Just ran to the grocery store to get a few non y2k things like milk and bread. Caught the manager back by the milk with no one around. So I asked her,"do you see any signs of people stocking up on foods due to this y2k thing?". Her eyes flashed and her nares flared and her hands flew to her hips and she said, "no I haven't.!! They are still believing nothing is going to happen and when the SHTF and the shelves are empty, they will blame me"!!!!! Whoa!! I must admit I didn't expect that to come out of her mouth. She feels by July or August, something critical will have happened and the "run" will be on. For those of you out west, Winn-Dixie is a large grocery chain like Safeway.

Got rice and beans??? Walgreens has canned hams for $1.89, limit 3. My mother in law and I hit 4 stores and got 24 total. Guess that makes me a hoarder now!! Going back to do it again tomorrow.

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 25, 1999

Answers

Hmmmn. The Ingles, Winn-Dixie, Publix and Kroger mangers around here at each branch store checked all indicated that bulk purchasing of many canned, "dried" and "long term" goods was greatly increased over anything they have seen before. And keeps increasing each week. Regular purchases remain apparently remain about the same.

Of course, this is an unusual area of the country - not only is it home to Bob Barr and (the fomer) Newt G. in adjacent districts, but also was very early finishing county and local city remediation and testing. Seems kind of reverse - you'd think that where awareness is lowest, the need for government support and remediation is greatest, and where government reponse is best, that individual preparation is less critical.

At least in this area, the more ready the governments gets, and the more our local state representatives try to get the state as a whole ready, the more prepared the local people become.

By the way, the local managers indicate that they plan on two "big" deliveries per week, but not all goods are restocked each time - so that would "rotate" most goods through the store over a four or five day period. Its a bit longer than the "3 day = empty shelf" that was predicted earlier. On the other hand, certain goods would definitely be "cleaned out" faster than others - so if the bread, peanut butter, and the canned vegetable and canned soup aisles were bare, most people wouldn't care if there were still fresh kwis and carrots in the vegetable bin, or frozen pizza's in the freezer.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 25, 1999.

The Winn Dixie in my part of town set up a very out in the open, in plain view display of bottled water in January.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 25, 1999.

Here in Utah it is a very open thing. Lots of blue 55 gallon water barrels in stores, lots of 50 lb bags of this and that, sales on basic food supplies.

The difference is here in Utah working on your 1 year storage is socially acceptable and in fact something "proper" wives are suppose to do.

Sincerely, Apple

-- Apple (villarta@itsnet.com), March 25, 1999.

Going to be a lot of stores laying off people early next year. Not much demand when half their former customer base is eating their way through a storage plan.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), March 25, 1999.

Paul, Going to be a lot of people in EVERY industry getting laid of next year when the global economy tanks. Those with a basement full of food will be in a lot better shape.

-- rick blaine (y2kazoo@hotmail.com), March 25, 1999.

Paul, am I reading you right--half the people in this country have bought a food storage plan? From what I read on this forum, an awful lot more people have stocked up on their own initiative without relying on a storage plan. So if you believe half have gone the plan route, I guess that means--what? Three-quarters of the population is taking Y2K seriously enough to stash supplies? That IS good news.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 25, 1999.

But where I live is in Central Florida and everyone is too busy on the golf course to be out shopping. You would think that with the high senior population that we have, that because of depression and WWII, that these people would be more sensitive to the situation. My step father is 97 and when I talked with him about his stock portfolio, his answer is that he is" in for the long run". (at age 97??)He is not about to sell any. His poor son, who will inherit, has his nails chewed off to the elbows as he is a GI. We are talking in excess of one million bucks worth of stocks, mutuals and bonds. I really feel for my poor step brother. I don't think I would sleep too well either.

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 25, 1999.

dear taz, i hope the stepbrother is also concerned about his dad's welfare, not just the inheritance.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 25, 1999.

Joycelon....yes, he loves his dad and he and his wife have earned every dime they mght get, by taking care of Dad. I had Dad for awhile and I got so I couldn't handle it. I ended up in hospital with exhaustion. So I hope they get lots of money!! LOL

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 25, 1999.

My mother's blowing our inheritance, and I'm proud of it! It's her money, so if she wants to go to Walgreens to buy canned hams (which she did...then she gave me some $$ and told me to bring more back, LOL), THEN SO BE IT.

I discussed Y2k last summer with her, and now she's working down her list. My brother wasn't exactly thrilled when he saw stuff shipping in from Lehman's, heh heh.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 25, 1999.