Pandemic Panic | When The Food Starts Running Out…
A short while ago, I wrote an article which asked the question to our readers, “When do you raise the drawbridge (close the gates, so to speak)?”.
[ Read: “What’s Your Coronavirus Red Flag?” ]
I thought about this in a contemplating serious way. Here’s what I came up with…
Most of us know that we can choose to greatly mitigate our risk of catching COVID-19 coronavirus by self-isolation. Though for many, that’s easier said than done. And it requires that you are fully supplied to do so.
[ Read: Pandemic Survival Tips ]
Even when going out in public (example: a calculated grocery store run), there are precautions that you can take to lessen the likelihood of catching this thing. Not touching face with hands. Disinfecting the handles on your shopping cart. Going during slow periods. Sanitizing afterwards. Lots of hand washing.
[ Read: Best Time To Go Grocery Shopping ]
Most of you also know that the panic so far has resulted in shortages of toilet paper, disinfectant wipes and sprays, some over-the-counter meds, bottled water, bleach, and a few other things.
Here’s a picture of the Toilet Paper aisle taken just yesterday (yes, I’m putting myself at minimal risk to get these photos – though being careful),
So far it has been toilet paper. HOWEVER…
What Happens When Food Shelves Empty?
This is my Red Flag. That’s when it’s really time to close the gate. SHTF time.
When the food runs scarce, that’s when real dangers will spike from increasingly desperate 2-legged creatures.
I am watching for this. I want to know it’s happening BEFORE the masses realize it. Because once they perceive real food shortages, there WILL be a run on food. Just like toilet paper.
Running low or out of food is VERY different from running low on TP, disinfectant wipes, bleach, things like that…
Food shortages (partially or mostly empty shelves) have already started. But just with a handful of foods (not everything in general).
I have observed low shelf quantities of the following food items. Mainly though, rice and beans. It’s getting scooped up.
RICE
DRY BEANS
Peanut Butter
Canned Meats
What Will The Government Do?
I can almost guarantee that if food in general starts to disappear off grocery store shelves (panic buying), government will demand rationing. You can only buy one of this. Two of that. Etc..
Although this will help to an extent, people will still freak out.
How will they be able to enforce this? Is a grocery store checkout clerk going to do the enforcement with an angry public? (you get the idea). It might not work so well, or everywhere.
“Fat, Dumb, and Happy?” “Bread and Circuses” Uh-oh…
Some say that if people are kept “fat, dumb, and happy”, and/or appeased with “bread and circuses”, then “the people” will not revolt…
But, there’s an increasing problem with the ‘circuses’.
They just shut down the NBA (basketball) season due to coronavirus. Today the NHL (hockey) suspended their season too. UPDATE: MLB (baseball) just stopped preseason play and postponed season opening. The masses like their sports. Uh-oh…
Now, the “fat” and “bread” part. Food shortages? People getting hungry to an extent? Uh-oh…
FOOD. It’s the ultimate for control. What if “they” lose control of that, and it becomes increasingly scarce?
We would truly be looking at SHTF. No sports entertainment. People getting hungry. Watch out…
Let Me Know If You See Food Shortages
Our readers are from all around the country (and world for that matter). You all are a great resource for sharing intel.
Lets keep an eye on the potential for food shortages.
Comment below and tell us what you’re seeing (with regards to FOOD).
I’m consistently seeing shortages of rice and beans. But other than that, and a few other food items, the grocery stores at my present location appear stocked in the category of food.
I’ve written about the JIT (just in time) systems of distribution. Many of you understand how this works. The distribution “pipes” are built only so wide. Wide enough to get “just enough” product through to the end users, based on normal forecasting analysis. However when panic starts, this system cannot keep up. They may even break.
It’s unknown just how badly the food distribution networks will handle food panic buying. At least I don’t personally know (I can only surmise). I do know that grocery stores are CONSTANTLY being resupplied and that inventory turn over is pretty high. Many people use the rule-of-thumb (3 days). Probably depends on the product type.
Anyway, it’s about the food.
When serious shortages begin popping up in more and more locations, that will be a big red flag that it’s about to get real. Real bad. Hopefully not. Maybe not. But keep your ears to the ground…
[ Read: When The Trucks Stop – It’s Over ]
Wife just left Sams club and walmart. not a roll of TP in ether one.
I live in the southeast in a state with no confirmed cases yet. The following items are out of stock or going fast:
1.) Canned goods (especially canned meats and canned veggies) – shelves half depleted overall and getting scarcer every time I have go to the grocery stores over the past 2 weeks….Some canned meats like Spam were totally gone….
2.) Toilet paper – Gone….
3.) Bleach – Very little left….
4.) Lysol spray and wipes – Gone…
5.) Hand sanitizer – Gone….
6.) Boxed meals – Shelves half depleted….
7.) Dried rice – Gone….
8.) Dried beans – Pintos gone, a few bags of other types left….
9.) Mac-N-Cheese – Gone….
10.) Frozen good – Starting to see runs on that as well….
11.) Toothpaste – Half gone….
Just my opinion, but I think the food supply chain will be overwhelmed within the next month or two unless the virus is halted…..
Forgot to mention, rubbing alcohol and peroxide gone too….
South Central South East Wisconsin here.
Panic buying started yesterday. (3/12/20) All dried beans and dried milk gone from the local grocery store. Big dent in the rice, pasta, pasta sauce and Ramen. Not a can of Spam to be found. 10 times as many (at least) people as normal. Long lines and very full carts. Many shelves looked close to half empty. People commenting on the phenomenon in the store.
Some stores already putting limits on TP and hand sanitizer.
I put out a warning / advisory to several family members 9 days ago that this might be coming. Only one listened right away. A few others did eventually. One person even greeted my warning with hostility. He told me he didn’t need my “retard prepper advice”.
Starting on the food after news broadcast.
Earlier this week there was no milk in Costco – my coworker went during lunchtime to pick some up for kids
There’s still tp and paper towels available though.
General supermarkets still have food stuff (canned goods/beans/rice) so gen population not truly feeling it yet
Our school district just sent out email that whole district closed next week and will be reassessed to when they will open again ( no confirmed cases at school but 4 in two different local hospitals) tsunami of panic will be coming IMO
Was talking to a guy at work and he said he was going to place an order and pick at Walmart on way home. About 2 minutes later he said they suspended curbside pickup for 2 days
This is the same Walmart that had no toilet paper yesterday
Hope them trucks keep rolling
I’ve been carousing local Facebook posts about this topic and several have reported that while local stores are well stocked and normal, just several miles away a Walmart had empty shelves of TP and other selections of cleaners, food. Another big box grocery store that I visited this week was very well stocked as well as our local small town store and the closest Dollar General was also well-stocked.
Although I think a lot of people are well stocked, there are perhaps just as many that depend heavily on eating out and on microwave pizzas and similar junk. Some restaurants might be having food supply shortages and will either have to reduce their offerings or close. That will put more of a strain on grocery store stock.
The temporary lull in fuel costs will help out the trucking industry’s shipping costs, but I wonder how this will affect those in the food industry. Not to sound like me2, but if those workers, who can’t work from home, don’t show up for work there won’t be anything to ship. There must be a bible verse that would be appropriate here.
Hi, Always Lurking here. I work in the food industry. At the moment, we are getting continual requests from customers (WalMart, Target, Dollar General, Costco) to increase their orders. My particular plant is already running 24/7, so there isn’t much we can do, but we are still adding production anywhere we can and running flat-out. Until we can’t. We are getting emails every day from Corporate on contingency plans, VPN load tests for having to close offices and work from home, etc.
We’ve had two major uh-ohs in the past two days due to contractors not being able to travel in to finish projects and get new equipment up and running but, so far, are managing work-arounds to keep running.
The plant I work in has 850 to 1000 people in it every day, coming from at last 5 different surrounding counties, some of which announced today that they are closing the schools for the next two weeks. I brought up in a senior management meeting this morning when we are going to discuss priorities and how to keep limited areas running when a third of our workforce can’t or won’t come in. You should have heard the crickets chirping!!
I’m resigned to fact that, because I am prepared at home (except for one possible uh-oh today) and can absolutely limit our public exposure, I will likely catch this thing at work. I had little confidence in our management all the way up to the top guy before this…so I don’t know why I was surprised this morning at the open mouths and silence when I asked what our plan is. I’m not even management! Just filling in because my boss left a couple weeks ago.
Be assured that all of my co-workers do realize that we are “vital” right now and are doing anything possible to keep the food rolling out. But, I’m fairly sure that we will be in a reduced capacity position shortly and will have to decide which of our products are truly necessities.
We were also informed this morning that our shipment of hand sanitizer did not come in and they don’t know when it will. For the moment, we have enough hand soap and gloves to continue to protect the product. It could get very interesting if that stock starts dwindling.
My personal uh-oh is a diabetic dog. Chewy emailed that they are able to ship the insulin but are out of syringes. Luckily our vet has one box on hand and will TRY to order us two more, but DH and I had a long discussion tonight on what we need to change now just in case we get into a situation where we need to reuse needles. No worries immediately because, ya know, prepared here…but…who knows how long this thing will last?
I love your community here (thank you, Ken!) and the information you all openly pass on has been invaluable, and amusing at times :-)
Thank you for the insider report. Really, thanks. Please keep us posted of new developments if you can. Much appreciated!
Story with Video’s up on Fox News site of Screaming and Brawling at Costco & Sam’s in NY & Ga. All out brawl in Ga started over Carts bumping…Escalated again later with 2 men all out swinging & grabbing Wine bottles to pummel each other, 1 taken out on stretcher by Police. NY Woman screaming at Costco employee outside & Man yelling about Her touching His Cart…. Insanity!
Today’s update: NO visitors in the plant, including inter-company visits. The company store is closed to the public until further notice. All office workers must take their laptops and important files home every day and be prepared to work from home if a) you feel sick at all, any symptoms, take no chances or b) we get a text telling us not to come in. Deep cleans being done this weekend in all non-production areas. They are already done in production on a regular basis.
Our state announced today that all schools will be closed for the next two weeks. We had record call-offs on our PM shift today. HR is stressed!
oh, and our orders across the board are up 40% for the past two days
After seeing video’s of people fighting over tp in the stores. I can only imagine what will happen when they are fighting over food. People will likely start killing. My last trip out was when I picked up my glasses. My biggest concern now is running out of projects before this is all over.
Long time reader/first time commenter.
Wife and I went to Costco about a week ago to top off on some last minute stuff on a tuesday afternoon… I also went solo on Sunday before close to see the weekend damage.
They did a good job of “hiding” the shortages that were there. ZERO flour, rice, beans, toilet paper, water, cleaning supplies… the canned goods were 25% remaining as well as the dried goods like pancake mix and cereals.
What caught me off guard was I didnt even realize that I missed the shortages on the flour/rice/beans until I was past all the food.
My wife used to laugh at me about “all this stuff I keep around” but just the other day she sent me a message telling me that “I’m glad you’ve been hoarding that crap for all these years…”
Yukon Cornelius –
I keep checking my phone, looking for a similar message. Right now I’m in the ether where the nagging has simply stopped; might be the best I can hope for.
tmcgyver: My wife never mentioned having a sister!!
Hahaha 😂
Yukon Cornelius:
“I’m glad you’ve been hoarding that crap for all these years…”
OMG that is classic LOVE it.
BTW welcome to the Comment side of MSB.
ha ha ha :-)
I forgot to mention that one city in my State just closed all schools indefinitely.
The two of us are stocked up for at least two years . However all of a
sudden our knuckle head son ( heavy on the knuckle head) has figured
out that there is a disturbance in the force.
He and his wife(assistant knuckle head) are in the panic buying mode.
But I digress. In our little corner of NW Montana we have not seen any
shortages or panic buying. Yet.
Getting reports of Market Basket stores in the SW NH area being out of toilet paper. Going to check after work, will report back later.
Manchester Market basket was insane at 4pm. No TP and Overwhelmed with people.
Local dollar store out of toilet paper,hand sanitizer, alcohol,. Plenty of foodstuffs. Going to grocery store early Saturday morning, more then.
In the spirit of Forrest Gump,
I’m not a smart man…..but even I know you got to have something to eat before you need toilet paper………………..
Have an appointment in the city this morning. Left early to hit Costco on the way. Got gas, parking lot almost completely full. Arrived at door 15 minutes before opening time to see folks already rolling out paid-for carts. They opened early for the crowds. Neighbor needs TP so picked up limit of two of only brand available, not my usual. At 10 minutes before store officially opened, store was already out of TP for the day and had 3 substantial guys standing around to explain the situation.
Food items that were out in the afternoon last time I shopped were in stock first thing in the morning. Picked up a few things, along with limit of two cases on bottled water. New water softer system will be installed in a few days. Water has a lot of iron and affects the taste.
Most Americans are very spoiled; they’ve never had rationing or limits or lack of food. Some folks may remember the gas lines of the 70s, but the snowflakes have never been without. I think many will return home to mom and dad for guidance and comfort.
There are only 9 COVID-19 cases in this state, as of today, and all are in large cities. My guess is the large metro areas where the virus is spreading the fastest will have most of the shortages.
I was in a Sam’s last week in a small city an hour away and they were well stocked, with no limits. I drove several hours to get to the closest military base in the mid-south to renew my card and when that was done I stopped by the commissary. The store was well stocked, no shortages, no limits, no panic buying. The closest small town grocers to us are still well stocked with no limits or shortages.
Did the urban shopping run at 8 a.m. today-
Sam’s Club: tp, paper towel two tiered racks stripped bare. Canned vegetables (8 or 10 packs) limited two per customer, green beans and corn all gone, 2nd tier empty. Rice and bean bags empty. Cases of water, limited 2 per customer, one-half skid left with empty rack bays. Bar soap picked over, no hand sanitizer. Any beach disposable wipes long gone. Fresh and frozen food stocked well, fresh meats in stock. Coffee and candy (two of life’s staples) well stocked.
Local grocery chain: tp and paper towels wiped out, same with sanitizer, wet wipes, Clorox based items; bare shelves. OTC meds in decent shape, cough suppressants were hit pretty good.
Late last week no bare shelves, big change this trip.
DW went to CVS today, they had TP but no hand sanitizer. Also visited a local grocery store, shelves full but many customers were buying TP/Water/Canned food.
The county ( Alachua) these stores are in just reported their first case yesterday. University of Florida in Gainesville is also in this county. UF has closed down as all the other public universities in Florida by order of our Governor.
She bought some Bear Creek soups, instant mashed potatoes, and boxes of Graham crackers.
I expect that should violence happen over scarce food supplies, we’ll see it in big cities like NY, LA, and Miami or Tampa first.
I have been monitoring the cases in FL… Right now it looks like Broward has the most cases (7) with the majority coming from unknown contact (4) in the community.
Where I’m at (not Broward co.) the normal publix is well stocked. went there this morning at 8:00am
We stopped gong to Wally world and cosco 3 weeks ago way too many people clustering in those locations. So I cant say whats going on there.
Seminole Wind,
Santa Fe is still open–at least according to their March 12 update. Though we have been encouraged to move content online. We went to Aldis and Trader Joe’s yesterday–both were adequately stocked. We also hit the Walmart by the Sheriff’s station–no toilet paper, bleach was running low. Canned foods were very well picked over. Soups were especially hit hard. They still had bottled water in stock though I don’t know why people would need massive supplies bottled water for a pandemic.
We just had our first fatality at a hospital a couple of miles from home. My wife is headed to work at the not-so-supermarket in a few hours. I practically begged her to stay away from there. She’s stubborn.
Hey where are all of the doubters from last week?
Uh, oh…
Have not seen story yet.
DH is home with news on, says it feels like TEOTWAWKI as each new story rolls out.
I work for a big organization, the executive team is waiting for guidance from above. It us literally day to day here.
Sister in Chula Vista area is concerned….no tp available (I told her I could UPS her some….lol) She also believes that students will not be returning to her campus after this spring break. she cancelled her visit to Mom in New Jersey, as did my brother Steve from Florida. We are all “Seniors” and Mom is 91….so we will wait and see. One sister (also a senior) there with Mom, so we know she is tended, but she told me today she feels lonely with the isolation.
stopped by our local City market….no shortages that I could find, but DH says the WallyWorld is decimated.
Food and sanitizing supplies? Yes I get that, but the money that people spend on bottled water is foolish. I know the water industry because I’m part of it, and 99% of bottled water “all but 1 or 2 brands” are tap water put into plastic bottles ”which by the way are very bad for us due to micro plastics leaching into the water” and sold to the public for 1000% markup. If you have tap water, you could put that money towards other items like food! Regulation of the bottled water industry is almost non-existent as compared to the municipal water systems across the country which are very heavily regulated which makes it safer! Yes, Flint Michigan had problems, because of a mistake that was made based on a bad decision that never should have happened. Your tap water supply should not be affected by this crisis and is already stored for you.
Rather than spending hundreds of dollars on buying plastic bottled water, what’s better would be purchasing a high quality countertop gravity water filter. Any of the Berkey Models. That’s what I use.
Just ordered one today, figure if I need to filter rain water I can. Other wise can filter all the junk out of the tap. Though we have pretty good water her in the STL.
That was a great decision. I hope you ordered from the Berkey Guy ;)
Even if you didn’t, still a good decision to have purchased one!
No hand sanitizer in this town. Super wally all grocery and drug stores, nada. To short supply etc.
Maggie’s farm can you buy rubbing alcohol and aloe gel? A little math will show you the proper amount of gel to add to the alcohol to get 60+ % alcohol needed to kill virus.
For example I have 70% rubbing alcohol. (weaker than I expected, maybe Moonshine not a bad option here) 60/70 = .85 so about 1 part aloe added to 10 parts rubbing alcohol should get you hand sanitizer level.
Can anybody check my math or assumptions please?
Also panic EARLY. So far the Sheeple are grabbing mostly TP, Bottled Water, Rice, Beans, Hand Sanitizer and Bleach and -wipes. Soon enough they will realize canned Soup and such is a good idea.
Do you have clear plastic and a way to fasten it over broken windows yet? Even a storm blown tree limb would be an real annoyance IF Lowes is closed due to virus?
A good sized tarp and a way to set it up to collect rainwater into a few 5 gallon buckets or better might be a lifesaver or at least toilet flush? Ken’s got a great article about rainwater collection.
Is this the end?
@ Chicken,
Only if you let it be.
We have several grocery stores where we live in Va. (York Co).
We were at a Harris Teeter last night and all was as well as it could be. TP, alcohol, peroxide and paper towels all gone.
They usually have a cooked meal set up at the entrance that you can buy. All the pans were there but the fellow in charge said they put the food up because no one wanted to buy it. (I wonder how long before the salad and breakfast bar are discontinued)
This morning they had a truck delivery and I have been told by a vendor I know that it was a madhouse when they brought the items from the back.
He also said that Wally World has been asking the vendors to bring extra products as long as they can because they have stopped getting truck deliveries.
The Food Lion near our place is still getting their trucks. How full they are I could not tell you.
Seems like everyone had meats. I did notice that HT was out of bologna :)
Just came from the local Publix here (manatee county,fl) and this store was the busiest I have ever seen. It reminded me of when a hurricane is coming or the day before a major holiday.
I was just in this store on Monday and the food stocks were fine. Paper products, bleach, etc were out of stock.
Stuff out on Monday was still out except some paper towels but those were going out the door. Canned veggies, meats, pasta, sauce, cereal, coffee were very low, some brands out. Several other holes in the other food aisles.
Spoke to cashier and they said it has been crazy all day. Manager came up and asked the bagger if he could stay later than scheduled.
Wonder if it was Trumps speech or Tom Hanks getting Kung Flu that woke everyone up.
A&O
Just heard on local talk radio a guy called in from Publix warehouse and said they are bringing in triple the amount of goods, especially Tp, etc. And it is going out as fast as it comes in. He said they are shipping about 3-4x the amount of goods they do when a hurricane is coming.
A&O
Stopped by the Publix I posted about 5 days ago. Resupply is not looking good. The items that were low last week were worse or out. Meat section only had some beef products. No eggs, dairy was very little. Bacon, hotdogs and lunch meat very little. Potatoes and onions gone and lots of bluffing out in the produce. All these sections were stocked pretty well last week.
And the thing that really scared me was they had no Reddi Whip!!
Keep in mind there are 3 other Publix stores and a Walmart all within 5-10 miles of this store.
A&O
11HE9:
My wife is on hour #5 of 9 right now at the west coast equivalent of Publix; haven’t heard from her yet. After her last couple of shifts she came home with a dead-eyed, thousand yard stare. She went to a doctor yesterday looking for “stress leave” (sort of a de facto union benefit), and was summarily denied. -Here, have some pills, now get back to work-
She’s had a couple of close calls with enraged primates in that store. ID check for liquor or a declined EBT transaction is all it takes to trigger violence, on a GOOD DAY. I fear those stupid savages more than the virus.
TMC,
I’m right there with you on the savages. The panic and desperate people are my main focus.
Both my stepson’s work at Publix. One in stocking the other in the deli. Mid mgmt positions. I’m waiting to get update from them on what Publix corp is saying about resupply, etc.
Maybe your wife should call in sick or something just to decompress. Take care and be safe.
A&O
Just heard back from my stepson that works the stocking grocery side (aka shelf stable foods) at Publix. I asked him what Corp was saying, RDC’s and their order flow.
He said his store is submitting 5000 case orders for shelf stable foods and they are being cut down to 2000 cases. Same with Dairy and Frozen.
Seems to be a big resupply issue. Which doesnt surprise me. Demand spiked so much last week that the suppliers were not prepared for. Will be interesting to see if they can catch up.
A&O
Stopped by the local Publix this morning to get some perishables. More people without masks than with them. Even saw some firemen from the local station with no masks or gloves. No limiting the number of people in the store.
Only items that had limits were paper products which they were out of anyways. Everything else was filling up better than last week some have recovered completely. Store had BOGO sales on numerous items.
A&O
What happens when the food runs out? This is a question I have contemplated for some time now. I think there is a significant percentage of our population that seems incapable of adjusting to this new reality. They just can’t see it coming.
I live in a medium sized college town. College students work many of the low-paying jobs. When the schools close (move online), these kids will go home. There simply will not be enough people to run the registers. That’s on top of the regular folks who work such jobs who will not show up at work for fear of catching the disease. I expect restaurants and other service type jobs to take a massive hit. Payroll tax cuts don’t help folks whose hours have been cut.
I think we are going to see real desperation. Sure people freak out around here when we are expecting a major hurricane. But you know a hurricane will pass in a matter of days. This is going to be a slow event, meaning we will be stuck with the coronavirus for over a year. There is no evidence that it slows down in warmer weather like the flu. I read that with an R0 of 4-7, at least 70 percent of the population will have to have been infected and develop antibodies for herd immunity to develop.
Made a last run to Costco and Sam’s, about an hours’ drive one way for last minute topping off. Costco had limits on TP, rice, beans etc and the stock while thin was there. Sam’s on the other hand had massive holes in their stock. TP was being brought in while shopping, no rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. Nitral glove were available. Things like “beany weanys” and potted meat were sold out.
When checking out the cashier said that they had people buying pallet lots of bottled water. When they got new stock in they put a limit of 2 cases and would refuse to check out any more than that.
People seemed to be preparing for a hurricane for the most part. (Maybe because that is the only disaster they have experienced?) I believe things are “fixin’ ” to get interesting.
my coworker-
“Joe just showed me a picture his wife took at the local Meijer. The TP section was completely empty.
Some idiot, last night, said expect a total shutdown of everything and expect to stay at home up to 14 days. What the hell? I suppose all the canned goods are gone, too?” Why?
It’s the coronavirus. As far as a total shutdown? I didn’t hear that, but yeah, people are panic buying items and stores are running low on items.
He seemed perty pissed about the whole ordeal. A half hour later:
“I’m going to the bank and get some cash.”
I thought good. It’s sank in and you’re gonna get some items. Food especially. Two kids at home.
You gonna run to the store after the bank run?
“Nope. Wing night at the Tavern. And I suppose, in the future, I won’t be able to locate any pizza for the kids, with all this crap going on.”
When SHTF, don’t come expecting me to bail your a$$ out. See ya tomorrow.
An example of the mindset of many
I’m a contractor for a multinational manufacturer… Today they sent home Anyone that works in an office instead of a factory itself. This is world wide, work from home for a minimum of the next two weeks. If I need to go in to reset a server I have to get permission from not only my primary contact but from their HR and Security departments as well. Since i was told to leave early I stopped at a local grocery store in southern New Hampshire and it was a Mad House. While the only Empty location was the TP and Sanitary sections, The store itself was overwhelmed. In the hour I was there They kept calling more people up to the cashiers and while I was in line they announced, All Employees to the front to help bagging. They had 27 lanes open and I still stood in line. I told my wife last night after the Presidents statements that things were going to happen quickly.
The local Dollar Store has finally seen some action. Just two days ago it was ‘normal’. Not so much food but the cleaning supplies, medical items, and milk. One interesting section that was almost cleaned out was the pet section of kitty litter and doggie pads and such.
At my Wally World TP gone and none expected this weekend! Paper towels and Kleenex almost gone along with cleaning supplies. Sanitizer been gone for days. Soup and spaghetti O’s were wiped out!! We are now getting 3-4 trucks per night and can’t get it out fast enough!
North east Fl.
Another beautiful day in the neighborhood!
Southern Illinois. All stores near me are well stocked
We are just finishing our last runs to a few places mainly the hardware store and feed stores. I’ve been pretty confident of our situation here, and not too worried. My final grocery shopping this week for last minute fresh foods showed the grocery stores and wallyworld (topped off a prescription) out of tp and paper products. Lots of food items have bare shelves. Of note, one of our sons is a firefighter up north of us here. He just called and said we self-isolate starting NOW. And he won’t be seeing us for a few months. I think he’s exposed.
I cried.
DJ5280
Cried with you.
Guess What ?
NRP had the right idea.
This morning, at the local food store here in So. Fla. (I won’t say which one – no name dropping),
I witnessed pushing and shoving over (you guessed it) Toilet Paper.
Not waiting for the Stocker to empty the cartons onto the shelves, he was pushed out of the way and the cartons, still on the floor, were quickly Ransacked !
Hit and Run tactics, from normally decent customers.
The panic has begun !
I haven’t been to the grocery store since Tuesday.
Affordable toilet paper was gone but there were still some of the snob brands. They were unloading a 53′ trailer every 18 hours according to the stockers.
Hand sanitizer doesn’t seem to exist. Plenty of wipes, but the cheaper store brand stuff was gone. Plenty of baby wipes.
N95 and P100 masks appeared again but stupid expensive. Grainger and whatnot quit selling any masks to the genpop unless it is gas only. I weld a lot (hobby) so it kind of pisses me off.
Nontraditional stores seem to be fine. Less traffic in them, especially the big box hom improvement stores.
I’m kicking around the idea of swapping out my industrial oxygen tanks just in case. Might come in handy.
Everything else is readily available. I think people are buying more food but only because they don’t want to go to a restaurant. Takeout is still happening according to friends in the restaurant business.
Most places seem to be encouraging people to work from home. My employer is but my job sucks to do remotely. Roads were easier today but I also went in even earlier than normal and took a half day.
If there is a disruption in infrastructure I can see this getting dicey. Otherwise I think it is ok, at least locally.
I have been buying firearm shit like crazy. Have a feeling that certain stuff might get expensive.
I intend to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I have a lactose intolerance towards some dairy products so I intend to buy the kinds I can stomach sufficient I can last a few months. Normally I keep about 6 weeks on hand so I can shop the sales.
Nobody looked at me funny today when I pumped gas with a nitrile glove on.
Pinky you said “N95 and P100 masks appeared again but stupid expensive”
roughly, how much was “stupid expensive:?
$8+ a mask. $7 per pair of 3m 2091.
Same masks were $1.30 and you could get 2097 for $5 per pair in January from the same store. I bought 3M 60926 as recent as early February for $18/pair. Usually they’re $14-25/pair depending on season.
I saw some places gouging at $20/P95 mask locally. I will never shop at those stores again.
pinky — thks…was just curious…
We’ve pulled up the draw bridge and are going to ride this out on the mountain. It’s a nice feeling not having to get in amongst the hordes to get supplies, food etc. The grasshopper rests calmly while the ants panic and scurry.
Hi Ken,
I’m in NH too. A small town south of cases in the Upper Valley, although I suspect we will see related ones soon. Too many people had contact with the whole DHMC partygoing thing.
Shaws near me has a sign up limiting quantities of cleaning supplies. Dollar stores are pretty much ransacked of useful supplies. Food is picked over, lots of empty shelf space. I have seen a lot of “false fronting” to make shelves appear full in Hannaford, Market Basket, Walmart, etc.
A relative saw a shopper fill 2 carts completely full of sugar, and another 2 with Gatorade yesterday after the pandemic was formally labelled, completely clearing the shelves. I saw a person do the same with tuna fish last week in a different store. Powdered milk was completely gone from two stores I visited earlier this week, and all baking supplies were low.
Overall appearance of stores still seems normal, but if you’re aware, and paying attention, the differences are there.
Shopping online? Hard limits. Amazon pantry is limiting most items to 3 or less. Nothing fancy or exciting. Think boxes of pasta or canned beans. When you go to check out, they edit the total number of items in your cart as well, without warning if you exceed a random, unstated number. This was not the case a couple of weeks ago, as I happily scored some nice deals on shelf stable items there, in decent quantities.
I have also had items go out of stock as I was shopping or checking out, on several major websites. Again, nothing fancy. Long past trying to buy more Mountain House or anything similar. Just talking about a cart with peanut butter, canned chicken or shelf stable milk. It is sobering.
Writing from Turkey:
– All schools closed for two weeks with possible extension TBA
– People have been flocking the supermarkets for food and supplies for the past three days
– Flights to/from several countries were already banned more than a week ago
– Companies have cancelled all international travel
– All leaves cancelled in the Turkish military
Situation is not really different from rest of Europe.
Always good to have a real world observation from another country, thank you.
All the major stores are having a chimp-out while the smaller are stocked and empty.
Panic has set in at work,but they hesitate and head to Costco or Walmart to jostle with the mob when the local stores are stocked.
This will get ugly fast.
Some of the ghetto plebs have said they will take what they want and almost look forward to it .
Also went to Big-5
$20 background check and a 1 to 5 day waiting period for ammo…so frustrating.
Milk, Egg, Cheese, water, TP, Gatorade, all 100% gone from H-E-B in Magnolia, tx
I’ve got kin that operates in the HEB stores down in that area. He said as fast as they could get trucks in and unloaded the people bought it. Apparently they have had several single customer purchases over $1k and a few at or near $1500. HEB warehouses are still well stocked but they don’t have but so many trucks to deliver goods. Crazy times.
Good news! Morel season is headed our way and has arrived for some!
Local stores are out of bathroom tissue and all the other named supplies in this forum.
No worries! I’ll be in the woods alone hunting mushrooms.
Gotta love what God gives us every spring!
If you are rural – get out this spring and explore your land.
Look for leeks, and other wild foraged foods.
So much better than a can of ravioli!
My local grocery store had little to no milk, eggs, peanut butter, and potatoes.
In nonfood items, toilet paper, and disinfectant wipes were gone.
Our local grocery store in the midwest was as normal as it could be, under the circumstances. No antibacterial hand soap, hand sanitizer or toiler paper (the management courteously and honestly hung a sign saying that due to COVID-19 they were out), but no apparent shortages anywhere else. In fact, lots of perishables were on SALE. Ten packs of spaghetti for $10. Also, I was surprised that the grocery store didn’t appear to be crowded. We stocked up on NyQuil, Guafenesin and Ibuprofen, all of which were in abundance. I guess people are still in the “I can get out of ahead of this stage.” I’ll be working in a public-facing sector, so I don’t hold such hopes. Just ready to make and freeze a couple weeks worth of soup.
Northern Maine checking in. Pretty much the same situation as what’s been said in the whole comment section, and with the states first confirmed case today, the grocery store was a madhouse this afternoon. No tp, Clorox/Lysol wipes, no bleach or hand sanitizer. Canned food was there but thin, pasta sauce was also very thin along with the pasta, frozen goods seemed plentiful along with fresh foods.
Oh and if any ghetto plebs think they will take from me or my family, they will be helped out with a generous stream of 5.56 projectiles to the face.
I live in northern Wyoming. I had a doctor appointment in Worland yesterday. They said
Wyoming had its first case of COVID in Sheridan (on the other side of the mountain.) I stopped in Basin to get more printer ink at the pharmacy and also bought some gloves. They didn’t have any masks (haven’t seen those anywhere.) They did have elderberry gummies but I didn’t buy. While in Worland I stopped at Blair’s. The store looked real nice and well stocked. Of all the items I checked I didn’t find anything missing. It seems the panic hasn’t come here yet.
As a side note, while at the doctor’s office there was an elderly man on oxygen waiting. After a while the nurse came to him and gave him instructions for the next week. Among the instructions was the suggestion that he stop smoking! When he left, the lady from Worland public transportation came in to help him get to the van. A nurse also helped, but there was no one left to push the large oxygen tank so I got up and wheeled the oxygen tank. The man required 3 people to get him from the waiting room to the van — but he still smokes!
Forgot to mention: This is the only grocery in Worland now that the IGA closed. Worland (pop 5,000+) is the largest town in a 90 mile radius. Parking lot was half empty (usually full) and there weren’t many customers in the store. Lots of employees, though. I didn’t see anyone with a full cart. When I got to the checkout, there were no customers at the registers. Guess this is different from the rest of the country.
DaisyK == sigh…see that kind of thing often…one wonders re him (and others like him) how does he manage to buy cigarettes when so disabled and needing so much help?
I was at a function long ago…This older couple came in. (it was a family birthday, and they were the grandparents of the young child who’s birthday it was)…So, anyway, the wife got around fine….The husband truly could hardly walk/was on portable oxygen. He shook considerably. Shook so much he could not put mustard on his own hotdog…Finally someone did it for him. Shook so much he could hardly get hotdog and bun to his mouth to take a bite. This couple had driven a long way to visit the kids and grandchildren..something like eleven /twelve hours. Not sure if they even stopped over night. Making conversation at one point with the wife, I commented on what a LONG drive it had been for her. She looked at me perplexed…and then said..”Oh, no… I don’t like driving. My husband drove the whole way”…Gotta say, I was stunned..wow…
Jane Foxe, that is just plain scary! And that woman should be ashamed making her husband drive when he is clearly not capable. And it is the norm!
DAMedinNY == totally agree….
except (if I recall correctly), she did not “make” him drive….
He very much insisted. To the point of pretty much throwing a temper…
what I think, is the wife, and adult children (three of the adult children were at this event), seemed “okay” with him driving…
Honestly, to this day, (and it was yrs ago), I do wonder if I should have left the event, and called the police re an unsafe driver…I didn’t, and nothing happened. I heard later he made it (they) back home etc etc, and I never heard any talk of him having an accident, but still…
DAMedinNY — sorry, did not finish the sentence
“what I think, is the wife, and adult children (three of the adult children were at this event), seemed “okay” with him driving…
….I think they should have got together and insisted he surrender liscence, or asked a doctor to disqualify him, etc…
Jane Foxe:
When I read your post, the first thing I thought of was all the OTHER people on the road during that 12 hour drive.
DaisyK — yes….maybe he “made it home”, but you’re right..
“how many did he run off the road trying to avoid him?”…
truly bizarre….
Doesnt all this local government /media response seem over blown? If there have only been a handful of deaths (compared to other things) with the current strain, why shut the whole country down?
Bill, is this a trick question???
I give up. Why?
Well, all of this is getting a bit more than ‘interesting’…
Food supplies are definitely taking a hit. Next week will be even more ‘interesting’…
With all of the cancellations going on, including major league sporting events, Disneyland, Disneyworld, Hollyweird self-gratification awards, Comic Con, science conventions, etc etc, I have one question to ask.
What will people DO without the bread and circus diversions?
Probably the same as during the NY blackout many years ago….baby boom in about 9 months!
Ding! Ding! You are probably right!
(Unless dey be in de hood, lootin’)
Take a look at #panicbuying on Twitter, there is a growing trend of demands that people who have “hoarded” should give their stuff to “everybody else” (people who laughed at preppers). Their sentiment is that it was immoral to prep and that they have a moral right to steal it, by force. The Robin Hood thing.
Not to sound like me2, but,
It’s beginning to look like High Noon between the Ants and the Grasshoppers.
Im cool with them trying to come get it,,,,
I have a present for them
Right Kula. While you are introducing them to your “Lil Freyn”, there are other forms of insecticide that works on these types. “Preppers!” From the root word ‘prepared’ – not limited to just food and band aids. Come and take it bitchez. Let one hi-definition, solid defensive action hit the news and they’ll scurry back to their government subsidized holes to wait for FEMA handouts.
Chevy, are you posting anything?
I joined a few years back to get better/quicker info. I’ll go have a lookie-loo.
I was already sent to the naughty-corner for telling Hillary she was a nasty, lying b*tch. Jack didn’t approve and told me to apologize publicly. So, okay: “Hillary I am sorry that I called you a nasty, lying b*tch. :-)
Modern T: I don’t post much but when I do I rarely get a response so I assume I am shadow-banned. Pat Sajak has some of the wittiest tweets, only very subtly political. Juan Williams is of course a lefty but he must have someone else write his Tweets as they are way off the rails cuckoo. I often comment on those by asking simple questions. This is me: Listen:
@eioonionklj
Follow me.
Chevy…okay, now this was worth going there:
James Woods sez
“I love these ridiculous clowns who contend they can do better than President Trump. This booze-and-Botox besotted old bag [Pelosi] can’t manage her dentures, much less a pandemic. Between her and Biden, they can barely manage to put a coherent sentence together.”
MT:
“This booze-and-Botox besotted old bag [Pelosi]”
I haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.
He’s the ultimate best thing Twitter ever had.
And they canned him for a year! Idiots!!
“booze and botox besottled old bag”
perfect! My side hurts now :D
Beach’n
Chuckle Chevy I *suppose* that’s a back handed complement.
BTW I hate it when my more serious concerns actually occur. Not the best situation for anyone involved. Too many of my Grandparents saw how governments act when the masses are Demanding they DO SOMETHING.
Just remember “Nothing, No Situation is SO BAD that the Government cannot make it WORSE”. You can quote me on that one. Decades of observation and historical facts.
IF you need an easy example Katrina and the “Superdome” situation, let alone the attempted Gun Grabs during that event. A lot of law abiding folks lost weapons and never got them back.
IF the Just in Time system FAILS and stores get emptied there WILL be a Lot of “Anti-Hording” Demands placed on our spineless wonders in Government. They WILL DO SOMETHING no matter how unwise you and I would think about it. It’s in their Nature to DO SOMETHING when the Masses CALL UPON them.
Otherwise the masses turn into Mobs and that is the scary point.
If you need an easy example look to the Rodney King Riots where the Government IGNORED the masses Demands for “JUSTICE” against the Police and were IGNORED. Instant raging mobs, details at 11:00…..
Don’t get in front of an angry elephant friends. Don’t fight from your porch. Have some “Sacrificial” stock to “Give up as ALL WE HAVE SOB, SOB” as to prevent yourself from being a previously well stocked DEAD Family or maybe if your family is “Lucky” just the guy on the front porch with that G U N….
Disinformation means never telling anybody beyond your most trusted ones (And that USUALLY sad to say doesn’t include your kids and ner ‘do well blood relatives) what you have and having your COVER Story between all involved ready. That Cover Story MAY be Tested by the “Anti-Hording Police team” by separating you for separate questioning. So the less that KNOW of the deep larder well hidden the less that can be tricked into “confessing”.
If you have too much, too well known then it’s time to “create” a Second “Secret Stock” to “LOSE” to the “Anti-Hording Police” as to protect the most important things. The Health and Freedom of your family AND the other concealed supplies.
In a SHTF the LAST place your family needs is it’s self shot up or in jail.
If your plan is “Hot Brass piles” then make sure your family is OK with that first. Otherwise they maybe trying to survive on what’s left after that Police Sniper gut shoots you and they strip your home of everything they can find.
Having a PLAN and making sure you DO the Plan might mean you are “Robbed” of some “Stuff” and yet have your families health and freedom along with enough “Stuff” to drive on.
And again I remind folks spiritual preps are as important as anything else. We all will die, it’s how you live and who you bless that matters when your before the Creator.
“Disinformation means never telling anybody beyond your most trusted ones (And that USUALLY sad to say doesn’t include your kids and ner ‘do well blood relatives) ”
Very true, unfortunately. I wouldn’t think of it as ‘disinformation’ which is lying, I’d call it lack of information. You don’t need to tell all, and there are ways of saying it; when that good old neighbor knocks on the door for a cup of sugar reply with a smile “we only have enough for ourselves”. And even if you have a 55 gallon barrel full of sugar, it is just enough for yourselves. Remember this: Gen 41:29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
Gen 41:30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
Genesis 41:36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
Genesis 41:56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
He sold it! He didn’t give it away and they couldn’t take it away as they were mightily armed.
I’m beginning to sound more and more like you with the bible verses.
Chevy your comment warmed my heart!
“I’m beginning to sound more and more like you with the bible verses.”
Spiritual preps friend. Like any book of instruction can be used for good and for ill.
Remember:
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth
What does the capital letters spell out?
Our Years of Plenty (even faked with debt) are coming to an end. You and I need to look for wisdom to survive and maybe even prosper in the new era. Even if this COVID19 is as Hermitus suggests a fake out or less than a disaster the BUTCHERS Bill for all the excessive debt and the KNOWEDGE how “weak” we really are with all that off shore DEBT paid for Manufacturing will remain.
Shall we be Joseph or those brothers that sold him into slavery? They sold him as they were jealous of his status with their father. Later they had to come to him for food eh?
Proverbs 21:20 Precious treasures and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man consumes them.
Some versions say fine foods and oil. They’re are speaking of cooking oil, something so easy to get today with modern process but so hard to get grinding and pressing of seeds in 1800 times technology.
Why would that Bible truth be important today? Well just how much cooking oil DO YOU HAVE in your home right now? So far the sheeple are grabbing TP, bleach, waterless hand sanitizer and canned foods.
When you need to bake bread or fry that… How much cooking oil do you have friend?
What percentage of carbs, protein and fat should you eat?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that 45 to 65 percent of your calories come from carbs, 10 to 30 percent from protein, and 28 to 35 percent from fat.
Unless your growing pigs where are you going to get oil-fats? Lard has always been an excellent trade item pre-modern era.
And in that same vein how many uses can you think for salt? Do you have a salt mine? Maybe figure out how to make it from the currently nasty (sewage etc.) polluted ocean? Most “Sea Salt” is produced a LONG way away from American coastlines.
Salt is cheap today. Wars have been fought over it. Roman solders used to be PAID in salt that they traded with locals for things. The roman word for salt you might know Salarius It’s the base word for a Salary.
How much precious treasures would a wise man have in Salt I wonder?
And finally how much precious “treasures” would he have in “electronic fiat money”?
Chevy
Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode “The Shelter.”
How do you like that charging handle?
Do not care for the charging handles on my LR308s. My problem is that I have folding Troy Dioptic sights right on top of it But most of the ones I have seen are north of $100. That buys 100 rounds of ammo and the mags to put them in.
This “event” is going to show the American people just exactly what China really produces…80% of everything and what 80% of everything really means. Also, what it means, when they aren’t producing 80% of everything, like TP and masks.
The TP shortage will start the food riots, because sheeple are starting to think “Well, if there isn’t any TP in the store, then what if there isn’t “…” in the store?”.
This is just the beginning of the month, next month when the people on food stamps, or whatever .gov assistance, go in and there still isn’t any TP they will revolt.
For those us that are ready, it time to dust off the lawn chairs and get out a 6 pack and watch the show. (Kula I got a spot right next to you.. lol) It is going to get interesting.
Ill be waiting! Got a new Frosted Frog 45quart with ice packs ready and 40# of vennison jerky to munch on!
Ken comments in a text from my DW. Topping off the grocery as they announced 2 confirmed cases of corona in our city.
Whoa
appears EVERYONE is at XXX
Lines are averaging 30-45 minutes
Lots sold out
I’ll have to restock fresh foods (fruits veggies lunchmeat etc.) on Monday. For now I have a cart load of stuff and plenty of stuff at home. There is not a roll of toilet paper or a fresh fruit to be found. These people are insane!!!!
The Covid 19 will bankrupt many more than it kills!!
LA unified schools to all close starting Monday. I expect other districts in the area to follow suit. This will cause more panic in the general area.
Last night, local news showed stores all had packed parking lots, many items gone or very limited. Coworker went to Target for extra dog food (her brand gone), and took a photo of the now-batepaper goods aisle. No TP, PT, Kleenex – none at all.
I went to my local store early this am to get magnesium and potassium and talked to store mgr. the locusts came through last night and wiped them out of all the usual stuff. Plus all fresh pork and chicken pretty much gone. Beef still okay – got a delivery of that.
He said they were expecting a “truckload” today, doesn’t know when or what they will get. Their bread vendor was restocking, but everything else either had not come in yet, or wasn’t coming.
Wally World in my east Texas town today, tp aisle empty. Bleach empty. Dish soap low. Hardly any OJ, ramen noodles cleaned out, canned meat low. Bagged beans and rice empty. Lots of bottled water in peoples carts.
I didn’t need to buy any of the above, just topping off. It’s spring break next week, gonna lay low.
Gov Abbott just declared Texas a state of disaster. Wow
Crazy. The local Wal-Mart shelves are getting bare here in NW.Ark. Funny thing is that the shelf is still full of gallon jugs of white vinegar. Don’t people know it can be used for cleaning and disinfecting too.
Ohh and the vinegar was gone at Kroger too.
I’m in the exciting state of WA where we have lots happening. Our daughter is a elementary teacher. They find out this afternoon if our schools are closing. She is confident they will. Our stores are about the same as every else. Now it’s decided to snow on top of all the other craziness. I’m sitting here watching the quiet and beauty, happy that I’m prepared, warm and fed. I do have to go pickup my taxes today, then it’s time to hunker down. We all knew it would happen. I’m thankful for all of you because the rest of the people seem to be in a state of confusion of how this could happen. Take care folks!
Miss I Madd It Myself
Saw a few flakes earlier here on coast, but hear it’s mostly south of here. Icy nights have been freezing me as I feed in the mornings. Don’t need snow too.
Hey M I M I M where ya been?!
Just returned from HEB grocery in Kerrville Texas. It was a madhouse. Lots of toilet paper, but the eggs were gone. Folks were three deep waiting to get meat, and were reaching around and over others to get theirs.
Bumper to bumper carts in the store. Many frozen foods shelves empty. Still lots of bacon, bread, cheeses, veggies, beer and wine.
Hey Ken,
I am finally starting to see some panic buying in my area (North Alabama). Just got the report that Alabama has got their first confirmed case of CoVid-19 in Birmingham. I guess I will make a finally run to the store tonight. Thanks Ken for providing a means of staying informed!
Thanks for the report. I really appreciate all of you who have been updating with comments here regarding this situation of potential food shortages – and what’s flying off the shelves.
MY LATEST OBSERVATIONS TODAY AT THE GROCERY STORE
Parking lot – Full.
Shopping carts – Gone – People following others to their cars to get their carts.
Listening to others who were talking to each other or on their phones – ALL about the virus, Trump speech today, obvious panic.
Canned meat – Almost all gone. Canned chicken – nearly gone. Tuna – completely gone. Various canned ham varieties – almost all gone. It seems that people have woken up to “oh $hit’ what about meat?!
Fresh meat – Hit hard. Half gone. Especially ground beef. Chicken and pork hit hard too.
Rice – 3/4 gone.
Dry beans – 1/3 gone.
ALL toilet paper – Gone.
ALL paper towels – Gone.
ALL disinfectants – Gone.
Fresh produce – Hit hard today.
Flour – 50% gone.
Bread making yeast – 50% gone.
Bread aisle – 30% gone.
I could go on. But it was obvious that the primary motivation was stock up while you can…
Ken
I finally found something I don’t have in my inventory, and I’m just devastated. !!
Tennis balls, oh lord, how am I gonna live without them. Sob!!
Stand my Ground Ken’s amazon link still works! Your SAVED from the Tennis Ball disaster.
Sorry Ken couldn’t resist.
me2
Order comes from China? OH HELL NO.!!!
I’ll just have to suffer from my over sight. I really do wonder though, if I will recover from this disaster.? I think I might just have a panic attack.
.
Ken –
Thank you for the report and the vindication! I love my wife and kids dearly, but whoo-boy am I going to savor the schadenfreude reminding them of some of their more colorful comments over the past 8 years as I assembled my own supermarket. Beeline for home tonight, maybe one more ATM hit.
Ken,
FMIL said lines in Costco snaked throughout the store to check out. Lines onto the roadway for people trying to get into parking lot and lines around the building for people trying to get into store.
Said Target was almost out of canned goods, most shelves empty.
Going to be fun! Tomorrow should be bedlam!
Might go to safeway first thing and get some extra pasta and sauces just for the heck of it, can make venison italian sausage with a bunch of venison we got last week.
Regardless, this will be a test of the JIT system.
One would expect initial panic buying. And one would expect with today’s just-in-time inventory distribution — that there will be shortages due to panic buying.
The question is, how long? We will obviously find out. Some argue that severe pressure on these systems could take quite a long time to resolve. There are LOTS of variables in the equation.
With that said, remember the .22 ammo shortage? How long did that take to sort out? (not sure if that’s a good example, but this is what concerns me).
It’s happening. And it’s going to get worse, faster than most think (panic buying). And then suddenly, in America, there’s hardly and food left?
Tick tock, tick tock…?
Ken,
My wife and I discussed that (.22 rimfire shortage) today. Obama talks gun control, everybody goes and buys a .22 and a bunch of ammo, supply didn’t match sudden demand, panic sets in, takes 4 years to settle down.
What do you figure, maybe 10% of the population are preppers? Suppose the other 90% suddenly decide to be preppers to, and hit the system to stockpile, oh, let’s say 3 months of food and other preps. Don’t you figure they’ll panic when the find the stores can’t keep up with the demand? I can sure see years of shortages.
Makes you wish you had a bigger garden, huh? But then, wonder how hard seed will be to find when all these new preppers ……………….
The 22 rimfire shortage JIT failure didn’t include folks worried about getting sick, calling in sick, wondering how to Replace all that “Free” (Taxpayer paid for) Child Care aka Schools and various knock off issues that ensue. Oh and it ONLY affected those that think correctly that the right to have a firearm is important. Or about 50% of our population.
This Just In Time system shock is about FOOD and such. 100% of population is CONCERNED.
The JIT system will be staggering at best, systemic failure is likely.
A Scenario Question for you folks, IF a nighttime windstorm comes in and power goes out, meanwhile a tree crashes onto your home. You know Lowes and Home Depot has been closed for a while due to pandemic.
Do you have a flashlight-headlamp to see what happened? Do you have extra batteries for a long haul? Do you have plastic sheeting and fasteners to cover that broken window? Were you wearing shoes as not to have cut up feet “Discovering” In the dark that a window was shattered? Next morning you discover a hole in your roof, got a tarp and roofing nails to cover it?
For want of a nail.
Yes, my thoughts exactly. Will the food supply continue to flow to the stores? And how long? Of course this depends on just how bad this whole thing gets. Domino effect, and all that.
My wife (of 35 yrs) has never given me trouble about the moderate prepping I’ve done. But she did just tell me that she had thought I was losing it; going crazy. But now she’s quite thankful that we don’t have to be alarmed.
I don’t how things are in my local stores right now (semi-rural E. Missouri). The last time I went out was on Wednesday and all was pretty normal at the Wal Mart and the Tractor Supply. No hand sanitizer, and the cleaning supply shelves were bare. No big bags of rice or beans, but still plenty of smaller ones. I didn’t even take notice of the TP shelves.
I may venture out very early on Monday to pick up a few things and will see how things are. It just never feels like I’ve got enough food. I’m sure others here know what I mean.
I talked to family who work in grocery. The panic has hit here too. One worker who has been in one store for 40+ years said he has never seen it this bad. A close second he said was the blizzard of “78”. Some things they don’t even put on the shelf. They just pull the pallets out to the front of the store. They empty with-in hours.
Wal-Mart here, first time ever 0 tp, no hand san. At all in any store.No beans or rice bigger than 1# no canned meat.major holes in canned goods. We’ve never seen anything like this here. Every aisle noticeably thin.2 Wally W employees walked by a few of us and actually said , You’d think it was the end of the world or somethin. I almost said It might be! No violence yet ,thankfully tho I’m always armed just in case because we’re older and I refuse to be an easy target, but I felt that people were moving faster than normal with a purpose.Saw several people looking at bare shelves and shaking their heads.On another note, I thought Trumps address was good, maybe even encouraging.
P.S. This is to NRP. Is 600 cans of refried beans really enough? We might need to do some swapping in a few weeks.😁
Uh, with all that bean ya won’t need a gun to keep people away from ya !
Horse, if they get hungry enough they may overlook the methane,and try to take my beans.LOL😆
Maggie’s farm:
Not to sure about the 600 cans of beans, but the 600 pounds of Pintos, Anasazi, and Reds each & 300 Mortgage Lifter s each are
Went to the grocery store today at my normal lateish morning time.
Holy shit. Looked like a tornado hit a flea market. They were out of some stuff (mostly boutique items, they might only normally stock 6 of the item) but everything was touched. Even the pickles and frozen pies.
They had everything, including some stuff I haven’t seen in two weeks, but some stuff had a limit of 2 or 3.
Never seen anything like this. Every checkout lane was open. Took me 20 minutes to get through the checkout line. I got less than $60 worth of stuff. Only thing on sale that I wanted was pasta so I got some. Other than that I only bought produce.
Planning to switch my grocery shopping to 6am next week.
Central wWI again, the stupidity has begun in Wisconsin..
In the afternoon wallmart was very busy, parking lot over half full.
I herd the word “corona” one time and overheard 2 girls arguing with their mother..
Mother did not want to get extra items, girls said “but what if we get the two week lock down”
There were several small Area’s that were empty but only single or double
faces, nothing special Until..
I got to the paper shelves, 15 bays 6′ long 4′ deep top and bottom completely empty.
Zero paper towels, Zero TP, Zero hand sanitizer, about 5 large packs of water
bottles left.
The flavored water seemed untouched, for now.
Went to the local Aldi’s and they had 2 half pallets of water left and they just
had a shipment of TP unloaded as I was walking into the store.\ 2 pallets only
and the huge amount of hand sanitizer I saw with my own eyes 3 or 4
days ago, gone.
What I found interesting, I park way out in the lot to avoid door dents.
I was in the employee parking area, the car next to me had 4 24 packs of water bottles
mostly covered in the back hatch with some other things I couldn’t see well enough to make out.
Wife went to local Wal Mart this afternoon just to get some eye drops, decided to roam a bit to find anything we may need.
Got conditioner, hair spray,, and in the electronics area– an employee rolled out a pallet of TP.
Folks were lined up the aisle to get some.
She grabbed a bundle. We would be fine without it—
Said it was madness.
She is a brave woman!
The non-prepper community would be very wise to take note of the current situation, and have a change of mind and prep accordingly. Hopefully they will wake up, and realize the necessity of being prepared for the unknown. May this issue that we’re dealing with now open their eyes to the reality of unforseen possibilities.
Obviously you can’t prepare for everything, but most, if they had a mind to, could at least prepare for some things.
Oh, percentage of those that will take note and have that change of mind ?
My opinion is in the area of 1% to 2% maybe.
Go all nervous, the real disease is fear and it’s way easier to catch than this new thing.
Got home, checked on my tp stash, I had forgotten how much I had.
It’s behind the gamma seal buckets, 14 12pk
I honestly thought there were only 3 or 4 of the 12pk.
Bought that about 2 years ago, double bagged it and forgot.
Went to Kroger mid late afternoon. All and I mean ALL of the potatoes were gone, even most of the sweet potatoes. Onions, just a few. Bean and rice aisle raided. Certain spaghetti noodles gone as well as many sauces. Canned fish, frozen potatoes and other veggies. The meat dept guy we know said it has been like this for 3 days. TP of course was gleaned. Even the grandson had to take a photo of that to send around! Other items too.
It was a good lesson for the GS. I told him can you imagine if the big SHTF. Consider how this store would look. There would be no food not to mention the other necessities. So think about what you se here and remember.
Mrs. U
That was a great beginning lesson for the grandson. Congratulations
Sweet potatoes are a real good item to get. They last months in a good cool dry spot. Our homegrown ones do, for sure. Much better than potatoes. Winter squashes too.
As we walked around the store it made me feel good as I could say, I don’t need that have plenty at home. Don’t need that either etc…….. lifestyle is good……
I just got back from Publix here in Florida. Some shelves were totally empty, fruits and vegetables are all gone. No potatoes. No eggs. No milk. Paper products isle completely ransacked. The canned goods were hard hit. The only meats left were the $25 roasts.
We also hit the liquor store. People were stocking up. Carts were full.
People need to relax. It will be over in six weeks and death rate is below 1.5% in US
Phewww – that’s great news. Thanks.
There was a line of bees waiting to hit the blossoms seeking nectar and over there on the oak tree squirrels were banging their shopping carts against each other grabbing acorns right and left fighting with each other of a single acorn. Meanwhile on the lawn flocks of robins were in a frenzy going after worms while tweeting to one another #backoffbird. I watched a pack of paranoid raccoons with masks lurking over some table scraps from a Chinese restaurant, they’ll eat anything. The craziest thing of all was all the neighborhood dogs grabbing poop bags for their masters. Oh my.
Chevy
😂
That is a 5 star rating..
Just making the point that you don’t see the panic in nature, they prepare by instinct, we should prepare out of common sense, although that isn’t too common.
Chevy,
People used to prepare out of instinct too, they would generally work long hours to lay in food for the months when it would not or could not grow, they would gather whatever they thought would be useful whenever they came across it.
It is only within the last century and a half that most of that disappeared.
We’ve quite successfully conditioned out of our people most of our natural instincts. And most have abandoned God, of course, and his laws.
Just as God’s Will determined it would be, from just before deiberately creating Mankind….
ha ha ha …..!
The Governor of NM closed the schools statewide, no doubt this contributed to the stocking up I saw at my southern New Mexico WalMart today: no eggs, tp, paperplates, tissues, bananas, kitchen trash bags…
running out of canned fruit & veggies, bread of any kind, rice in any packaging, and other various sundry items.
Stockers were out working quickly, and those order ahead/pick up carts were everywhere. Most of the registers were open.
Hello to everybody!
I am in one small town in Republic of Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Europe). Local government is closed borders this morning. Everyone who has to back home from abroad must go in isolation for 14 days. Schools are closed. Restaurants and bars are closed. Shops can work but for short time. Grocery stores are well stocked but one friend told me that selling 4x bigger than usually. People here expect huge economic disaster after this epidemy. We must plant 2x bigger garden than we thought. We must plant corn again. Next step will be buying animals. We have 15 cases of Corona virus in my country. It is impossible for government to buy more medical supplies on the market. Prime Minister said, we have money but there is no goods what we need for are health care sistem. So disruption in just in time delivery sistem is obvious. God knows what will happen. I plan to go to the shopping center today. I will buy more goods and I will check how it looks on the shelves!
Veteran as you’ve been though this during your Bosnian War you know salt and cooking oil are high on the shopping list.
I hope you made those elderberry cuttings and planted them as travel restrictions are soon.
Your in my prayers
Veteran,
Wishing you and your family and friends well from our small farm on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!
Cheers!
me2
Yes oil is good but you can substitute it with pig fat. Flour, salt and sugar. This is basis. After that, you need dry meat, beans and dry vegetables!
Medicine and fuel are great concerns for me.
Pig fat here in the US is called lard and it does make the best southern biscuits (not british cookies) and McDonalds, back many years ago cooked their French fries in lard, so tasty. However the cholesterol content has put it on the back shelf to use everyday.
Veteran and Mrs. U a way to preserve Butter with out refrigeration for up to a year is convert it into Ghee.
Simple to do, worth the search engine effort. A heavy pan, low heat and attention to detail is needed. Pigs would love the “waste”.
MUCH cheaper than canned Red Feather Butter AND actually tastes good (acquired taste) as “Buttered Coffee” as I learned in Afghanistan.
Just can the butter, I,be canned it and it works ok
Where are you at? If the “s hasn’t hit the fan”, this will do until it does. Prepping for this moment is what draws most of us to Ken’s blog. So, I ask the question, where are you at?
Our lives, for how long we don’t know, are about to be drastically changed. Normalcy, at least as we’ve known it, is out the window.
Some of us won’t be affected nearly as badly as others. In my case, I’m retired. I don’t worry about how this will affect my job. We home school our grand daughter, so no worry about school or child care. We have food and condiments stockpiled, good for months. Same for prescription meds. We live secluded, no neighbors close by, and many miles from even a small town population concentration.
On the other hand, my wife and I fall in the high risk category should we contract the virus, so it’s important that we not become exposed. That’s going to require vigilance and awareness on our part. On the bright side, we have breathing room, both from our prepping and by circumstance.
How about the rest of y’all? Where do you stand? What particular challenges do you face. What’s your plan to cope?
I plan to work on boots!
An excellent excuse to go nowhere. Ill clean up my workshops and get busy. Have been working on designs for several different pairs of boots, need new flip flops and cant bring myself to buy them when i have a stack of leather, canvas, webbing and soling sheets, and i have made changes to some furniture designs i am building.
So i plan on burying myself in creativity!
That and working in the garden, and with my chickens.
Why freak out when there are so many blessings that are within the confines of our boundry fence!
Thy will be done!
Kulafarmer,
You played a part some time ago for me to start leatherwork and I thank you because I really enjoy it. You mentioned soling sheets which I have looked into with no luck. If you could head me in the right direction for these it would be appreciated. Gardening and creativity for the necessary things in life are sure to be in our near future.
Dennis,
“Where am I at?”, I ask myself that question all the time. Wife could be called ‘retired’, I choose to keep working until 70. Live on a farm in far western Colorado, maybe 100 miles north of the 4-Corners & NRP’s location. I work from home, but travel about 4 days a month across the Western US by vehicle. We have canceled all trips( except mine for work), and are reducing travel to town. DW is somewhat immune compromised from having (and beating!) breast cancer twice, and has mild asthma. I am in good condition. Still…… we are concerned. We believe we will at some point be “exposed”, but we take Elderberry syrup daily to keep it from getting a foothold. We are also preparing herbal antiviral tinctures. I strip down when I come home from a trip west, all my clothes go into the laundry right away, I shower. trying our best to reduce the chances of bringing this into the house.
Will this present some challenges?? you bet! Wife has postponed trip to see her 90 year old Mom in Denver. She lives alone, but has her other daughter close by if she needs anything. No trips to see grandkids. Biggest issue is “how long”? yes, how long indeed?? A month? Two? More? We don’t know. No one does, except our Lord. And that is where the two of us tend to leave all this concern, with God. We have done what we can, but we commit ourselves to the Lord’s will, and in that we are finding a bit of peace and comfort.
Dennis, retired, 2 with health issues and one check.purchase what we can while it s cosidered safe. Use antivirals.. stay home as much as possible and plant a garden and secure as much of that as we can…help our neighbors as best able,…will take us thru October..
Hi all
Well the locusts aka Sheeple have hit the Four Corners.
3 Wally Worlds, Sam’s Club, Target, and ALL the smaller stores …… cleaned out at a minimum of 90%.
AND what the heck is all this about TP???? Really sheeple what’s the deal? Cops actually arrested two people that were fighting for a 12 pack of TP….
And honestly the show is only in the first Act.
Was not expecting to have to do yet one more grocery run, but DH suddenly decided last night he needed a few things and he was going to the market today (Saturday).
Since he is older than me, and has less resistance than me, not to mention more devil-may-care about cart wipe downs and such, I bit the bullet and went at 6:30 am. Store opens at 6. I knew it would be busy, but underestimated it.
Apparently my neighborhood Albertsons (Safeway brand store) had closed early the night before to “restock”. Well, it didn’t help much, I would have hated to see it before the restock.
They finally starting limiting fast moving items (i.e.: total of 8 canned items combined per family), but they were still cleaned out of fresh chicken and pork, beef hard hit. Canned goods very hard hit. Baked beans and plain canned beans gone. Even with a limit of 4 total dairy items (included eggs) there were few eggs (mainly the expensive brands). Milk, yogurt and other dairy almost gone. Ramen gone, rice if all sizes and brands almost gone(also limited to 4 total items). Dry beans, bread, tortillas all nearly gone. Fresh produce hit hard – no potatoes, bananas, very low on most items except exotic fruits, pricey berries and even salad greens very low. Paper goods had been restocked, but even with limit were nearly gone again – at 6:30 am.
Very, very long lines. I didn’t have too many items so a checker opened to help some of us without full carts. I just wanted to leave, there was no way I was spending one more minute there than needed. Girl in line in front of me must have had 49-50 canned items. I reminder her the limit was 8, and she better choose the ones she wanted most. She just stared at me. Cashier made her choose 8 and pulled the rest out of her order to go back on the shelf.
Local morning news still covering run on stores, people still lining up in early am for the big box stores. I’m done. DH is going to have to work from what we have now.
For those of you who are posting on the Open-Forum about what you’re seeing regarding FOOD SHORTAGES, please post your observations here on this article instead.
The Open Forum comments get deleted after several days or a week. However “articles” stay forever, like this one.
I would like to capture this (food shortages) information here, for the sake of others who search the internet and land here (many, many are each day).
Long Island NY (Suffolk Co)
The big supermarkets (Stop and Shop/Shoprite) were cleared out of chicken/beef/turkey/pork (there was still some frozen fish and packages of corned beef available) Only the super designer milk was available (lots of coffee flavoring stuff in fridge) No eggs. No flour (except for the gluten free and expensive designer ones) No TP, minimal water, minimal papertowels. Minimal boxes of pasta, not much jarred sauce. Plenty of coffee/tea/ice cream/junk food/beer. Supposedly no delivery trucks to Stop and Shop yesterday. Lines were more than half store length by 720am. Store opened at 6am
My original posting was under general conversation. Since we need this for the actual data will post it again. Not verbatim
Yesterday drove into town for a few items which have been none existent via Amazon and I did check w/mart’s grocery on line.
It was time to pickup money for the monthly out of pocket expenses. Bank is inside a higher end grocery store. With shortages being posted the price difference from the blue collar grocery store an this one it was worth it. That way would be bringing home what we were out of. Shelves were stocked, did not see any major opening for food items. They had pasta a roni which has been limited or not available at other places. Selected what we needed for replacement. They were in low in some flavors but were not totally bare. Since tp was way at the other end of the store I by passed walking all that way back to see what they had on the shelves. They had Foster Farms chicken on sale, chicken breast and whole chicken. Did not even venture into the beef section. as this store is way over priced in that area. Parking lot upon arrival basically empty, they all showed up as I was leaving.
Blue collar grocery store was GOOD, but I found a parking space there. Hardest hit was pasta/rice section(bags)pre made boxes were available. As stated I was searching for Pork Ramen noodles, found them hid in the soup isle. Found a flat of them so put them in the cart. Missed the tp isle, sure it was hit as saw a few baskets with that in their carts.
While unloading the grocery cart the man next to our vehicle said “This parking lot has not been this full with the exception of Christmas “.
I went out today mostly because I had ordered some things from a vendor at the last local gun show and it was back in town today. Didn’t really want to go, but felt I’d made a commitment. Since I was out, decided to check out one of the WMs in town. Got there earlyish, about 9am.
Things were completely quiet in the garden area where I entered. Picked up the potting items I wanted and then wandered over to the pharmacy area. Most OTC remedies gone, tho’ surprisingly there were several products specifically for children still on the shelf. No thermometers (was going to get one for my cousin), and of course, no hand sanitizer or alcohol.
Headed over to the grocery side and stopped by one aisle that was completely empty. Was trying to remember what had been there and must of spoke out loud since a fellow passing by said “TP and paper towels”. I said I was glad I’d bought some last week. He said he and his wife were down to one roll and had been all over town yesterday searching. I suggested the Dollar stores and he said they looked like a war zone, and no TP. Other cleaning products were well picked over, and had limits.
Stockers were busy in most of the aisles, so a truck must have come in overnight.
Dairy and eggs were down to about 10%, rice & beans gone, canned goods very sparse (saw one man loading cases of various off brand vegetables into his wife’s cart), most of the frozen cases were well stocked, as was the bread and produce area, except for the ginger root I wanted (must be other preppers in the area, lol!).
Walked straight to one of the self-checkouts and chatted with the WM person there. She said yesterday reminded her of Black Friday, and she was dreading the afternoon crowd. Ironically, as I was checking out, two Asian guys came to check out only TP, 12 packs of Angel Soft. There was a limit of 2 per customer and they had 5, so they had to check out individually and 1 had to be left behind. Too bad the fellow I saw earlier hadn’t stuck around.
Finally got the the gun show and my stuff wasn’t in yet (drat!), but I did see one interesting display….a 4 pack of Charmin with the following note:
CHARMIN
Original – Unused!
$369.99
(Get a free Glock 44 w/Purchase!)
Ken – took a photo if you want it for posterity.
Was in town for pig food. Stopped at WM for a replacement phone charger cord. Heard one clerk say to another “we’re out of food.” Decided to take a look around. This was about noon, and probably 80% of food was gone. Expensive cuts of meat, some baked goods, candy were still available. Milk was limit two gallons. No paper or cleaning products. OTC shelves stripped. Plenty of charger cords to choose from. Ha ha!
Heard that Safeway was limiting every item to no more than 5.
This is in a sleepy little town 50 miles from a small city and 80 miles to dense population. Middle of the month in a county where between 1/4 and 1/3 are on EBT cards.
Made yesterday’s trip with a neighbor. At a local discount store neighbor said there was a guy loading all the seeds from display racks into his cart. At feed store nearly all layer and scratch feed was gone, and only a few bags of pig food remained.
Anony Mee I hope I’m wrong but I suspect a “Quick Buck Scumbag” grabbed the seeds while cheap for panic buying later. Already local friends are telling me there are Toilet Paper “Sellers” on Facebook.
I hope all have their next two years worth of seeds in the bucket already. Kept cool and dry they will be fine next year. So no loss if things get “Normal Again” pretty soon.
Hi Anony Mee!
Have you given any thought about how to stretch animal feed, if it came down to that? I’m particularly concerned about my big, sweet dog. Realistically she is set for a good 3-4 months. But as supply chains wind back up, pet food might be a low priority.
I’m really getting a little neurotic, sitting here thinking about the things I missed in preps. We are only a couple days into an official emergency and oversights in the preps are becoming apparent. I feel like an idiot for storing dry ‘whole’ milk, instead of non-fat.
Tmcgyver,
Most of the dry dog food doesn’t keep for more than a few months before it gets rancid in those thick paper bags.
We buy the grain free purina dog and cat food. They are in a different type of bag.I just checked the best buy date on them. July 2021.
Now we mix it with rice,chicken,beef broth. We mix brown and white rice. We went Light on the brown cuz it constipated the dogs.
You could get a 20 pound bag of rice and a case of canned food too just for the dog. Ask your store if they have any ripped bags of rice you could get at a discount for “animal food.”
Dont hurt to ask…
BJH – That’s exactly why I keep no more than a few months worth on hand. Even in the Mylar bags, totally sealed, the oil content is such that rancidity sets in too quickly. Good to know about the grain free longevity; I never noticed that.
My wife, being a lifer at a grocery chain, often scores a ripped bag of good dog food, maybe a few times a year. And as far as rice, we use it a lot anyway – nice to know we can share.
tmcgyver check the ingredient list on the bags/cans of dog food you have/in store…I suspect you can stretch with anything you eat (mostly). Oats/Rice/scraps/etc etc…There are a few products dogs should nt eat, cnt think off hand, onions/chocolate is one, thnking beets may be another. Start now, mixing in a little of something. Or using a little of something as a treat, etc…The main problem if I recall correct, is their digestive system takes a bit of time to get used to anything new, so best to start soon with small bits.
give that pup a hug for me..Miss ours something fierce.
Thanks Jane, will do. I also keep canned food, of the same brand and type as the dry. I give her that as a treat a couple times per week, trying to steer her to kibble on other days. She gets hugs every day. 75+ pounds of sleek muscle, on an elegant frame, with an excellent brain and a giant heart; literally, can hear her pulse through the wood floor. She’s curled up next to me, she knows I’m talking about her.
tmcgyver — all good. Yes those pups are amazing…..
TMc
We have fed dogs from home made foods for years. We prefer enriched brown rice from Costco because of the added nutrients. White rice and rolled oats will work too.
The book that we learned how to feed our dogs well with home made foods is Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. it’s available at Amazon.
One thing is very important when switching over to home made foods — be sure to include calcium (aka bone meal or calcium carbonate). They also need a little fat, too (olive oil is great).
The meat/protein can come from several sources. Ground beef, turkey, or chicken are perfect.
Canned mackerel is our ‘medium term storage’ fall back for our dogs, as is white rice or oatmeal. Rice may not be available in stores at the moment, but regular rolled oats and canned mackerel probably is. :-)
If/when you switch your dogs over to home made food, do it gradually. You can always start this now, while you have commercial dog food, too.
Our vet knows we feed home made foods and is fine with our practice. The vet did caution us against using raw meat — we don’t do that anyway. The dogs are also fed commercial grain-free dry food. Yoghurt is given to one of our Doodles because he has always tended to have loose stools and the probiotics really help him.
I’m going to submit a link in another post for Ken to clear. It has quite a bit of good basic info that will help you.
Hi tmcgyver
Lived in a couple countries where pet food was not a consumer item so made my own.
Would get a few lbs of whole grains – rice, barley, oats, etc – from the market and boil up. Then boiled up a few dozen eggs. Crushed the eggs shells and all into the grain, added a couple cans of mixed vegetables and a few glugs of cooking oil. Stirred together and froze in pint freezer boxes. Dogs got a block in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Healthiest coats I’ve ever seen and dogs in very good shape. If you’ve got freezer space this might be an option. Or maybe store dry dog food in freezer to slow deterioration? Mixture could probably be canned and put on shelf.
I’ve got whole grains and veg in LTS, eggs from chickens, oil in freezer.
Chickens can self feed as they are loose. Pigs on pasture, goats in blackberries (which I’ll never run out of). I think I’ve got about 200# of dog food on hand right now so Cookie and Xander are set until fall, if commerce shuts down.
Anony Mee / tmcgyver
Looks to be a great mix…if no freezer room, bet it could be canned? Would be great as long shelf life?
Jane – First, I should learn how to properly can various foods. My grandmother did it. But my mother was always worried about ‘botulism’ and refused to carry the tradition.
Anony Mee, That is brilliant. I like the eggs idea, and ground shells takes care of the calcium supplement. My big one likes coconut oil too. At this point I don’t have freezer space, because of recent stock up efforts. But as that is consumed, I should have the room.
Right now I’m just gobsmacked by the President’s announcement and all of those precious blue uniforms behind him. Stock futures in a free fall, Au is +$55; insane times we are in.
tmcgyver
Don’t worry too much. If you don’t sell you won’t take a loss. Unless you sell your CA house and relocate farther out. Then you’re likely to lose proximity insecurity.
I bought a little Au a few years ago when it was way overpriced – who knew. In 1/10 oz pieces to use as barter JIC, and not as a financial investment. Hope to be able to pass them unneeded on to future generations.
tmcgyver == I also do not can, sigh. My Mom was a whiz and never once had spoilage, and she was very “bare bones” …not much in way of equipment, etc..
but, I think there are lots on here that can often, and they likely would know if it is feasible….Seems like it might be ideal if it is. One could also collect up any leftovers/scraps in freezer, and then do a big batch can to mix in scraps, etc…
Jane Foxe, tmcgyver and others
I am a Master Canner. I can will, help ANYONE. Just ask
Stand my Ground — I KNEW there were folks like you on here. Kind of you to make a point of offer. Hope folks will take you up.
tmcgyver cooked rice can be used to stretch dog food along with scraps. Raw bones a good treat, cooked seems to shatter into nasty hurt dog shards.
Dogs are almost omnivores so Moy Casa, Su Casa as far as food. No chocolate though, limit sweets.
Hope that helps as our Fur Babies are important also. You are correct that Gov.com getting into JIT Food production will limit-cripple animal feeds.
Chicken-rabbit owners need MOAR feed. Not going to get cheaper and maybe hard to get at all as resources are shifted to Human Food Production.
Thanks me2 – In that case, we should be good. I’ve got all that stuff, could easily double what I’ve got now in a pinch. We also have some Ag supply places not too far away. They might get resupplied quicker. Good advice. Appreciated.
Had to pick Mom’s meds so did a shopping run. Came home to decon and shower.
What a difference a few days makes. Last time was Tuesday am because my beloved had to make a meeting at the Hospital (oddly enough not for COVID19, go figure) so I did some shopping while waiting. All was well in Hannaford’s and Wal-mart. Just a serious dent in rice, beans and TP.
Today In Wal-Mart, No TP, No Rice aside from a scattered bag or three of jasmine rice, No beans, eggs down to less than a half case where 6-7 cases normally are, some broken, No bleach type cleaning supplies nor hand sanitizer, canned veggies decimated, pasta mostly gone, soups and spaghetti sauce decimated. Still fresh veggies but down a fair bit. Some butter. Sporting goods busy with several folks buying ammo. When I rotated back before checking out even more different folks there scoring ammo.
Must be hunting season activity >sarc<
In Hannaford's much the same but a few more eggs, NO Butter. Went back to Wal-Mart for some butter. Again saw folks buying ammo.
Folks moving with purpose mostly nice. A few *still* joking how silly this is all is well as they carry a loaf of bread to the checkout. Nobody arguing with each other. Politeness abounding as seniors still getting help with reaching and such.
More folks are getting serious. The Reality of SCHOOLS Closing in NH seems to have sparked the "This is REAL" in most folks. YET, still some who refuse to accept that life has changed.
On Saturday my other son and DIL went to get the 90 day prescription the doctor ok’ed at WM.
He noticed some shelves empty and holes in others.
What struck him was some of the weird stuff people had in their carts. A bunch of cans of hairspray. Bags of plastic utensils. Not much food if any.It was like they just wanted to have something in their cart to buy. Sounds like some folks are at a loss of what to do.
As they walked out to their suburban to leave there was a commotion going on a couple rows over.
It looked like a couple of guys caught some guy in a hoodie breaking into somebody’s elses car.
They proceeded to” tune “this thief up. The whole time yelling at him about stealing with a whole lot of expletives added in.My son said he really thought they were going to beat him to death. What was weird is people just walked by as it was happening and went into the store. They picked up his slim Jim ,bent it over and threw it in the back of their pickup. Then drove away.
Folks taking care of situations like this will be happening a whole lot more IMO…
Bill Jenkins Horse
Saw something just as crazy on Sat at dollar store. Some guy had 50 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in his cart that was it At check out he was one lane over rambling about 200 cases of the virus somewhere
CR
You brought up the point about food distribution from the time of the depression/WWII. Our nation was more self sufficient, we relied on our selves to produce the products which we consumed and put it up. They traded/barded items from neighbors which they could not produce.
Yes, they had whiners during that time also. Felt the producers even then should take care of their needs,, because the lazy deserved the rewards from the workers labor. Neighbors did turn on other neighbors.. fyi
Yes there was rationing during WWII, for gasoline, tires passed down through the family. Memories from my mom from what living under those conditions was like, how she trade coupons for foods she required to feed her family. People of that era were use to going without, learning to make do with what they had, even went hungry on occasions from what I was told.
Fast forward something my nephew mentioned “we will bounce back like we did in the 1980’s recession”. Only he left out one intricate detail we still had homeland advantage and were still in the production business. It all changed during the 1990’s. WE the nation of the USA came a society of consumerism. Those born during the 1990’s and forward have no clue what is about to happen(and is happening) to them. They are a spoiled generation(s), because they do not know any better. They are use to shopping for small amounts as it the shelves miraculously are refilled each and every day.
Culture shock is starting to set in the mind set, like that of my nephew who was getting upset over people stocking up on TP. The business he works for is a food delivery for major restaurants, if people are not going out to eat, they will not require his service for delivering said food to these places.
Did he prepare for said emergencies…NO. Even though many times told him to prepare for a JIC situation. The melt down is about to hit a major fan.
An observance from my small section of the world.
Not just food. Heard from two different friends this afternoon. Lowe’s hardware completely out of freezers. Home Depot out of refrigerators and shelving units.
Back to food – even LDS store online is out.
Didn’t know where to post this comment, this thread fits the best.
Made my final run to town today to pick up my taxes to mail. I’m not expecting a tax holiday coming out of this (death and taxes).
Made final stop at Wally World for dog and cat food. Sobering. Lot of shoppers, as many empty shelves as stocked shelves. Folks, for the most part, courteous enough, but walking around as if shell shocked, stopping and staring a empty shelves that obviously once held what they were looking for.
Plenty of dry dog and cat food though. I picked up a 2 month supply. Stopped by the feed store and picked up a couple months supply of chicken feed and scratch and headed home.
I won’t be closing the entrance gates during daylight hours, at least for now. Probably will at night. If this scare goes on for a while, folks need to up their security precautions. There’s a lot of unprepared folks out there.
Dennis
You are absolutely correct.
I mean, think about it….
Schools closed….
Wandering, board teenages wanting a high…. increased break-ins.
Sport activities cancelled…sports to many are addictive.
Bars closed
Addictive
Casino’s closed.
Addictive
An unentertained community will cause large scale chaos.
Give it a week, maybe two.
Things will get very interesting.
That is my fear….not so much the virus
Joe c
That may be why Comcast in Chicago is offering free internet to low income homes for the duration of the pandemic.
Grits
Seriously??
Joe c,
Yep
Joe c,
I assume it’s just to help keep people informed. If they wanted to help stem the tide of crime that is to come, they should maybe think about adding cable to that offering. lol 🤣
OMGosh
Paid for by the beloved Ohpra?
….or taxpayers dollars?
Joe c,
They say they’re offering it. But I’m sure at some point their loss will be backed by the coronavirus bill, so yeah we’re all paying for it.
Dennis can I ask WHY you have not closed your gates friend? My friends know to call ahead when they visit. Even a outdoor intercom system with a camera is not that expensive?
Less expensive than a hostile takeover by some group seeking “stuff”.
I’m thinking about an extra “gate” in the form of a heavy chain and series 200 hardened pad lock. For night time security. I think the extra effort to cut that lock OR dismount to walk up a wooded driveway *might* get them to thinking about “Knocking on Heavens Door”.
Either way IF your cutting my lock your going to be in range pretty soon. Any doubts of your intentions has been resolved.
Also just got a series of texts from my friendly gun shop owner. Seems PANIC buying has cleaned him out AND HE Says he cannot ORDER any more. As he almost never texts and then limited I am a bit concerned.
Anybody else have reports of ammo shortages? I tried to search engine it and found nothing aside from panic buying articles. Nothing about shutting down of ammo makers?
me2,
Why haven’t I closed the gate already? I see it as a little early yet. I’ve seen no panic or uptick in traffic on the mountain. Word would spread pretty quickly if I zipped up right now.
Folks in the community don’t see me as an easy target, nor do I believe they would attempt to take anything not belonging to them anyhow. Yes, I know people can change, and become less predictable when desperate, but we are quite a ways from that.
Regular neighbor visits? My driveway alarm prevents surprises, so it’s unlikely folks will make it to my porch without my invitation. My brother was exposed to the regular flu three weeks ago (his wife was fighting it). He came to visit almost everyday, but I stayed on the porch, him in his pick-up, conversing from a distance of about 20-30 feet.
One other consideration is this. There are quite a few non-resident homes in the area belonging to folks who use them for recreation. They almost always lock their gates. They are also most likely to get burglarized, as thieves associate closed gates with “no one is home”.
I have gates for a reason, but will test the wind for awhile. Don’t want to stand out and draw unnecessary attention to my place just yet. Believe me, folks would notice.
Well thought out Dennis. Thanks for the reply.
Still curious about that series of text messages from my favorite gun shop about being slammed with sales and not able to order ammo?
He’s not a txt person aside from brief yes, no, you want that?, on order style.
Anybody else seeing ammo sales clearing supplies a la the 22 shortage?
me2,
This is ‘Merica boy! When things get the least bit worrisome, we buy guns and plenty of ammo……………..and evidently…..toilet paper.
Went to target this morning to get some tums,,,
Anything related to cleaning, gone. Any canned foods, gone, breads, gone, baking stuff, gone, chips, low, anything not refrigerated food wise gone! Getting interesting, lots of stressed out people though
What if? Well it begins.
Today, I went to my long term storage for supplies. First time ever, other than rotating supplies.
Thank God, I have it to depend on. I actually don’t feel sorry for the sheeple, who do have this option. They had the same opportunities I had to prep.
SMG
I dont feel for them either.
People are ignorant
Did everyone catch the admonishment by the president against hoarding food today?
Dennis do you expect anti-hording efforts to occur?
They did during the Great Depression, WW1, WW2 as neighbors “reported” on each other. You *might* recall the stories of ration card cheats and black marketers from the older not so sanitized history books?
I was reading from my nieces history lessons from the Great Depression and it sounded like kindness and rainbows as folks helped each other with happy smiles.
Who said: A nation that forgets (rewrites, destroys) it’s history is doomed to repeat it.
me2,
Anti-hoarding effort? Right now, I believe they’re concerned about it, thus the admonishment. I don’t think they will go after folks like us, rather, they would focus efforts on folks buying up huge lots of food and trying to re-sell at gouging mark-ups. I would think that if you weren’t selling at sucker prices (and authorities receiving complaints) you would not have to worry about your survival stockpile.
Over the weekend I was in touch with friends. Expressed to one that I hoped this year’s crops would be better than last year’s. That friend corrected me and said it’s already worse. Fields that got wet last year are still too wet and planting is delayed. Looks like it might be poor harvest again.
Another friend relayed to me that this nation-wide push for at least two week’s worth of food and supplies means that what’s on the shelf today was originally scheduled to be there around June. Looks like we’re decimating warehouse inventories as well as the grocery stores.
Shared this with farm helper who dropped by yesterday afternoon. He expressed his fear that his family was not adequately stocked up. So we headed in to the city early this morning to Winco. They opened an hour later than planned and were still stocking cans and boxes. Expected produce, dairy, meat were not delivered last night. Limit on milk and other items mostly canned meats.
Hit Smart FoodService; a number of folks were obviously in this restaurant supply shop for the first time. No flour, except specialty flours, no sugar, not much in butter/margarine.
Went to Costco. Line around the building as fire marshal was enforcing occupancy limits, but line moved pretty fast. Big sign out front listing out of stock items – tp, paper towels, soup, canned meat, canned veg, noodles, rice, water. No potatoes. Added another bag of dog food. Limit of one two-pack on milk.
Stopped at greengrocer in our town who was doing land office business and got potatoes. Had a huge order in that he hadn’t had time to get on display. Filled out propane bottles and heard that there had been a big fight at WM and lots of cops on scene. No ammo left in town.
Lots of folks around here have vacation cabins, campers on ocean, lakes, rivers, or in the woods. Lots of folks getting out of town until this all settles down.
Picked up more U posts and tomorrow will relocate pigs away from pastures that front the road and out of sight. Too many strangers come down this road looking for river access or for the elk. Should food supplies become dire there’s no need to tempt them with tasty protein and fat.
That’s today’s report from far west Oly Pen.
Right around the time China was quarantining Wuhan, I was ordering a 50 pound bag of organic sugar for my Kombucha. I really didn’t want 50 pounds, but other sizes were currently unavailable. After a couple of weeks I was thinking that it was a little high in price. So I decided to check again, well the price had jumped $15 a bag since I bought it. Then today it’s up another $20, so I guess I can consider myself lucky.
Hey all,
I know we have talked about this before. Pest and rodent control.
Just been thinking that if they continue with shut downs trash pick up may become a problem. We know lots of folks are not stellar with hygiene or trash disposal. An explosion of rodent populations would be expected.
Might be a good idea to pick up a few more mouse/rat traps before folks realize rats are one more problem they hadn’t really planned for.
It seems rodents follow plagues through history. Don’t think this will be any different…
Bill Jenkins Horse please search for “Stairway to heaven rat trap” for a home made trap self resetting and gets them all night.
Basically a 5 gallon pail with 1/3 full of water, a roller across it with peanut butter in the center and a ramp to give them a “Stairway to heaven”. I put one in the lama barn and got over a dozen the first night. Drowned rats, cut in half make chickens VERY HAPPY.
Waste not. As chickens eat dirtier stuff while “free Ranging”.
Me2,
We used to do that in the mountains at hunting camp. Try 50 field mice in a week… which was an “off” week… lol
Lastnight a number of the Grocery stores in Manchester NH were wiped out of Paper Products, cleaning supplies Meat, Produce and milk… Ice cream as well apparently. Wife wanted to get hamburger for taco night and potatoes and tried a hannaford, a market basket and a whole foods. Not a ground meat product or potato to be found.
It’s surreal.
Just Sayin’… my take on this whole shortage thing… Better ramp up every grow method possible for each ones situation…every food you want to eat this winter should be produced on your land if possible this summer, and stored properly for your winter use…that will reduce the stress on the needed commercial supplies.
We will change the food shortages over the world by everyone taking personal responsibility for their immediate family.
.Grow and store as much of the feed for critters you have… have grass , any area untreated, dry well, store=feed for rabbits, small animals. any scraps… cook into feed for chickens…Meinwhile those spring greens you do not want, pick the biggest leaves only…and feed them to your critters chickens prefer them cut and cooked with grains…. rabbits prefer them raw.Give small amounts at first and transition them to largely greens thru the spring and summer.. The corn you normally feed thru the winter… put it in the freezer, to make sure any larvae are killed./or in a steel barrell if still cold where you are…you will require it to feed something this winter.
Dollar stores here, (TN- no KNOWN cases close) out of TP and paper towels down to 1/4th stock…bleach -only a few half gallons out of reach of most people…dish soap only huge sizes available…cold supplies very low, certain herbals gone…little low % alcohol., little peroxide…big sections of store have empty shelves..Most food items are at acceptable levels… some stores are receiving trucks back to back to replace stock, just not what is not in whse… word is from international paper thru radio program – will be shipped… and”back on shelves soon…just don’t freak out.” .
was in grocery store early this morning to pick up few last minute things. checked parking lot first to make sure not too crowded. Hardly any in store. Just as well.
shelves were darn empty. of all sorts of things.
Interesting comment I overheard two clerks discussing.
“Don’t know what is going on. Everyone is asking why shelves are empty.
Boss told us the supply trucks have not been in to restock for a week,
and they do not know when trucks will be in”
Ok….anyone know why the trucks have not been in?
Jane Foxe, Because their warehouses are empty.. they sold many goods and put the money in their pocket.. there was a drought in some areas that grow food and flooding in others, winter came early and ungathered crops remain in the field… will also interfere with crops being planted this year.
Best grow it, and stretch what supplies you do have that you can not grow.. Think about and plan for what you can add this year..
…Ken, other possible topic’s to help everyone get thru this..(. many of us have been at this a while.. but some have not.).. Planning for increased home production and changes to cooking and eating regimines…
We have already changed our diet, a couple of years ago from 3 full and heavy meals to 2 plus a lighter snack…some of our changes are reflected here…with these questions..
Do you Need bread with every meal? Can you be “not hungry ” with one pc of bread with the creamed chicken you have prepared with one side of mixed vegetables instead of 2-3?
Can you put all the vegetables your family will eat in the spaghetti sauce and use less meat?
.. Is garlic bread necessary to serve as a side/ or just a want? can you feel fully satisfied with only one half pc each?
.Do you stock extra pasta/rice for stretcher meals.? .. What can you grow on your windowsill?
Just Sayin’ — ah..(duh on me)…
as so often, follow the money….(as in their pockets)
of course,
another answer just occurred as well,
maybe the wharehouses are empty because product has been moved
a) to safe storage in another wharehouse for later /higher price sale
b)confiscated by lettered agencies to dispense as per their wisdom
c)sold off shore to higher paying groups
Well, it is common knowledge groups of people, with lots of firearms, have long since targeted all the major food warehouses and distribution sites. You know, those massively huge centralized food distribution sites?
Perhaps, some of these units have already hit a few…and they are just not telling us?
Ision — would not shock me, if this proves to be so. In past I heard some discussion about same tactics on warehouses which store pharmaceuticals……………
Your comment reminds me of an article I wrote back in 2013:
[ Read: Massive Food Storage Distribution Centers for Walmart ]
Just saying,
I totally agree. Eating habits will need to be adjusted.
I mentioned earlier about a possible rodent explosion if trash wasn’t getting picked up on a regular basis. Folks should grab a few more traps.
Now is a good time to get some gardening supplies before the clueless decide that they need to buy up all the seeds . Seeing as you just got to drop them on the ground ,spit on them ,then come back months later to harvest the bounty…
Will be setting up a burn barrel this weekend.
It reminds me of about a year and a half ago. We had a 5 alarm fire from a vacant warehouse. All the water used drained the water lines. It took hours to recover to where people could get water again. People with their insane purchasing drain the warehouses so there is nothing to ship. Only instead of hours to recover this could take weeks or months to fill those warehouses again.
I think just about everybody is going to learn all about container farming…and gardening…real quick.
Friend called yesterday. He has family in LA. They say gangs are now hanging around grocery stores and watching for big loads coming out. Then they signal their buddies. When the shopper gets to his/her car the bad guys drive up with a truck, snatch all the groceries, and take off.
Glad we’re not seeing that here.
Your story reminds me of an article…
[ Read: Gangs Will Rule The Cities ]
Here’s another hazard in these days of panic buying; I just came back from a necessary errand and a woman drove through two stop signs, the first one I had the right of way and she would’ve hit me had I not stopped. It was at one of those $ stores (I was there for a FedEx package) and had a chance to see what she was buying. She was driving a $40,000 Subaru, and had all the appearance of a city clerk that was caught embezzling the city, (ala “All the Queen’s Horses). She had dozens of cans of food she has never had in her house before, Treet, Spam, weinies in bean sauce, Cheetos, Beer Nuts and so on. She looked extremely stressed and ill-tempered. As I walked behind her I said out loud “stop signs”.
The point of my telling all this is that people are becoming irrationally reckless. Be careful.
Chevy,,,
Had one of those the other day, ran a red and turned across two lanes of traffic to cut me off then cut me off then cut me off again when she didnt stop at a stop sign and turned right in front of me a second time in the parking lot of target. Only to be standing in front of an empty display shelf berating some poor guy for not stocking the shelf with whatever it was she was looking for, his reply was sorry, i work in mens clothing,,,,,
Gotta love irony
I got my Tums fruity chews though, mmmm
Dang Kula – Just last night on my way home from work, some whale cut off three lanes of traffic to jump the line entering Target. I had to hit the brakes to avoid her/it, which instantly prompted her/it to raise a well-practiced, chubby middle finger in the window. Another one three minutes earlier coming off the freeway, realized he’s in the wrong lane for Costco. Screech! as the idiot cocks his Dodge 30 degrees across my path in a selfish attempt to correct his inattention.
I hate people. …. You’re alright. … Seriously though the evening commute has become more stressful than the daily news.
Cuomo still blathering. Why is Trump always late? How many friggin white balance shots do the media photogs need of the podium? Must be getting ready to drop in the burnt orange tint filter.
tmc
You know NY is the center of the universe, therefore will receive all the help and attention that the rest of the country produces.
I live in northeast (not by choice) in a hotspot. There is no canned meat. Pasta and rice low. You can get fresh meat for now and milk. The other problem is stores are starting to limit to only 10 individuals in a store, including employees. Some stores are only allowing 3 patrons at a time. I am in a metro area. You can see the problem here. Schools are saying they might be closed until next year. My husband doesn’t, and he doesn’t see the need to stock up or arm up to defend.
Nyc will but just out 40 miles to 100 miles are in a bad spot. Their hospitals will be taken over as well as personnel for overflow. Shortages in that radios are already showing. Sad thing in the city. People still go out for takeout not basic provisions.
I live in northeast (not by choice) in a hotspot. There is no canned meat. Pasta and rice low. You can get fresh meat for now and milk. The other problem is stores are starting to limit to only 10 individuals in a store, including employees. Some stores are only allowing 3 patrons at a time. I am in a metro area. You can see the problem here. Schools are saying they might be closed until next year. My husband doesn’t, and he doesn’t see the need to stock up or arm up to defend.
Countrygirl, your husband needs to man up and provide what your family needs.I wish you well.
During the war food was rashend i was i was 3yrs old in a push chair and was atracted to the little green vouchers for rashening but eaven then through rashening we survived. large shops need to organise in order to avoid panicking draw up a plan on how to organise spaceing, and the amount of people they let in serve them then let the next lot come in to be served. so many at a time but not to overload the customers, this will take more time but at a time like this panick should be avoided. Surgens use plastic covering for their shoes, you can make them your selves as i have done, eaven shoes can pick up conovirus protect them. wash hands regular, wear a mask if necessary or make them i made mine out of J clothes it is handy to have a sowing machine i sow mine by hand, i have no sowing machine, but were there is a will there is a way. i am 74 yrs old and disabled. wipe your outside door handles disinfect also letter box. If you can still get a flue injection by your doctor do so, it is up to you. As advised keep your distance and space in public, cleane down surfaces disinfect after prepairing food. remember were all in the same boat try not to panick. If you feel like things are not working speack on the phone get in touch with your council or MP for your area. By for now take care of each other in your family sector and yourselves of course. I apologise for my spelling iam dyslexic.
Barbara Spours-Idon,
Welcome to the conversation🤗.
It seems from your posts that you are in the UK? Again welcome.
What are some of the things your government is implementing? Curfews? Self isolation?
What are J cloths?
What are some of the things people are using for shortages on things like bleach, hand sanitizer and the like?
Thanks for the info and again welcome.
I like hearing from folks in other areas. We have a gent from Wales and another from Bosnia.
Quite the international mix. Lol
PEACE to you and your.
MadFab
PS. Not to worry about the spelling. We all have things that challenge is.
PEACE
Barbara spous-Idan
Welcome.
Do not worry about how you are spelling your words. Your sharing knowledge is all that matters.
Went to the local Publix store today. This is the same store I have commented about last week. Stocks are getting better. Even saw some folks with Tp, paper towels and tissues in their carts. However the shelves were bare so they only received a small amount.
It looked like they just received a truck as stockers were busy filling the shelves. I thanked them and said they are doing a great job. Still some big holes especially in pasta, rice, instant potatoes, frozen chicken and oddly Breyers ice cream was totally wiped. None of these items had sales prices.
Did see the canned veggies, soups, meats getting better still had holes. Fresh produce and meats were looking much better. Eggs still low but better than last week. Milk, bread, cheese and other dairy looked really good.
It’s getting better just a slow process. Limits on certain items they are not regulating the number of people in the store. Everyone was polite and kept their distance.
A&O
11HE9,
Lot of additional pressure on local grocery stores. Not only did people find themselves having to “stock up” for quarantines/shelter at home/stay at home orders, with forced closing of restaurants they, some for the first time in years, are finding themselves eating all meals at home which equals, at least for a while, a huge imbalance in demand.
Food distributors are finding themselves way overstocked with commercial packaged foods, way understocked with normal consumer packaged foods. Many of these restaurants will go out of business rather than assume additional debt to carry them through.
I don’t see a balance coming in the short term. Demand always determines pricing. Grocery bills will reflect that for a while.
The Walmart in Clinton, TN had no hamburger meat, no raw chicken, no toilet paper, no light bread, no flour. The Ingles grocery store ( also in Clinton,TN) had no chicken or hamburger. A few cans of dark meat chicken. This was all during the 3rd week of March.
My concern is that as this virus spreads, food shortages could occur. Meat processing plants are currently getting ready to reopen. One can hope that processing meat has slowed down so workers can keep social distances. One can also only hope that shift work is available and that serious disinfection takes places between shifts. One should also hope that 3 shifts are available to allow all if not most of the workers to keep their jobs and an income.
All food processing plants should have a directive in place to keep their workers safe. Instead of looking at making a big financial profit. They should be investing in the safety and health of their workers which will allow them to make their profits. We could probably all do with a little less meat and more vegetables. However, what we really should consider is what will happen when the money runs out. When there is no money and the food banks are empty what will we do. We have known since January that this virus was moving. The question we need to ask ourselves is what have the food conglomerates have done besides to continue to fill their pockets. Farmers are destroying crops instead of passing the word so that those who could and would be helpful could organize to get these products to a food bank. I was taught that there is no greater sin than to throw away food. We already have too many people starving in this country. Is it necessary for us to go back and grow our own vegs that can be shared with others
Still can’t find whole canned green beans. Cut and french style in abundance, but no whole green beans. Noticed that a previous comment (3-12-20), noted that “green beans and corn all gone.” Here in Modesto, CA area we’ve seen canned corn always in store shelf, but whole canned green beans disappeared back in March and still not to be found — even on Amazon.com! How strange!
Do antacids and antihistamines that support dietary enzymes, rate attention when it comes to the first aid inventory? Neosporin is racey outside of the personal aids that should include dressings and trauma oriented incidents. The dietary enzymes related to carbs, proteins, and fats, benefit as well; as digestion and deserve support aside Peroxides, Saline, and Iodine used with dressings.
I know that we are only supposed to comment on food, but… My cat needs to eat too! It sounds like the southern states are running out faster than the northern states.
The first item that I have noticed a shortage of is wet cat food! It has been very difficult to find in the cases. Especially Fancy Feast.
I have also noticed other food shortages but at this time I cannot remember each item.
I do have concerns about diapers, both for little ones and adults. I have small grandchildren and also work in health care.
My other main concern is medication. Many people NEED it to continue living.
If you have any idea about these products please respond.
Thank you.