I was at one of my regular grocery haunts this evening to pickup a couple of tomatoes for the burgers I was going to grill.

As is my custom, I stolled down the canned veggie, fruit, & meat isle, just to see what delicasies might be on sale. Lo and behold, I spotted what to my trained eyes had to be preps in progress.

The isle was full of people, some buying canned veggies, some canned meat. I myself was eyeing the canned fruit. My wife thinks we have enough meat and veggies. There was one guy squatting in front of the canned chilli shelf, pulling out the last few cans of Hormel chilli with beans. There was a women, also in the canned meat section, with a shopping list, picking out an assortment of canned meats. She had what looked to me to be genuine furrows in her brow.

I noticed that the isle itself looked like it had been hit pretty hard by shoppers taking advantage of the once plentifull supply of canned goods. Everywhere I looked, there were holes where cans used to sit. All this on a Sunday evening at about 6:30 p.m..

I think people are beggining to take to heart the message to not wait for the last minute to buy their 3 days, or is it 1-2 weeks, winter storm supplies. Only thing is, I live in Florida.

(to the tune of, "It's Begging to Look a Lot Like Christmas")

It's begging to look a lot like prepping, everywhere I go. take a look in the canned food isle, unless your in denial, lot's of folks are stocking up I know.

It's begging to look alot like hoarding, 12 more days to go. But it's nothin like you'll see, When they take down their Christmas tree, and there's less than a week to go.

-- Prep Scout (Y2K_is_close@hand.com), December 19, 1999

Answers

Make that "beggining", not "begging"

forget to set term=no_typo

-- Prep Scout (Y2K_is_clos_@hand.com), December 19, 1999.

My local sam's is out of 55 gall water drums

had to make do with dustbins at $20 a pop - ouch!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 19, 1999.

If you can, please stop by the same store on Tuesday evening. Since delivery trucks probably don't run on the weekend, that may be the explanation for bare spots on the shelves.

Now, if you saw a couple of people fighting over a can of pet food, that would definitely worth mentioning.

Mikey2k

-- Mikey2k (mikey2k@he.wont.eat.it), December 19, 1999.

Unless it was cat food.

Don't piss off the cat.

(He know when you are sleeping...)

[g]

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 20, 1999.

Albertson's is still carrying 15 gal water barrels, good ones, food grade HDPE plastic, with bungs and a carrying handle. Since I bought mine, every time I go there I look and they don't seem to be moving at all. The same number of barrels are still on the shelf every time I go by.

-- rob minor (rbminor@hotmail.com), December 20, 1999.

Just got back from the 24hr Wal-Mart. The girl who has been checking us out in the middle of the night for the last 10 mos. knows us fairly well by now. Always has some humorous comment like,'So folks, how's the end of World the coming?' Well, tonight was different. She looked concerned. Before we could even say hello she stated,'It's for real, isn't it?'. We said yes. She said she was a single Mom with three kids at home and was scared. We spent the next 30 mins giving her a crash course on the basics. In the store there was no camp fuel, 2 broken dual fuel stoves, no lamp oil, 4 oil lamps, no lamp wicks, no sterno and only 5 of those 1lb bottles of propane. They will probably restock from the trailers but I could see why she was getting scared. Looks like it's starting.

-- Bubba Smith (duck&cover@tshtf.com), December 20, 1999.

Yes Ron, we are watching.

-- Fluffy (purrin@mylitterbox.com), December 20, 1999.

Went to BJs last night and 10 pallets where there was supposed to be bottled water were empty! Bags of rice had also taken a big dent... FWIW.

-- Libby Alexander (libbyalex@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

I was doing some last minute preps at the local Meijer. Turning the corner I noticed something that had to be seen to be believed. It was bottled water on pallets. There were 18 cases per pallet... stacked 6 feet high on each pallet. Not so ununusual? There was a line of 19 of these pallets, making a row about 75 feet long!

-- Casual Observer (mtmruze@aa.ilww.com), December 20, 1999.

Just returned from a shoping trip similar to Prep Scout's. I went there just to buy fresh stuff, but I'm so in the habit of walking down the canned food, pasta, rice areas that I couldn't help but notice big holes in certain products. I don't know if it Christmas or what, but shelves were low in canned soup and chili. Admittedly, the low-stock items were mostly sale items, but it appears people ARE stocking up for something.

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), December 20, 1999.

Walking into WalMart this morning, spied a man with a cart full to overflowing with jugs of drinking water. Casually said, "Good for you" as I passed him...."Oh, no, these aren't for *me*, this is for work! We plan on using the water from the water heater if we need to." I asked him if he wouldn't rather use the water heater water for flushing, washing, etc., and maybe stock up a few jugs of bottled water for drinking...? He just stared at me.

Inside the store, the water was about half what it usually is, but the stockers were getting ready to put more up. No WalMart "Spam"; looked like the other canned meats, chili, ravioli, etc., were very picked over. Plenty of TP, batteries, etc.

Next stop was Aldi's. Almost every shopper there had at least 1 case of something; most carts looked like they were stocking up. Not a lot of 'fluff' foods, nor were people buying much frozen stuff.

Last stop was Sav-A-Lot. More folks buying 'non-prep' type stuff than staples/prep items, but there were a few.

How did I explain my cart full of 48 pounds of butter and 50 bags of chocolate chips? Easy... "I'm doing a lot of holiday baking!" ;)

My final 'run' for the year.....I 'think'! (Better be) [g]

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

Went to Sam's with a co-worker today at lunch time. We were both doing a little last minute stocking up.

You did'nt have to even try very hard to see signs of prepping going on. Lots of tp and clorox going out the door.

When we first pulled into the parking lot we saw a couple loading up their van with what had to be a prep load; Raman noodles, tp, clorox, 20 lb bag O rice, canned veggies, etc.

11 days, 26 minutes to go ....

-- Prep Scout (Y2K_is_close_@hand.com), December 20, 1999.