Once again, I ask that anyone out there who has noticed a shortage of ANY Y2K ITEMS in any type of store in their area report in.

You can remain semi-anonymous by just referring to the POPULATION of your city/town, or state the county only, or mention that it is the suburb of a big city in the Northeast, etc.

This could also include any noted PRICE INCREASES in Y2K items (whether due to gouging or shortage), and also any estimate of stock replenishment time for an empty-shelf item, that you may be able to get from a store employee.

Enquiring minds want to know!

-- profit_of_doom (doom@helltopay.ca), October 13, 1999

Answers

Riverside County, CA, rural section, and for some odd reason only one store which seems to be everyone's favorite. The other stores are fine.

T.P. Canned cat food Dry cat food Obvious dry dog food choice wiped out leaving all the other brands. Canned vegetables Little lunch tunas Paper towels Vienna Sausage

*Y2K'ers can be seen in action peridoically. The last time I was there I saw 3, but the time before that I did not witness any but noticed the shelves were rather bare. All were women, one a young senior still working, two knew each other but the senior was independent, white, and did not appear to be economically strapped. The two friendsies were blitzing, but the senior was obviously doing half a cart of preparations and the other half her normal groceries.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), October 13, 1999.

Medium-to-large sized city, Wisconsin

Inquiring minds, absolutely nothing to report here.

-- J. Cellphone (tsrwireless@memco.com), October 13, 1999.

the Walmart in Germantown, MD hasn't had any collapsible 5-gal water containers in about a month--they were about $3 cheaper than the one's Kmart carries. also, they have not had any brushes for 20- guage shot-guns for over 2 months; everything else, but no brushes. the sports dept guy keeps telling me they're a regular item, but can't seem to keep them in stock. strangely, they had sold almost all their guns about 3 weeks ago, but have more in now.

-- sarah (qubr@aol.com), October 13, 1999.

No distilled water at WalMart, they have been out of it for 2 weeks. They have the collapsable 5 gallon water bags though. Noticed the lamp oil and oil lamps in low supply from my inventory check last week. In the discount section, they had pocket calculators for 75 cents. Last week they were out of SPAM, Hormel chili, but saw some restocked yesterday. Saw an elderly lady with 24 cans of tuna fish, she had a rain check for them. Went into Safeway to stock up on their canned good sale, they were out of the S&W peaches but substituted another brand. Starkist tuna was 25 cents a can, refried beans 12/$6.00. Witnessed the Cocoa Puff crowd with their baskets filled with pizzas, Top Ramen, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Sugar Smacks, and Cocoa Puffs, (no shortage of that stuff).

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

Please bear in mind that many resources are still being diverted to eastern North Carolina, especially water. That said, our local Big Lots is still a bit short on canned goods, except for pasta sauce, and was even before Floyd.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 13, 1999.

Old Git: They had plenty of drinking water and spring water, but they are having a hard time getting distilled water. I ordered 10 cases because they always seem to be out of it. I think word has gotten out that drinking distilled water is better for you. I've been drinking it for 25 years now.

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

Here in small-town Tennessee...

Dollar General Store- No lamp oil for the past 2 weeks, no wicks, stopped in last Thursday, they had a large display of canned strawberries, bought a couple of cans. Stopped back in on Friday, they were sold out. Also, no matches, low on batteries.

Wal-Mart- Hasn't had lamp oil in over a month. A couple of lamps and some wicks though. Noticed a huge display of those little propane tanks for small camping grill, in a two-pack..sold out in two days. Same story for two pack of gas containers. Noticed that in the past month, they have had huge displays of water and t.p., near the entrance doors.

Water was .50 a gal, now .78 a gal. Noticed that they are selling quite a bit of it.

Save-a-lot- I hear a LOT of talk about y2k there. : )Many "How long will this keep?" questions. Also, people will point at each others carts and give a thumbs up sign. (go figure that one : )

We don't seem to have the problem that I have heard expressed hear from many about being made fun of for preparing. Here it has become "just one more thing to do". Several churches are stocking up and there was a major increase in canning this year.

There was one episode at Wal-Mart that did bug me a bit though. : ) I was buying my son some 22 shells for his rifle and the clerk asked me if it was for a handgun..I said no. He sold me the shells. There was a lady behind me that started yelling about him not checking my i.d. I guess she really took it personally. Is this something they are supposed to do now? Anyway, just gave her the "what's with you look" and walked out.

There doesn't seem to be any panic, but there is a lot of awareness here and most are wanting to be safe rather than sorry.

OH, almost forgot that the local fast food rest. are telling customers that their 5 gal. buckets are on a first come first serve basis. : )

-- Kallie (Kallie125@hotmail.com), October 13, 1999.