The local "we buy your old diamonds" store, Heller Jewelry is running radio spots with a Y2K theme in DeeCee.

Home Depot has a "get ready for Y2K" display with generators, gas cans, batteries, etc.

What have you seen in your area?

-- cory (kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net), September 13, 1999

Answers

Sams Club is selling night vision monocular equipment ($199.00) as well as Baygen windup radios.......

-- mmmm (mmmm@aol.com), September 13, 1999.

Cory, have you seen the slick brochure Giant Food has placed in their stores?

It was not available at the registers but they had a bunch at the office upfront at a Bethesda store. The Red Cross recommendations are on the back page.

Interesting reading. You might grab a copy next time you are in a store.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), September 13, 1999.

The local Hardware Chain "OSH" Orchard Supply Hardware has declared itself "Your Y2K Store" it is pushing flashlites and generators. The local Food 4 Less will not let you buy more of 2 of any thing like water or coke.....

Things will get worse before they get better.....

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), September 13, 1999.

Was in Costco Saturday,(central Calif.) front display was a pile of cheapo generators with a sign that read, "Get Ready." The young man boxing my stuff just finished loading 9 - yes 9 - generators onto a truck for a local church. "Why?" I asked. "The guy said something about the century thing." Okaay.

-- Casey DeFranco (caseyd@silcom.com), September 13, 1999.

PS; Where is 129? PPS: Hard Copy??????? for us subscribers;)

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), September 13, 1999.

In an effort to recoup disgruntled customers K-Mart is now giving away life size Rosie Odonnel sihlouette targets with each purchase of handgun ammo....

Saw a big sign in Wal-Mart that said "Always", somehow I doubt that.. By the way wasn't Patsy Cline dead before Wal Mart was even concieved? I find it pretty hard to believe they were what she was falling to pieces over.

Some Sears trivia... I picked up a load at Armstrong tool in Chicago the other day headed for Alabama. Freightliner flattop with a 53 foot air ride trailer, they loaded me with one box of Craftsman sockets. Now I'm no rocket scientist but I really think Sears would be more competitive if they could just grasp the concept of bulk shipping....

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), September 13, 1999.

LOL Nikoli! I guess you didn't have any trouble making weight limitations with that load...

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), September 13, 1999.

Funny you should ask this, as I just noticed in Walmart an entire wall of flashlights and water by the registers today. My 6 yr old said "look mah, y2k stuff"...didn't take a genius. (no offense to my little one) Also noticed more cast iron at Kmart than ever before. Nice big kettles!

Radio Shack lastest flyer had a full page ad for a hand cranked radio. Retailers aren't stupid,..it's not that they're trying to help us along with our preps folks,..there's a buck to be made off this silly old thing and they're looking to make it. Whatever THEIR motives, it does actually help.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), September 13, 1999.

Today I heard on the radio at the end of a bank ad "Y2K ready, member FDIC" :) A local rental store has Generators on special for Y2K. Plenty in stock though. Prolly members of FGIC ;)

-- Tim Castleman (aztc@earthlink.net), September 13, 1999.

Sears in Bellevue WA, (eastside of Lake Washington from Seattle) a month or so ago I saw a duo display of safes and generators with messaging of Are you ready for Y2K?. Ads in the local free paper Little Nickel with generator ads for Y2K for the last six months or so, coin and jewelry dealers in downtown Seattle with the same "Are you ready for" spiel in displays and sandwich boards.

-- Ken Mitcham (ken_mitcham@yahoo.com), September 13, 1999.

I hear the same advertisemens, plus advertisements on DGI radio stations advertisiting Y2K stuff such as LED lights from C. Crane, books, food, etc. I heard one DJ on KGO (San Francisco), blasting people who are preparing (called them wackos), then he advertises LED lights for Y2K for the C. Crane Co.! Stopped at an army surplus store over the weekend and the store owner said things were really slowing down. He has 300 water barrels to get rid of!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 13, 1999.

Office Depot in NW Washington is handing out flyers asking them to 'let us help you with Y2K'. Mostly selling new computer stuff, etc. But did have Red Cross prep info included.

Just keepin' on, keepin' on

-- Sammie Davis (sammie0nospam@hotmail.com), September 14, 1999.

The City Council of the Capital City of NZ(Wellington) has been running adds on the radio regularly for the last few weeks telling people(using a lighthearted short skit centred around two dim sounding locals discussing y2k)to prepare for power outages,food shortages and banks going down...very telling Personally I don't think it will have any affect though on the Sheeple most won't decide to stock up till after Christmas in my opinion

-- matt (matt@somewhere.nz), September 14, 1999.

Cory, Home Depot is my home away from home. I owe a lot to the free library and videos they have in-house.

One of the things I've been watching, since I bought my first one, has been generators. I use it a a gauge of public awareness/panic/prep to the media events concerning Y2K.

It has been very interesting. At first, last winter, our local store had maybe 4 or 5 in stock at any one time. At times, they had none and were on-order basis for weeks. This has not been the case since the Naval War College information hit the main stream. They now have 40 to 50 in stock at all times. They are selling like hot cakes.

I've personally seen at least 5 complete turns in inventory in just the past two months. That would be, at least, a couple of hundred units. Big, big change since last year. There seems to be a quiet riot going on re Y2K. I just wish I could ?connect with a good group of GI's locally.

The thing that PO's me is, we have been called everything short of *honest* about our preps, while big business has no cross to bear while cashing in on the event.

This is one of my regular JQ checkups, but I track several others as well, such as Army Navy Surplus sales, Dow Jones, utility workers comments to straight forward Y2K questions, and of course, the usual spin from the media, to name a few.

I just assume the media is spreading disinformation on a regular basis, and when the heat gets turned up by someone revealing factual evidence, the spin doc's get real busy. It's all so transparent, now that I have been given this new pair of specs.

Thanks to you, and all the regulars here. You probably have saved many many lives.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), September 14, 1999.

Forgot to add one more thing, have a friend who works for Home Base, and he told me yesterday that they are all sold out of generators and won't be getting any in until March 2000.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 14, 1999.

Cory,

I was wondering if you or anyone else had noticed the solar energy project at the Pentagon and all the other construction. If you are coming out of Dee Cee on 395 and take the exit to Rossyln and 66, you'll swing around the Pentagon.

The first sight to see is the solar panels at what may be a small electrical generation facility. At first, I only noticed the many solar panels, but my girlfriend pointed out that some of the buildings look new-- especially the ones with small smoke stacks. As I passed by, today, it looks like they have been planting some little trees around the facility. I guess they don't want to be too obvious.

The next sight to see is the Pentagon Basement Renovation Project that looks like a lot more than a little basement renovation. Consturction crews have been busy, more crews and machines than before, and we noted that the guys were working on Saturday which seemed very strange to us.

Less interesting, but more intriguing to my curiousity is the little construction sites (?) in those smallish triangles of grass and hill around on and off ramps to the Pentagon. I can't imagine what they hope to achieve by maximizing efficiency of that kind of real estate, but they are not widening the ramps.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 14, 1999.

We hosted a local citizen's preparedness group meeting tonight. One of the featured speakers was the manager of our local Raley's Super Market. He was a TOTAL DGI! His prepared remarks included reading the corporation's legal department propaganda from their web site. When questioned how they would cope with an extended power outage, he told the group Raley's had a generator. Ok-what kind of fuel does said generator use? Reply-oh, it doesn't use fuel-we use electricity to charge the batteries. Duh!!!! I don't know how long his inverter is going to run off those deep cycle batteries, but honey, I know it ain't very darn long before that grocery store and it's computer is going down.

He said he's not stocking up the shelves in the store with beans and rice-after all, Y2K is no problem-just a BITR-and then he would get stuck with all those beans and rice, and he knew for sure none of us doomers would want to buy them even if he put them on sale. He said he is not even preparing for his family.

Guess the rest of us crazy doomers must have been his grins for the evening.

-- Sharon L (sharonl@volcano.net), September 14, 1999.

Shannon - I have finally figured out - sometimes when people say they aren't preparing - they are lying. For the sake of his family, I hope this guy is indeed lying.

-- April (Alwzapril@home.com), September 14, 1999.

In the Omaha area the farm supply stores have large stocks of generators, wood stoves, kerosene heaters and hand water pumps. Also the main hardware chain Menard's has "Your Y2K store" posted all over the store.

-- Stacia (ClassyCwgl@aol.com), September 14, 1999.

John Deere dealership in Brunswick Maine is promoting "y2k generators, supermarket chain Shop n Save is having a y2k sale of canned goods with stocking up check list, my credit union statements now come in an envelope with a smily-face Y2K-OK logo on the front.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), September 14, 1999.

In Northern VA, just outside DC, the Giant, Safeway and Shoppers, plus CVS Pharmacies, have all been featuring specials on items usually listed on Y2K-prep lists in recent months. At first I was asked by checkout cashiers why I was getting so many of anything, but now that seems to be taken for granted in the past month.

I was astounded when I returned to Costco after a six-week hiatus, to see the stock had taken a whole Y2K turn! There were large bags of flour, rice, sugar. Lots of new items never before seen there from Y2K-prep lists. Made shopping a lot easier than I had expected!

WalMart has had some specials of this type, but not as visibly. However, everywhere I shop I see shelves depleted of such things as bay leaves (!), pressure/canner cookers, paraffin wax, etc. Also, the shelves with canned meats empty the most quickly lately.

I see more people STUDYING at length, cans and products than ever before, and often not buying right then...just as I do when first calculating which is best for storing, etc. I can tell at a checkout who is preparing. This is an interesting phenomenon. It makes me hopeful that far more people than we think are quietly preparing.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), September 14, 1999.

Hi Cory! I got a chance to talk to Michael Hyatt after his seminar Sunday night in Houston. He said the "Big Man" (you can guess who!) had written a letter to Wal-mart and Sam's asking them not to use "Y2K" in any of their advertising. E-mail him if you want more info.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), September 14, 1999.

Hi Cory, Our Menard's (Kind of like Home Depot) in central Illinois has big yellow y2k checklist signs throughout the store. Sam's has y2k signs by their battery sections. I've been running into a few more GI's; but overall people are still sleeping. Wished I could have made it to the y2k expo in Chicago last weekend. I heard it basically was a no-show.

-- Marsha (MSykes@court.co.macon.il.us), September 14, 1999.

A few weeks ago, Sutherlands (lumberyard/hardware store chain based here in KC, but they are a national chain) featured woodstoves and kerosene heaters in their Sunday advertising supplement, under the banner of "Be Y2k Prepared".

Last Sunday we were at Sav-A-Lot, and hubby nudged me and asked me if "I heard that guy." He had overheard a middle aged man and his wife, the man was carefully studying a list of some sort and told his wife that "they said to make sure and have plenty of canned stuff because the freezer might be off...."

Hubby was excited! He doesn't usually accompany me on my 'gathering excursions', and he's been very concerned that no one else is GI. I told him that once one knows what to look for (multiple cases of items, etc.), it's easier to see others who GI also. Not enough, mind you, but more and more folks here in my area seem to be paying a little more attention.

I've noticed more and more folks stocking up on canned meats/entrees, canned veggies, and candles when I'm on a Big Lots run, too. One of the clerks there told me they sold out of their canning supplies fairly quickly this year. : )

Of course, our long time army/navy surplus store has been running lots of commercials this year, many of which feature a Y2k 'theme' which IMHO, puts the rational preparers in a unfavorable light. :::Sigh:::

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), September 14, 1999.

Forgot to mention that last week I went to WalMart to get some .22 ammo. They sell it in a big package -- 550 for just under $9. I told the guy I wanted the big box because we're teaching our 10 year old grandson how to shoot grandma's 10-22 (we are, and he's really good!) and we are going through a lot of it while he's learning.

He looked at me and said, "Oh, then you want the 'Y2k' Value Pak."

Hmmm.....

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), September 14, 1999.

Lots of Storage bins in stores that have never had such an item. REally not alot of change.

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), September 14, 1999.

Local "home owned" bank has plastic banners: "Y2K OK!"

Favorite is a little sewing machine shop -- they usually have five or six machines (in various states of age and repair) out front with mark-down signs. The one that caught my eye was an old Singer treadle body (cabinet flaking and in desperate need of refinishing), with a newish machine mounted on it -- sure enough, with the minor modifications they have already made, the machine can be used with the treadle for power! Sign out front on the machine says: "Y2K Special".

-- Anita Evangelista (ale@townsqr.com), September 14, 1999.

I saw a sign on a Dunkin' Donuts shop:

"Mobile Y2K Food Storage Program"

-Eat all the croissants you can before the year 2000! :-)

-- DD (eatbig@now.com), September 14, 1999.

I'm late signing in to this, but in today's mail was a flyer from Tractor Supply Company (in Texas). They are having a "Hot Solutions Heating Event" where they have several pages of kerosene, propane, and quartz heaters, and even wood stoves on special. They have special symbols next to the ones that require no electricity.

Then at the local HEB grocery store they are running specials on cases of veggies, tuna, water etc. They are calling it "Stock up on Basics."

Too bad our retailers aren't running the show, you know?

-- mommacarestx (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), September 15, 1999.