Grocery store shelves are being emptied all over the country...

I've been thinking about this kind of thing a lot lately, and I have a theory of sorts.

Most people alive today have never experienced a period when they and their society were under an existential threat. Those of us my age and older remember "duck and cover" drills. Some were drafted. But by the 1970's, the risk of nuclear war had become commonplace and no such war had happened, so people got to the point where it was just in the background of their consciousness. And the military transitioned to the all-volunteer force, so only a small fraction of the population served, and then only those who chose to.

For the past 50 years, Americans have been mostly safe from external threats, or at least felt so. That's why 9/11 was such a shock. But really, the risks from actions like 9/11 were and are pretty small. Terrible when they happen, but having only a relatively local actual effect. Still, we overreacted because when the risks you perceive are relatively small, any actual risk looms all the larger in your perception.

The greatest risks most Americans have experienced during that period were largely financial. Which can be bad, to be sure, but for the most part are not existential.

I don't blame people for their inability to assess risk. We are all creatures of our life experience to some degree. I do think that if more people studied history they might have a better sense of how risk-free their lives have actually been, but how much difference it would really make is hard to know.

When you don't perceive that you are under risk, small things like not being able to get TP seem like a Big Deal. I'm pretty sure my parents and grandparents would have just dealt with it.

 

if things come to shtf and run out of tp, you can now dance the dance of sh!t, shower and shave.

 

Found another up side, I haven't had a spam call on my phones for three days now.

 

While I have had a relative flood of them in the past week (three or four a day).

 

I guess they moved west.

 

Bought some eggs and bread for a neighbor today, and all I can say is I hope for the hoarder's sake there are no early spring storms that take out the electrical grid.
I cannot IMAGINE why people are buying up bread and eggs like they are.
Even all forms of yeast are on back-order!!
I managed to find 1 dozen eggs (the store limit) and 2 large packages of hamburger buns (the store limit,) which is the closest thing these poor folks are going to get for sandwich bread.
Good Grief!!

While I was out I went to buy some range ammo at Academy and the shelves were stripped absolutely clean, except for 2 lonely boxes of .32ACP Just for kicks I went on line and ammo is just about sold out there too - including the 1,000 and 2,500 round bulk packs.
AND they were just about sold slap out of all firearms.
(I was in this store 2 weeks ago for range ammo and they were stocking up for tax refund spenders and had hundreds of firearms)

Guess I won't be going to the range anytime soon.

Sams was out of all paper products except for......and I'm not kidding.....premium table napkins which people were fighting over to get the 2-box maximum.
I see some plumbers making some serious money in service calls in the next few weeks....

Seriously?
Considering the nation is on the precipice of the greatest national economic disaster since the Great Depression, there SURE ARE a heck of a lot of people pushing overloaded shopping carts through some VERY crowded stores.

 

I'm forced to use 1-ply because my apartment's plumbing apparently can't handle anything more extravagant (had two backups into the basement, nothing like seeing a fine layer of raw sewage next to your washer/dryer!)

 

Get anything you can that is made overseas. Italy, France, Spain, etc. Going to be a long time before Italian made pasta will get back to grocery shelves. Kerrygold butter, Balsamic or Modena vinegars, prosecco; only some examples.

If you own a business that is still open, consider not stocking extra rolls of TP in the bathrooms for now. Theft can be a problem because word is out that public bathrooms might have extra rolls just sitting there and it might be too tempting to resist walking off with a roll under their coats.

 

Does the landlord screen out potential renters with big butts?

 

After all this, do you still like big butts?

 

Yikes!!!

 

I was thinking the same think. It will take them about a week before people realize that they should have grabbed the TP when they could.

In the meantime, we may be witnessing a new phenoma on the internet soon... ...TP scalpers on ebay.

 

If anyone is worried about running out of TP. Here is an online calculator that will let you know how long your currnet stockpile of TP will last.
How Much Toilet Paper?! - The Coronavirus Toilet Paper Calculator

From our last trip to a warehouse store, we have 2-month stock right now. I hope the shortage will be over before we run out.

 

I've run into a few fortysomethings such as myself who grew up assuming we would get nuked one morning, and we're all still in slight disbelief that it didn't happen yet. All my gen X friends seem to be taking this pandemic far more seriously than those older or younger, for better or worse.

 

TP was so last week.

Now it's bread (including yeast) eggs, and water filters.

 

It was eggs. Yogurt, fish and premade non frozen dinners

 

This is from Sweden. The right is a zoom in of the left.

Photo

 

I saw that yesterday on Facebook and almost brought it here myself.