Is anyone else having panic where you live?
About 10:30 am wife said, lets go get Hardy's $4 breakfast then stop get a bag of potatoes. We ran into a traffic nightmare before we were near Walmart cars were bumper to bumper at every gas pump, the line went down the street for 1/2 mile. Parking lot was full and cars were parked at all the near by businesses and people were going to Walmart to buy grocery's. There was a group of about 30 people at the door entrance like they were waiting to get into the store.
We had no choice but to drive on we can't get out of this traffic and we are going to Hardy's anyway. The other Walmart 5 miles away is more panic cars everywhere trying to get into the parking lot bumper to pumper. Hardy's in on the right we had no trouble pulling in to get breakfast but it took 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot in that bumper to bumper panic traffic.
We continued on no way to turn around when we got to Super Kroger another panic nightmare 100s of cars in the parking, so many cars everyone had trapped them self and no one was moving. We finally got though the traffic I dove out of town then turned right on a country road with no traffic that took us home the back way.
Wow this is crazy panic. There won't be any gas tomorrow & probably no food either.
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Gary350
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Panic at Gas Station & Grocery store.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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webmaster
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Sounds like FUD spewed from your local media which in turn is spurring panic buying. There is no panic buying happening in the Northeast where I'm at.
The USA doesn't get natural gas or food from Russia and probably not much from Ukraine, either.
Shortages in natural gas are happening in Europe but that's been happening already, prior to the invasion.
Petroleum gas prices are going up but that's probably more to do with speculation. Many companies are raising prices and saying it's supply line issues raising costs but then they're all reporting higher year over year earnings, like on the order of 100% but with little to no growth in sales.
Starbucks and the car manufacturers are all earning more but not because of increased sales, because of increasing their prices.
The USA doesn't get natural gas or food from Russia and probably not much from Ukraine, either.
Shortages in natural gas are happening in Europe but that's been happening already, prior to the invasion.
Petroleum gas prices are going up but that's probably more to do with speculation. Many companies are raising prices and saying it's supply line issues raising costs but then they're all reporting higher year over year earnings, like on the order of 100% but with little to no growth in sales.
Starbucks and the car manufacturers are all earning more but not because of increased sales, because of increasing their prices.
The gas lines have always been long at Costco. They get gas deliveries 3 x a day. They have the cheapest gas on the island. There are no lines at the small gas stations. Walmart's gas station has a line but it is usually shorter than Costco. It really depends on the time of day you get there. I don't leave the house much so I think I went 20 days between refills. The price of gas went up significantly.
Weekends and long holidays the lines are worse. There are definitely more people going out and driving again. A lot of people are now going to the parks and beaches now that the party limits are better. It is hard to have a limit of 10 when people will easily have 3 times that number in family members alone. More people are back to work and now that schools are back in session, the morning school traffic from cars dropping off and picking up kids is back again as well. A lot of businesses are still closing, going online or switching to pop up and farmer's markets to do their sales.
The grocery stores are crowded on the weekends so I avoid going shopping on the weekend if I can. I prefer to go to stores that have early hours like Sam's club, and Walmart is not 24 hours anymore but they open at 7 a.m. There are definitely better times to be shopping than others. I don't go shopping at a local grocery store or go to the bank on the first of the month, because that is when a lot of people get their paychecks.
Also since most of our food and consumer goods come by boat, the best time to shop is a day or two after the boat arrives and the shelves have been stocked. This is especially true for produce which can look pretty bad right before the next shipment arrives.
The stores are better stocked now that the holidays are over. There are still empty spots on the shelf. I just googled and Sam's finally has some wet cat food. It is gravy not shreds but it is better than nothing. There are still some places with spot outages and prices seem to be higher every time I shop. When there are things that I use a lot, I am back to my hoarding ways and will buy 3 months supply at a time. I usually stock paper towels and toilet paper for 6 months, but I did that before the pandemic.
I cheated on my pantry challenge the other day and bought some hamburger and ground pork because the prices had dropped a bit. I only got enough pork for 3 meals and hamburger for 4 so, it was not that excessive. I still have a lot of stuff in the freezer. I just filled the holes I made. I know I should not do that. The store I go to for meat, usually puts out fresh meat on certain days. They will only do one type of meat a day because it takes too much time to clean the machine between meats so they do chicken one day, beef on another, and pork on a different day. To get the freshest meat, I need to be mindful of what day I am shopping and what I am looking for. The other place I get the fish has a larger meat market and they do all the meats everyday. It is an Asian owned market 7 miles away. It is just not the easiest place to get service from if you don't speak Illocano. I have markets that are closer but I don't buy much from Safeway anymore because their prices are significantly higher. Inflation is affecting everything. You have to be a smart buyer and stock up on things that you use often or that is in high demand. It might not be there the next time and it will probably cost more.
All in all, I am not seeing the empty shelves that preppers have been showing. Even some of those show that there have been improvement in stocks, but the prices have gone up significantly. Some of the issues in the mainland has been the weather and the ongoing problem of getting trucks and drivers.
Trucks and drivers are not the problem. It is a small market and goods come in by boat or air. However, if equipment breaks down and you need parts or a replacement, or the trucks need DEF, it can take a long time to get those fixed or replaced.
Weekends and long holidays the lines are worse. There are definitely more people going out and driving again. A lot of people are now going to the parks and beaches now that the party limits are better. It is hard to have a limit of 10 when people will easily have 3 times that number in family members alone. More people are back to work and now that schools are back in session, the morning school traffic from cars dropping off and picking up kids is back again as well. A lot of businesses are still closing, going online or switching to pop up and farmer's markets to do their sales.
The grocery stores are crowded on the weekends so I avoid going shopping on the weekend if I can. I prefer to go to stores that have early hours like Sam's club, and Walmart is not 24 hours anymore but they open at 7 a.m. There are definitely better times to be shopping than others. I don't go shopping at a local grocery store or go to the bank on the first of the month, because that is when a lot of people get their paychecks.
Also since most of our food and consumer goods come by boat, the best time to shop is a day or two after the boat arrives and the shelves have been stocked. This is especially true for produce which can look pretty bad right before the next shipment arrives.
The stores are better stocked now that the holidays are over. There are still empty spots on the shelf. I just googled and Sam's finally has some wet cat food. It is gravy not shreds but it is better than nothing. There are still some places with spot outages and prices seem to be higher every time I shop. When there are things that I use a lot, I am back to my hoarding ways and will buy 3 months supply at a time. I usually stock paper towels and toilet paper for 6 months, but I did that before the pandemic.
I cheated on my pantry challenge the other day and bought some hamburger and ground pork because the prices had dropped a bit. I only got enough pork for 3 meals and hamburger for 4 so, it was not that excessive. I still have a lot of stuff in the freezer. I just filled the holes I made. I know I should not do that. The store I go to for meat, usually puts out fresh meat on certain days. They will only do one type of meat a day because it takes too much time to clean the machine between meats so they do chicken one day, beef on another, and pork on a different day. To get the freshest meat, I need to be mindful of what day I am shopping and what I am looking for. The other place I get the fish has a larger meat market and they do all the meats everyday. It is an Asian owned market 7 miles away. It is just not the easiest place to get service from if you don't speak Illocano. I have markets that are closer but I don't buy much from Safeway anymore because their prices are significantly higher. Inflation is affecting everything. You have to be a smart buyer and stock up on things that you use often or that is in high demand. It might not be there the next time and it will probably cost more.
All in all, I am not seeing the empty shelves that preppers have been showing. Even some of those show that there have been improvement in stocks, but the prices have gone up significantly. Some of the issues in the mainland has been the weather and the ongoing problem of getting trucks and drivers.
Trucks and drivers are not the problem. It is a small market and goods come in by boat or air. However, if equipment breaks down and you need parts or a replacement, or the trucks need DEF, it can take a long time to get those fixed or replaced.
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Gary350
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I know that is true we were at the grocery store 2 or 3 days ago every thing was stocked, every shelf was full. I have not seen that in 2 years. 2 years ago we use to go to grocery store 1 time a week but after shortages started we were going to the store 3 times every week looking for things we could not find.
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pepperhead212
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Last week, and this last Monday, I shopped more than I had since before Christmas! A couple of places because there were some sales I had to stock up on, but Monday I went over to the Indian supermarket - about 12 miles away, but there were a few things I had run out of, that nobody else has, and I wanted to do that, and fill my tank up, since I heard what was coming. That place wasn't short on anything, except a few produce items, and nothing had really gone up in price. I actually have more food now than in the beginning of the pandemic, and after not leaving the house for 4 months then, I could barely tell I had not been shopping! This time I got stocked so I would not have to drive much. I'll play it by ear, as far as how much of the produce and other perishables I'll buy, depending on the price (like many of us, once it starts producing, the garden does me well!). I am not one of those that absolutely needs milk and eggs, and I never buy bread. And I have more tp and pt than I had in the beginning of the pandemic, which lasted over a year and a half.
The natural gas shortage increased the price of fertilizer. Add to that the record breaking number of farms and ranches that had to close because while prices in the market are soaring, their production costs are rising and especially for animal farms, they have a hard time getting slaughter appointments and they are not getting good prices for their animals. If it wasn't drought, it was floods and ice. Farmers in California can't even plant all their fields because they can't get enough water. The price of fertilizer quadrupled.
It is a good thing we are growing food in the gardens because the price of food is expected to keep going up till at least the end of summer if not longer. Production costs increase, yields decrease and the cost of everything from labor, packaging, boxes to fuel and the increasing cost of transportation means everything cost more if you can find it. Some things like cat food and canned food is hard to source because they can't get the aluminum or magnesium they need to make the cans. BTW get your canning jars if you need them. They were in at Walmart, including the lids.
It is a good thing we are growing food in the gardens because the price of food is expected to keep going up till at least the end of summer if not longer. Production costs increase, yields decrease and the cost of everything from labor, packaging, boxes to fuel and the increasing cost of transportation means everything cost more if you can find it. Some things like cat food and canned food is hard to source because they can't get the aluminum or magnesium they need to make the cans. BTW get your canning jars if you need them. They were in at Walmart, including the lids.
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It has been decades since that there hasn't been enough water in California for farmers. They have been depleting the watershed for decades, killing the native population of salmon by destroying their spawning grounds.
Local anglers and ecologists have been fighting for decades against allocating more and more water to the farmers who didn't care about the ecology. But they were ignored.
The water bureau, staffed by farming interests, used to hold public meetings on these matters and what they did was to move the meeting locations at the last minute so that the citizens with concerns about the ecology would have their voices silenced.
The big industrial farms ran advertisements creating the false narrative that farmers were being unjustly treated. 100% false.
Now that there is literally no water for them they are still out they are now depleting the underwater aquifers by drilling deeper and deeper to destroy every last drop of water.
The fact is that farming is no longer supportable in California, especially in the arid regions they choose to farm in.
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Gary350
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Hoover dam was full once but now it is much lower see photo white color rock shows where water was once. Water comes from Moab CO through Glen Canyon Dam at Page AZ through Grand Canyon to Hoover dam, then water goes to Havasu City AZ. 100 year old CO law us to lets farmers have all the water. I have college friends that live in CO they got in trouble for having a rain barrel for the garden. They are not even allowed to have roof water go straight to their garden farmers have all the water rights. There are several groups that want water and not enough water to go around. I'm not sure Lake Powel at Page AZ was ever full they have a nice beach water was very warm when I was there.
I think yesterday gas & grocery store panic was because we had snow flurries early morning another TN blizzard scared people. LOL.
I think yesterday gas & grocery store panic was because we had snow flurries early morning another TN blizzard scared people. LOL.
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It is true, politics rule. Special interest groups always will push their agenda, without thinking of the consequences in the future not only for themselves but for everyone else
There is a globalization of food. We have adopted many foods that are not native in our diets. Most of the foods in the U.S. originates from the Mediterranean and Western Asia
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/20 ... rprise-you
The U.S. grows 85% of its' own food. But most of those foods originated in a Mediterranean climate so they grow best in climates that are similar, like the semi arid deserts of California.
The U.S. economy is heavily dependent on commodities like soy, corn, wheat. These are used in value added products again making them a vulnerable link in the food supply chain. Most of the corn and soy are grown to feed the insatiable demand for meat, which Americans as a whole eat more of than they should. And cows produce a lot of climate damaging methane gas. Too bad no one has figured out a better way to put that to use.
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There is a globalization of food. We have adopted many foods that are not native in our diets. Most of the foods in the U.S. originates from the Mediterranean and Western Asia
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/20 ... rprise-you
The U.S. grows 85% of its' own food. But most of those foods originated in a Mediterranean climate so they grow best in climates that are similar, like the semi arid deserts of California.
The U.S. economy is heavily dependent on commodities like soy, corn, wheat. These are used in value added products again making them a vulnerable link in the food supply chain. Most of the corn and soy are grown to feed the insatiable demand for meat, which Americans as a whole eat more of than they should. And cows produce a lot of climate damaging methane gas. Too bad no one has figured out a better way to put that to use.
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