Grocery Store Sale Items Cleaned Out
Only because I was driving right by due to another errand, that I decided to stop at one of my usual grocery stores strictly for some sale items. I wanted to share this trip with you to heighten the awareness that inflation is now being recognized by the masses.
I have noticed people taking advantage of sales for a long time now, stores placing ‘limits’ on how many items you can purchase, expiration dates on rain checks when there were none just a few years ago etc. These are just a few examples of our changing times. This grocery store experience will shed some more light.
The first sale item I went in search of was the 40 oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup. The limit was 2 with the coupon. Well, guess what, it was all gone! There was a shelf space of almost 3 feet long completely empty, where the Heinz 40 oz. ketchup used to sit. Oh well, I thought, I’ll get a rain check.
Next item, yup, that same mayonnaise I tried to get in my Grocery Store Rant post. The 30 oz. jar of brand name mayo on sale for $2.99. I pull up to the shelf…..yup, they were almost all gone, only 6 left, so I grabbed them all. The expiration date is not until December of this year. I figured with summer around the corner, potato salad will abound. Not to mention that I’m making potato salad for 40 people this Sunday.
The last sale item I’m looking for was some sugar. The 4 lb. bag (no longer a 5 lb. bag by the way), on sale for $1.59 a bag. Oh, yeah, limit 2. As I pull up to the sugar, I notice a woman standing there looking at the sales flyer. I look at the sugar and I get a little confused because there is no price posted.
The woman must have detected my confusion because she said “That is the sugar that’s on sale. They just don’t have a price posted.” She shows me the sugar in her sales flyer. I thanked her and bent down to get the sugar which was on the bottom shelf.
Guess what? There are only 3 bags left. I immediately knew the right thing to do. I picked up one bag, obviously deferring the other two bags to the woman who was there before me. She smiled at me and bent down to get her two bags. Just then she said, “Oh wait, there’s one more here in the back.” She literally crawled, upper torso in the shelf, to reach against the back and get the last bag of sugar for me.
I thanked her. We smiled at each other in a knowing sort of way and walk our separate ways. On my way home I thought of this woman who was obviously thinking and shopping the same way I do. People are getting scared and they only want to continue to feed their families.
Oh by the way, today was the first day of a 7 day sale.
‘Just-in-Time’ food supply distribution technologies may leave grocery store shelves barren, given a threshold of panic…
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What got my intention was this past winter. In north Texas we don’t get much snow and ice but we did this year. To be honest we don’t know how to deal with the stuff, just let it melt off in the next few days and we’re back to normal is our thinking around here. Well this year the roads where iced over for 4 day’s and the trucks that supply the stores could not get there. The shelves where empty in by the time the wintry mix had melted off. I thought to myself what would happen if something major happened. I began to prepare and i feel better now.
@freeTexas, That is very interesting and supports my opinion that the food supply distribution chain is only about 3 to 5 days to empty. These systems (and others) are optimized right to the edge, and many people are not aware of the risks therein. So long as the systems are all functioning, it’s all good. But there are tremendous risks involved when people assume that these systems could never be disrupted. Thanks for the comment.
I can remember every after day Thanksgiving day sales in which these people regress back to acting like apes and stampeding those on the ground just to get a deal on something. It use to be that when someone fell down there would be a general concern to help the person, but not now. The psyche of people has changed to the dark side, and this stampede happens every year and gets worse every year.
Now try to imagine that those people have not had food for a couple of days or more and there is limited amount of food at the grocery store. These people are not going to be polite and gracious, they are going to be ruthless and cutthroats. It has become a savage mentality that ONLY has to have something to bring it out, like a food panic. Anyone that does not believe this just has to look at the after Thanksgiving day sales in which someone is down on the ground and these merciless idiots are stepping on the person while the person is screaming for help. These imbeciles are only thinking about missing a deal, not that someone actually may die. add hunger to that equation and you have the worst choas. Down right UGLY.
You mentioned above that you are making potato salad, and I would like to share what I do to make potato salad that everyone seems to really like. The one thing with potato salad is to make sure that the potatoes, pickles, onions, celery, hard boiled eggs are throughly dried off so the potato salad is not runny or watery. I especially well drain the boiled potatoes. I personally add the following herbs to potato salad; rosemary that is crushed, coriander, dill weed, basil, celery seed, onion powder, garlic powder, ground cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt. I also will use shallots instead of onions if I am making less. Shallots are so expensive. I sometimes will add thyme if the pickles are too sweet. I also sometimes do not add hardboiled eggs. I cook by sight so I do not measure anything so I cannot give you how much of each to add. I will say that the one herb that seems to work well with potatoes, like mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving is ground crushed rosemary. Hope your party goes well this Sunday.
I have noticed a change in some of the shelves being a little more empty. I thought it was my imagination. Thanks for sharing your observations to help us be a little more aware to prepare.
To add to this.
I recently ordered some active networking VOIP units from a very large multinational U.S. company. Haven’t had an acknowledgement on the order or delivery date – so I rang them up. Nothing in stock. Goods made to order in China from components some sourced from Japan at a factory in the tsunami disaster zone. No delivery in sight – maybe months. They suggested I ring up their competitor (WT?). Same problem.
All eggs in one basket.
Same goes for a friend who went to a Japanese luxury car manufacturer. They have brochures – no delivery time in sight.
@Beano, It is very eye-opening to actually witness examples of the high risk just-in-time systems that are in place. Although you could say that VOIP units aren’t high risk in the sense of survival, no doubt that most other items, including survival dependent products and systems are just as at risk to disruptions. The company I used to work for (a mid-sized global corporation) used to do the same thing. All manufacturing was to-order. Any disruptions in the supply chain and the consumer gets screwed. All to optimize and squeeze the last bit of profit juice out of the machine (no inventory).
This Japan disruption is going to have more effects than most people realize.
Ken.
[quote] This Japan disruption is going to have more effects than most people realize.[/quote]
I agree. Japan is the world’s third largest economy and they are in serious trouble – (they have been in economic Malaise for years but the latest events have pushed them to the edge).
The situation in Japan is being downplayed. The nuclear issue, the amount of missing, the repercussions of energy problems – etc etc.
Gasoline prices, horrific debt by many western countries, the Japan situation, the middle east troubles, etc, could push the economic crises over the edge
Today is September 6, 2012 I state this because all things stated last year are still happening and more. I gassed my little compact car the other day, CA, regulaar is above $4.00 a gallon. Last summer my daughter in law and I could purchase cake and brownie mixes for less than $1.00 on sale. Saturday both mixes are on sale for just under $2.00. Now I realize we do not need these mixes, but it is an honest reflection of what is going on. It shows how much all items necessary and unnecessary are rising in price. The only food item that seems currently to somewhat reasonable are eggs. Keep shopping carefully, wisely and storing prudently. Love your familes and neighbors. I think we are in for a very long haul.