True, but I happen to be in an area that is hard-hit. My local hospital had 25 patients admitted last week. And my BIL says the hospital where he works had 10 deaths last weekend alone (and it’s not a large hospital). The local healthcare workers have been pleading for PPE for weeks.
I went to a doctor’s office Monday morning (after the doctor got permission to see me in-person from the state). Everybody had their masks on. Then a woman entered without a mask and when asked to leave she asked why they couldn’t just give her one. The response? The staff were washing/reusing masks and had none to distribute to patients.
As of last week I’m still seeing some shortfalls. What seems to be in short supply are convenience foods. You can find cream, mushrooms, and chicken stock but not cream of mushroom soup. Tomatoes, sauce, and paste but not jarred pasta sauce. Prepared frozen foods are wiped out.
We have one way aisles so I run up and down all the aisles. My conclusion is that lots of people don’t cook very well.
Here in Flyover country, we got the message. Boy. Did we get the message! Thirty percent of pork processing plants are down–according to CNN. Chicken & Turkey plants will follow. Stopped into my favorite butcher shop this morning, not to strip their meat counters; only to get a jar of Pizza Sauce for our dinner tonight.
WHAT. A. SHIT. SHOW!
Dozens, let me repeat that: dozens of shoppers standing side-by-side at the meat counters…every fifth or sixth one without a mask. When I got an opening, like a cagey halfback, I dodged between two cart pushers and hid in the pasta and sauce aisle until I located Pizza Sauce. Then it was thru check out and out the door as quickly as possible. (There were five people in queue standing outside the door–in a teeming rain, when I exited)
We’ve shopped this market for nearly 40 years. Mornings, midday and early evenings, every day of the week. Never encountered more than five or six other shoppers in the store with us, before the Pandemic. Hoarding is such an ugly character flaw.
I frequent a small meat market here on the East coast–it’s always crowded as the quality is high and the prices are reasonable. They even employ butchers who will cut to your specifications. The last few weeks have been crazy . . . lines through the store and butchers so overwhelmed they won’t take special orders.
People are no longer allowed in stores without a face covering. Every store, large or small, has an employee at the door to turn back folks without a mask. Markings on the floor show the 6-foot distance.
I’m a born provisioner, love to hunt and gather, and keep well supplied on all things. While naturally inclined that way, I realize we have a freezer full of lamb, and some other meats. I’m not shopping, and H isn’t overbuying. My thoughts are to cut down on meat, use what we already have, and let others buy the meat, which may be badly needed, or let the hoarders fight over it. Hoarding is indeed an ugly thing in these times.
We have that too, here in MI. The fallback is that the store owner decides if they will ban people not using face masks. Spending has stomped safety here.
Can’t imagine the devastation the Second Wave is gonna bring to my state.
Note that those who buy heavily are not necessarily hoarding. I go shopping once every two or three weeks which means a pretty big shop each time. We simply don’t go out for one or two things, we change our plans.
Yes. I’m in my 50’s and 90+ mom lives with me. We don’t total 200 lbs together. And we don’t need big trips every week.
My niece has a 17 y-o boy, a 15 y-o boy, a 10 y-o girl and a tapeworm of a husband. They routinely spend $300/week on groceries. The boys wrestle and play basketball. The girl rides horses and does gymnastics. Dad has a physical job and niece teaches. Their regular weekly shopping trip would qualify as hoarding for us but barely covers their needs.
That’s the way Arian Foster of the greatest football team of all time, the mighty Houston Texans ran in coach Kubiak’s zone blocking scheme, pause, look for openings and blast through the hole.
He led the league in rushing and may you lead Detroit in grocery scores.
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ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
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That’s true, but also remember, many are families with children schooling (and everything else) at home, and time and spare energy to cook are in very short supply.
You’re missing my point here, Dave. These shoppers are not Heads of Households to large families. Nor are they camp outfitters or such. They are nothing more than freaked out consumers. Really greedy, freaked out consumers. I’ve shopped this store hundreds of times in the more than three decades we’ve been in the neighborhood. I always recognize “regulars” like myself and try to pass on a greeting. I recognized none today.
I got your point Jimmy. I was saying that not everyone with two shopping carts are hoarding. There is not question that panic hoarding is going on. That’s why I can’t buy paper goods.
There are two big things that distress me: people with food they can’t eat rotting and people sitting surrounded by a two year supply of TP, paper towels, and napkins.
At this point I’ve stopped trying to predict what’ll be happening a week from now, but the same sort thing has happened here. Earlier on, frozen foods were mostly in stock, if not in the same profusion as usual, while the “fresh” things were scarce. Now we’ve flipped over to the reverse. The frozen food aisles (“ingredients” and prepared foods) at my Stop & Shop have been looking bizarrely like the PT/TP aisle. Produce and meat aren’t at “normal” inventory levels by any means, but there’s usually stuff there, at least earlier in the day… Dairy is pretty well stocked, and eggs are more expensive and not as available as usual, but available… I haven’t really looked much at most of the shelf-stable stuff, but pasta sauce is near the end of the aisle so I can’t help but see it, and that has varied between “bare” and “moderately well-stocked” when I’ve been there…
I don’t blame you one bit for being upset. I’d be mad too if ‘outsiders’ came into my little world trying to scavenge whatever they could. Whether they need it or not.
Exactly what I have seen here. I mark that up to regular shoppers who cook at home engaging in some initial panic buying. Since then the (apparently) much greater number of people who don’t usually cook are dominating the scene. Even outside of convenient foods there are oddities. Flour is gone but there is plenty of yeast. Cream of everything soup is gone but as I wrote diary and produce have bounced back.
Next Tuesday I’m doing a warehouse shop (Sam’s Club) and have my finger’s crossed for paper goods. For everything else I may not find what I have in mind but I’m sure there will be enough. Friday week will be a big regular grocery shop that should hold us three weeks or so including the time I’m on business travel. Shopping is too much stress for my wife (or too much for me when she undergoes it) so I have to be sure has more than enough while I’m gone and to feed us both when I get back.
