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Déjà Pooh, Back In The USSR
My wife and I went grocery shopping yesterday. Little did we know that we would get a preview of a Bernie Sanders’ presidency. There was no toilet paper, facial tissue, bottled water, or cold medication to be had, those shelves were empty. I’ll have to add “Caracas on the Willamette” to my description of Portland. Some canned food had also disappeared from the shelves. The Coronavirus panic has hit the Portland Metro area.
Hoarding has not only hit the Portland area, there are news stories about hoarding in other US cities. I told my wife that all hope is not lost, we may have to subscribe to The Oregonian. I’ll get up in the morning before the paper is delivered, and when it hits the front porch I’ll tell my wife to cover me so I can retrieve the paper. Our toilet paper problem will be solved. A daily visit to McDonald’s for a Big Mac with extra napkins will also help mitigate the paper shortage. It’s all about adapting.
Published in Humor
Same here in Minnesota. Local news had shots of empty shelves in Minne-Marts (aka Target stores). Not a drop of Purell to be found! If this is a Bernie preview, I’ll have to start stocking the woodpile and rename our state New Siberia!
I went to Costco in Tempe, AZ yesterday and saw the same thing. Bottled water? TP? It reinforces my opinions of the minions. (Not high.) I brings me back to 1975 in London. Predictions of shortages were common, usually predicated by various planned labor strikes. (“National Flour Mill Workers Union Set to Strike, Expect Shortages.”) The local grocer would be wiped out of flour, the local baker’s bread shelves, emptied. Except, Londoners were hardly home bakers. One strike threatened sugar (at least Londoners put sugar in their tea and oatmeal.) At my local grocer in South Kensington there was no sugar, but plenty of honey and sugary syrup. None of these shortages lasted very long. I chalked this up to post war memories.
There is no reason for this kind of hoarding in the US, except for selfish idiocy.
I can see the run on hand sanitizer, but toilet paper? Why toilet paper? A single 12-roll package serves my needs for over a month. I know it does not go bad, but it is bulky. And bottled water? What sane person thinks coronavirus is going to affect tap water?
I buy bottled water because the chlorine in city water is so bad. Will have to start boiling my own water.
Good grief! It’s a good thing Mr AZ is a borderline hoarder. I think we have enough TP to last for months. We’re going to Sam’s later this week so we’ll see what the Tucson situation is.
Thankfully, America has a sophisticated system of delivery. Particularly through trucks. The prices may rise slightly but the stores are highly motivated to get more of these items as quickly as possible. I recall that in capitalist Hong Kong, when they ran out of masks some capitalist immediately started a new factory to meet demand. America being a vast and more relaxed than Hong Kong will take another day or two but we won’t be having bread lines anytime soon.
The EMS director called us and said to secure our N95 masks as they have been disappearing. And then last night we found 8 cases of masks we had forgotten about.
Hey! This America. We invented Black Friday, the Galleria Mall, and The Price is Right. Shopping is both a past time and a sport and hoarding is nothing more than competitive shopping–the best of both worlds! You see selfishness, but I see American competitiveness. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I have always suspected French toast is the official breakfast of blizzards because every time there is a blizzard warning, those in the area clear the stores of milk, eggs, and bread.
My brother’s go-to blizzard breakfast is bread pudding and hot coffee, which is confirmation.
Costco in Tucson was normal although a bit busier on a Monday. Gavin Newsom has declared an emergency in CA, which he has just noticed. It has actually existed for a year there. The AZ cases, so far, have all been in Phoenix. I don’t know how many Chinese students at U of A but we will not be going to the opera this season. Self isolating in the foothills. My wife was out in front weeding a few days ago and a mountain lion walked by ignoring her. She held very still, then ran in the house.
I was just at BJs, and the floor staff were hawking Clorox wipes.
Milwaukee suburbs: Had to go to 3 stores yesterday before I could get hand sanitizer.
My mom in Orange County said her Target was out of bottled water and cold medicine. Granted, it’s California so one should always be prepared because of earthquakes. Now, she also has to be prepared for the incoming horde of coronavirus ridden homeless zombies.
Yeah, not a drop of Purell to be found – but my check of the stores tonight found plenty of TP and other staples. The only short supplies seem to be store-brand pasta and cold medicine. I’m good for a fortnight quarantine without dipping into the long-term supplies (two weeks of Beef Stroganoff!) and actually enjoyed the chance to firm up the emergency supplies.
We got 30 days supplies last month. Including TP. No trouble getting anything.
Did not want to be part of the problem later.
Lots of US inventory is just in time delivery. So if demand goes up for a certain item, it doesn’t necessarily mean it would be immediately backfilled with more than what’s normally delivered to stores.
Buttdig is a critical commodity in any apocalypse (zombie, virus, meteor, take yer pick). Think I’ll order me some from Amazon today and use it to barter for food in 3 weeks.
Think about what you would take if you were stranded on a desert island – toilet paper has always been on my list – ok – hair color too – I’m vain……Bottled water in case people can’t get to work at the water purifying facilities? It is required stocking here in FL for hurricane season. Keep searching for what you need- seriously. My sister went to 7 stores for masks – she found a few at Tru Value and Dollar General.
Haven’t been in the stores since Saturday, but Walmart was fully stocked with hand sanitizer, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, motrin, tylenol, etc. Interestingly, the huge Scott tp I usually buy were out, so I bought 2 smaller ones.
Just a good old bar of soap and wash for 20 sec min. is a good idea. Always.
In NY I haven’t had too much trouble finding anything, except plastic bags (oh wait, that’s something else…).
I’m having PTSD-like flashbacks to the times when my three kids were little and we were all sick with one bug or another. When we were in the middle of it, keeping up with the disinfecting steps was impossible. All I could hear in my head was my mother’s and grandmother’s words, “You just have to let nature take its course at some point.” When the bug first struck, I would try to get ahead of it, and when it seemed almost gone from the household, I’d go into massive wash-everything-in-sight and open-every-door-and-window mode. :-) But in the middle of it, it seemed like the bug was everywhere on everything. It’s not humanly possible to disinfect a room or a house completely. I remember sitting on the couch watching old movies with my kids for days. :-)
It’s equally hopeless to disinfect the environment of the Covid-19 once it gets going locally.
So I’m going through my will documents and making sure they are all up to date. :-)
I really loved the Monk series. And my favorite episode was the one when the San Francisco trash haulers went on strike. I laugh still at the final scene where the only place Monk can find any peace is in a sterile white room. :-)
This isn’t a situation of being stranded on a desert island. Hurricanes, blizzards, and earthquakes produce those situations because they keep people from leaving their homes or traveling far.
In hurricane season there is a realistic chance that flooding will knock out water treatment plants or power failures will prevent pumping. Getting bottled water makes sense (although a water bob for your bathtub makes more sense so you can flush your toilets).
If with a disease like coronavirus enough people cannot get to work at the water plants a lack of clean water will be a minor annoyance. The complete collapse of infrastructure (no power, no gas stations, no stores open – read John Ringo’s The Last Centurion for an example) will be a bigger problem. At that point guns and ammo will be more important than bottled water.
As for toilet paper, how much are you going to need for a month? One twelve-pack should last you even if you have dysentery. The only way stores are going to run out is if people are buying 36-48 rolls at a time.
I think the reason so many people are panic buying in seemingly foolish ways is that they have never experienced this type of problem before and they don’t have a time frame for it in their mind. If people knew that this would blow over in, say, a week, they wouldn’t be so upset right now. Panic always sets in when people are afraid and don’t know where the exits are.
I feel very sorry for caregivers–parents and others. When a person is used to being the problem solver for others, this type of crisis is really hard. The caregivers are the ones who link the dependents to help in the outside world. This epidemic is particularly stressful for them. I’m sure they are worried about supplies, especially medicines, both over the counter and prescription.
My husband and I are in a smallish town in rural Pennsylvania, and supplies here are still abundant. We’ve been stocking up on food and water for several weeks because we are both in our seventies and our children and other family live far away.
When I read this morning that King County officials are telling people over 60 to stay home for 3 weeks, I figured it was time to accelerate our prepping. We are venturing out later today to buy toilet paper and alcohol.
One serious worry is our prescription medicines. A 90 day supply is only great as long as it’s refilled at the end of 90 days.
That seems like a very sensible step to take. But that’s a long time.
I hope that you will be okay with your prescriptions.
Wasn’t Monk a germaphobe?
Yes, he was. :-)
Well, we went to Sam’s Club in Tucson today. They were moderately busy as usual. No shortages except on some frozen things I wanted – I don’t think frozen food counts as emergency rations. They had bottled water stacked high – no shortages there. And plenty of TP. We saw only a couple of folks with baskets with several cases of water.
Then we went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Didn’t look like too many people were staying home. Didn’t see anyone wearing masks.