of stuff in that freezer now all of a sudden.
Lol.
She may be as stubborn as a Missouri Mule but she isn’t stupid.
My ex wife told me maybe I am right about keeping some food put back.
Ryan,
I think a lot of those Xs, that criticized their former prepper spouse are rethinking that logic!!!
My parents were born on farms in the early 1930’s. I was in my teens when discovered that having a garden and garage full of food wasn’t the norm for suburban America.
I’m betting that after this is over putting some things “by” is going to shift back to being more of the norm.
Nope, I gotta disagree. Katrina and Rita, then Ike shows people go right back to sheeple as soon as things are “back to normal”. After Katrina, things down here were a hot mess, but average Joe failed to learn. Then Rita, same same. Even after Ike, you would think after the third time, people would wake the hell up. Nope. Right back to hand to mouth. Now china flu. Apeshiete. So I don’t expect anything to be different after this. And again with the next big thing will see the sheeple on the news, going all chimp out in the wallyworld. Just a pattern that repeats, over and over. Not in this household. We have not even dented the normal on hand after 4 weeks, and have not touched any of the preps. Neighbor bitched about having to use paper towels for ass wipe. I just smiled and and said yeah it sucks. He going to the store everyday I kept my distance.
Don’t forget Y2K, as well!
“You’re going to see this happen as cops, doctors”
The VA canceled all elective appointments quite a while ago and my physical therapist was nice enough to call recently to say “Um, you keep doin’ yer PT at home, ‘kay? No idea when we’ll be going again.” Meanwhile, nobody told the VA’s computer to stop calling me to remind me I have upcoming appointments. Dunno if my retinal appointment at the specialty clinic is elective, but I think possible blindness is marginally preferable to being possibly dead from COVID-19 so I might wait a few months on that one.
My area will get hit hard in a shortage situation. The town and the surrounding area produce very little in the way of foodstuffs outside of cattle, soy, and cotton. There are a few catfish ponds as well. Everything is trucked in here to the stores. The summertime heat makes it difficult to even grow a large backyard garden.
If the supply chain grinds to a halt, the first people who are going to feel it are the ones who totally depend on foodstamps and public assistance . They make up a sizeable fraction of the population. Next will be the demographic laid off at the $10.00 an hour jobs which make up the majority of the work available here. These folks have never missed a meal in their lives and have no intention of doing otherwise. They will be a real problem if this comes to pass.
There’s already a bunch of grumbling among these folks about empty shelves from what my grocer friend tells me. It’s going to rapidly escalate if the shortages become widespread. Remember when EBT cards had a big outage for just a day in the South a couple years ago? It took less then 3 hours till Walmarts started getting looted…
My GF’s uncle who runs the cattle operation on their collective family land is running about 200 head right now and they aren’t ready to be sold. He’s already concerned about poaching (it happens even in normal times) and has plans to consolidate them and run patrols till they get to the point he can sell them off if things really get bad.
I’m sure a lot of ranchers have the same idea and if so, there’s going to be a major glut of beef (and pork) on the market in a few months. If there’s not enough workers to process it that would be really problematic. The end result could be a serious shortage of meat with major price increases. I’m predicting a lot of inflation across most categories of consumables by this summer
Regards
Waitwaitwait…there could be shortages?
Of…stuff??
Hey, thanks, Uncle Stupid, for clearing that up for those of us out here in Hooterville.
Yeesh.
Government studies: even more non-essential in an emergency than they are every day.
Whatever department wrote that one should be furloughed home, en masse, from the cabinet secretary to the lowest GS-whatever janitor.
Tear the building down to the foundation, and sell the bricks as surplus building materials. Tear the foundation out, plant grass, and make it something useful, like a park.
Went to Koger for a few things this morning and found roasts and pork ribs marked down 50%. The odd thing is the roasts had sell by dates of 04.09/20, so not sure why they marked them down this early. Yes, I bought some more meat for the deep freezer. Want to pick a little more brown rice, but to no avail. So, I guess my trip was a win/lose!!!!
Interesting Kroger observations. I know with the restaurant industry operating at <10% of normal capacity, meat and dairy is piling up at cold storage warehouses and processing plants. Yes, most folks still eat 3+ squares a day, but we are all being extra careful about waste. The restaurant industry throws hundreds of tons of food out a day. The quickest economic hits will be on the pork and chicken industries since they have a faster turnaround that the beef market. Perhaps Kroger is just trying to break even to keep their distributors from overfilling the warehouses? Better to sell at cost than send it off to the landfill. The biggest problem today is literally too much food in the system. If my freezer wasn't stuffed with a delicious deer and some elk plus the other usual grub, I would be picking up a cartload of that meet at Smiths.
I am just guessing, but it seems likely that Kroger made the order for product long before the current situation and for whatever reason was unable (or forgot) to change the order to reflect the new lower demand.
That’s possible Commander, but two weeks ago they were sold out of a lot of meats. Maybe they over ordered based on that model of shortage. Now everyone is stocked up for the near future from panic buying. Hence the surplus and lower price.
Those orders are made a year or more ahead and hedged in the options market (ranchers/feedlots/processors need to plan at least that far ahead)with guaranteed delivery dates,
There could be minor shortages of some food items. Rice, wheat, beans, potatoes, corn, all harvested with BIG equipment and minimal manpower.