http://www.chicago.tribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,ART-39253,00.html

Stocking up for Y2K, just in case By Greg Burns

Tribune Staff Writer

December 12, 1999

Even as Chicagoan Pam Daniels and her family tucked into their annual Thanksgiving feast this year, a nagging worry arose at the dinner table: What if Y2K ruins New Year's Day?

"We all talked about it," said Daniels, a 29-year-old mother and insurance agent-in-training. "I really don't think anything bad is going to happen, but you never know."

After that conversation, Daniels set out to get ready for the year-end computer problem also known as the Millennium Bug, putting aside enough food and drinking water for a couple of weeks should an unexpected crisis arrive with the New Year.

At least one-third of Chicago-area residents will be right along with her, a new Tribune poll shows. Some 34 percent say they plan to stockpile food, 40 percent bottled water and 36 percent will withdraw extra cash as a precaution against Y2K problems.

Yet although the poll uncovered many people taking action in advance of 2000, it also reflected more of a healthy skepticism than a doomsday mentalityconsistent with national polls.

Far from turning into a bunch of survivalists barricaded in rural bunkers, many Chicagoans will be laying in a little extra food, water and cash merely for peace of mind, the poll suggests.

Indeed, a substantial portion of those planning to stock up expect no computer problems at all, but nevertheless want to prepare in the unlikely event their neighbors sweep the supermarket of canned goods on the last day of 1999.

As Darien homemaker Beth McCrory put it, "We want to be ready just in case other people go all out."

That spells opportunity for companies such as Chicago's Hinckley Springs, which is peddling special Y2K "emergency hydration kits" in single, family and small-office sizes.

Predictably, the bottled-water supplier has seen its sales jump in recent weeks as everyone from nursing-home operators to its own employees place extra orders ahead of Jan. 1.

"Everything we've read is that the [municipal] water system is going to be OK, but everyone is skeptical," said Hinckley spokesman David Brimm.

Even so, the provisioning efforts now under way are too minor to have anything but a slight, short-term economic effect, noted Ed Yardeni, the Deutsche Morgan Alex. Brown chief economist who was formerly among the mainstream business world's leading Y2K alarmists.

"I've been surprised," he said. "I thought there would be a bigger impact, but the public is very relaxed. There's not much panic and hysteria."

Nor should there be, added Peter de Jager of Toronto, a prominent Y2K consultant and speaker. "Your survey is showing that most people in North America have well-stocked cupboards" that will be more than sufficient for the relatively minor snafus that might ensue, he said.

After all, he said, most computers in the U.S. and Canada have been fixed so they won't choke on a year ending in "00." That misreading of the date is the essence of the Y2K problem, with the potential to cause major disruptions if the error should shut down vital computer systems.

Most major banks and retailers have worked for years eradicating the bug, and preparing for year-end demand that many say hasn't materialized.

Spokesmen for the Dominick's supermarket chain and Chicago's Bank One Corp., for instance, both said Friday their companies had seen no evidence of hoarding.

The sense of confidence is reflected in the Tribune poll, in which nearly two-thirds of respondents saw no need to stockpile extra food, water or cash.

And the results of nationwide polls also reflected the sense of calm. The Gallup Organization, for instance, has found that less than half of the American public will take even one step to prepare for Y2K problems. Similar to the Tribune survey, about 40 percent of the population say they will stockpile food and water, according to a Gallup poll of 1,010 adults conducted in mid-November.

To be sure, public officials have taken care to avoid being alarmist. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), vice chairman of the Senate's Y2K committee, recently went about as far as any other prominent pol in telling NBC's "Meet the Press," "It's not unwise for people to do a little stockpiling." Dodd urged Americans to prepare as if they faced a "good storm or hurricane."

President Clinton, on the other hand, laughed off a question last month about whether he would set aside extra food for Y2K if he were an ordinary citizen. "America is in good shape," he replied. "I wouldn't hoard food, and I wouldn't hide."

Most Chicago-area residents see it the same way as the president, according to the poll.

"I don't see the point of hoarding," noted Chicago resident James Wynne, a Web-site developer. "I think the computers will be fine, but I don't know about the people, and I don't feel like contributing to that."

In fact, those who prepare extensively might be courting ridicule from the mainstream, as in the case of the Wisconsin technical college that bought 2,400 gallons of bottled water and nine tons of food to stock a "Y2K disaster shelter" on campus.

"Nutty behavior," thundered a state legislator in charge of Y2K planning. "We have to question the quality of their instruction, if this is the depth of their thinking."

The Tribune telephone poll of 515 metropolitan-area residents, conducted by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect earlier this month, revealed that city folk are more likely to hoard than suburbanites.

For instance, some 38 percent of Chicagoans say they will stockpile food, compared with 31 percent of those in the suburbs.

For bottled water, the split is 43 percent in the city and 37 percent in the suburbs, while those withdrawing extra cash amount to 40 percent in the city and 34 percent in the suburbs.

As for the amounts being set aside, those who say they plan to stockpile intend to keep an average of 15 days of food, 14.6 days of water and 11.3 days of cash on hand.

While that might sound like a recipe for empty grocery shelves and cashless ATMs, the overall effect is likely to be muted since the majority of area residents plan to do no hoarding at all.

And of those who do, few expect trouble ahead.

As many as 28 percent of those who say they're confident Y2K problems will be fixed in general are stockpiling bottled water, food or cash, anyway.

So what exactly are they hoarding?

Canned foods and bottled water top the list, according to a recent survey conducted by Information Resources Inc., the Chicago market research firm.

After that come batteries, toilet tissue, canned or bottled drinks and flashlights, the survey says. Prescription drugs, matches, and candles also make it on many Millennium Bug shopping lists, the survey shows.

Jodette Feigl, an office worker who lives with her husband and two cats in Hometown, has taken it even further.

Instead of keeping the usual three or four boxes of cereal on hand, she has 15. And instead of a few cans of cat food in the cupboard, she has dozens and plans to buy "a lot more," she said. "I don't want them to suffer."

Her millennium stash also includes bottles of juice, toilet paper, peanuts, fruit cocktail, canned beans, boxed rice and "a ton" of garbage bags, she said.

"A lot of people think nothing's going to happen, including my husband," Feigl said.

"Probably nothing will happen," she said. "I don't know, and I don't want to be unprepared."

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), December 11, 1999

Answers

Something is fishy here. I've lived in Chicagoland most of my life.

AFAIK, there is no "Hinckley Springs water supplier.
The two largest bottled water suppliers in the Chicago area Hinckley and Schmitt, and Sparkling Spring

also- I have never heard of the town of " HOMETOWN ".

Is it near ANYTOWN USA?

The above is from the Sunday issue of the Trib, I will receive mine tomorrow (Sunday) and see if this is still in print.

This sounds like a press release that you just plug in names and towns.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 11, 1999.

OK, so after a quick call to Directory Information, I find that a Hinckley Springs DOES EXIST!

after looking through the yellow pages I find that it shares a phone number and address with: Hinckley & Schmitt on S. Harlem.

Apparently they have JUST changed their name...damn these mergers, I can't keep up.

here's a Link to the "Y2K Emergency Hydration Kits" that they are offering that is mentioned in the "story":

Water.com (Y2Kindex)

I'm still workin' on this "HomeTown" place though. The closest we have is HOMEWOOD

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 11, 1999.

plonk!

It looks like it's a suburb of Chicago.
I found it here.

Microsoft Expedia Maps

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 12, 1999.

thanks Spider!

there is a "Hometown" listed on Expedia.

this has to be a newly formed subdivision or something.
It is not listed in the curretn ZipCode directory for Illinois Communities of the Ameritech yellow pages. that's what initially threw me.

OK, I was skeptical, conclusions were drawn, supporting evidence appeared, (due to my own checking and Spider's) and I no longer think the article is "fishy".

Just another reason why everyone should do their own double-checking on "breaking news" and report back.

the end

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 12, 1999.