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Tuesday, March 3. 2020

Virus panic-buying


NYC is experiencing a virus panic. It must be in anticipation of a Wuhan-style 14-day lockdown. Supermarkets are running out of things like toilet paper, beer, coffee, etc. and there are empty shelves where the tomato sauces and spaghetti were. My Trader Joe's looks a little like Venezuela.


 But why the run on water? People are buying all of the bottled water. Why? I can understand stocking up on beer and wine, but water? 


Americans stockpiling 


Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 18:10 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yeah, did my Covid Apocalypse shopping this morning, in preparation for a month's quarantine. Bought a jar of Duke's Mayo and some balsamic vinegar. Don't want a bunch of bland snacks while I'm sipping cocktails during my Nexflix Binge-athon.
#1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2020-03-03 18:39 (Reply)
I think they buy water because most general recommendations suggest buying water. That isn't quarantine specific it is general for a multitude of emergencies. Makes perfect sense for hurricanes and earthquakes even electrical outages but not so much for a virus.
#2 OneGuy on 2020-03-03 19:19 (Reply)
Because they are effing morons, that's why...
#3 tim ferrell on 2020-03-03 20:27 (Reply)
Well it's NYC where people are totally helpless, so what do we expect.? I went shopping today down here in God's Country (NC) and the shelves were fully stocked (except for lime sherbet...damn.)
#4 snopercod on 2020-03-03 20:30 (Reply)
If the power goes out in NYC, the water stops flowing, and the toilets won't flush anymore.
#5 Max Blancke on 2020-03-03 22:53 (Reply)
None of that hysteria going on where I live.
#6 Bird Dog on 2020-03-04 05:56 (Reply)
We started picking up extra this and that back in January when half of China was locked down. I use N95 masks so I was shocked when they were sold out almost everywhere. Been through hurricanes. It's nice when a slow moving potential disaster is coming because you have time to remember things you missed or couldn't find on one trip. Plus people tend to make the decision to stock up at about the same time. Better to be early, help the supply chain and get what you want.

I don't know what will happen but the idea of being sheltered in place in a plague city has inspired us to be prepared. You can tell by the unusually low inventory of spaghetti, rice and sanitizers that we aren't the only ones.

People buy water for hurricanes because there is always the chance that infrastructure will be damaged and out for 1 - 4 weeks. There are various preparing for plague guidances out there and they include water but I believe they are written for the global audience. In China for example many cities have water but it is not potable. They must buy drinking and cooking water. There is some thinking that if employees are sick or don't show up for work that critical infrastructure (water, electric, gas) might go out even in the US. We haven't heard any stories of that from Italy or SK but I can see where folks might not know what to think. Anyhow good luck and enjoy these historic times.
#7 Karen on 2020-03-04 07:09 (Reply)
I have been hearing from various people that our local Costco is running out of paper towels and toilet paper. I was at Costco yesterday buying some meat, no paper products. I noticed that there were a lot of seasoned citizens buying paper products. I asked the cashier if I was unaware of something, why the panic over toilet paper. He said that he didn't know but that it was happening all along the West Coast.
#8 Brad on 2020-03-04 09:36 (Reply)
They ran out in Hong Kong early on and there was a viral report on some TP bandits. Guess some folks are scared of running out.
#8.1 Karen on 2020-03-04 10:51 (Reply)
I stocked up on everything including bottled water. I’m not worried about the water supply but my family likes bottled water and I don’t want to have to go out looking for it in the event that there’s a cluster outbreak in our area and we have to self quarantine. I suspect a lot of people are buying bottled water for the same reason.
#9 Millie Woods on 2020-03-04 10:11 (Reply)
Went to buy gas this morning at BJ's and as I was leaving a man came out of the store with three cases of SPAM and three cases of water. I'm thinking hell if that is going to be my diet better to die from the virus.
#10 Pocono pam on 2020-03-04 14:03 (Reply)
Seems like a lot of people got over their single-use plastic politics right quick.

I saw similar at Sam's Club yesterday. Fortunately, I wasn't there for most of the stuff people were grabbing. I was there for bacon, cheese, etc.

Real impact is the supply chain. My brother in law works for a company that makes foam mattresses. They've to several containers of foam sitting on a ship in China but the ship can't sell because it isn't full yet due to the other manufacturing shutdown over there.

How's that exporting manufacturing (and jobs) going? Automation is the real key to future "pandemics" and an automated factory is actually cheaper in the US since shipping is less and the robots cost the same here or there.
#11 JK Brown on 2020-03-04 19:26 (Reply)

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