The Spreading (And Potentially Deadly) Coronavirus Epidemic....

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

24 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Yeah I've been buying a thing or five here and there as I catch the sales.  The wife stocked us up a month ago so we already have a ridiculous amount of stuff.

The sales in our are over the last 2 weeks have been insane.

Prices on meat I haven't seen since I was a kid.  BEEF JERKY was on sale of all things.  Never in my life have I seen a sale on beef jerky.

Paying 3.50/lb for ground sirloin and $3/lb for whole pork loin is hard not to want to buy a second freezer.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

32 minutes ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I'm glad I had the sense to go last night before closing. Lines weren't bad and I got basically everything I needed. Looking at the data, I knew Friday evenings would be a nightmare. Somehow I forgot sugar  

Should I wait til Monday morning to grab some at 6am when it opens are face the potential madness of tomorrow morning at 6am?

I am honestly surprised as hell that the buying panic didn't set in full force yesterday when European flights were cancelled for a month with the Wednesday night announcement.

But I guess school closures weren't rolled out until today, and that is what makes it "real" for most people.

 

Personally, as soon as there were confirmed cases outside of China I started stocking up a little more with each shopping trip.

 

[Tabonga | 2,533]

50 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

I am honestly surprised as hell that the buying panic didn't set in full force yesterday when European flights were cancelled for a month with the Wednesday night announcement.

But I guess school closures weren't rolled out until today, and that is what makes it "real" for most people.

 

Mrs. Tabonga believes that many in  the crowds we encountered today were people whose work was put on hiatus starting today and they took the opportunity to flash mob the stores.

Hmmm - their bosses gave them  time off because one or more of them might have possibly infected everyone else in sneezing distance.  So those same people took the opportunity to possibly infect others usually not in their target range.  Ya gotta love the American way....

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Tabonga

[Californication | 1,491]

I'm not buying anything extra. Not sure if I am stupid or rolling the dice. I just don't see the point.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

11 minutes ago, Californication said:

I'm not buying anything extra. Not sure if I am stupid or rolling the dice. I just don't see the point.

How much food do you typically keep on-hand?

I'm in an area that during storm season we all stock at least 2 weeks, anyway.

But with 2 young kids in the house, since i have the easy ability to be stocked for a full month, I see no reason not to hedge against the risk of either a supply chain disruption (whether that is shipping delays of some kind, or just grocery stores closing for deep cleaning) or just having the luxury of not needing to go shopping if my area is in the midst of an outbreak.

 

[Tabonga | 2,533]

20 minutes ago, Californication said:

I'm not buying anything extra. Not sure if I am stupid or rolling the dice. I just don't see the point.

 

[Californication | 1,491]

34 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

How much food do you typically keep on-hand?

I'm in an area that during storm season we all stock at least 2 weeks, anyway.

But with 2 young kids in the house, since i have the easy ability to be stocked for a full month, I see no reason not to hedge against the risk of either a supply chain disruption (whether that is shipping delays of some kind, or just grocery stores closing for deep cleaning) or just having the luxury of not needing to go shopping if my area is in the midst of an outbreak.

 

If I was in your situation I would stock up too. Kids def. make a difference. I buy all my toilet paper, cleaning stuff, etc. from costco and I was already stocked and had a pack and a half of kirkland tp.

My girlfriend stopped cooking like 6 months ago and now we are in the process of seperating so I have gotten lazy about eating well rounded meals again.

As far as food, I am surrounded by super markets, and people are only clearing certain things off the shelves. If I need to adjust to eating something different I can. If things got rough I could comforably eat beans, rice, and beef for a week. 

[Gloves | 12,261]

No joke though, if you all don't already have bidets, consider it. Even beyond this whole virus thing, they're far more environmentally friendly; you use SIGNIFICANTLY less TP, and you walk away actually cleaner yourself. I'm not even joking this is a serious endorsement for bidets, they're great.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

12 minutes ago, Californication said:

If I was in your situation I would stock up too. Kids def. make a difference. I buy all my toilet paper, cleaning stuff, etc. from costco and I was already stocked and had a pack and a half of kirkland tp.

My girlfriend stopped cooking like 6 months ago and now we are in the process of seperating so I have gotten lazy about eating well rounded meals again.

As far as food, I am surrounded by super markets, and people are only clearing certain things off the shelves. If I need to adjust to eating something different I can. If things got rough I could comforably eat beans, rice, and beef for a week. 

Do yourself a favor at get 10 lbs of rice and a few bags of dried beans, at least.  (and if you like sweet potatoes, probably get 20 lbs of them, since they keep)

It costs almost nothing, and if you lose your gamble on whether there is a supply chain issue, you will at least have something to eat that is complete protein.

 

Make sure you have a decent supply of butter or oil, too.

 

All things you can gradually work through even if the shit doesn't hit the fan, and super-cheap insurance if you end up needing it.

[SpoonMan Abrams X | 699]

On 3/13/2020 at 12:22 AM, Richardhead said:

People bought the Everclear to make hand sanitizer. I have never seen this kind of panic. It’s a bit terrifying actually.  
What do you do for work? I’m curious to see how this is affecting peoples jobs. 

Update; The lunacy has reached my workplace

I work in the Deli department at a "local-ish" big box retailer called Meijer's (for those not in or around the Michigan/Mid-west area where you can find these stores, think Wal-mart but smaller scale and less white trash). Earlier in the week there was a company wide directive that we had to sanitize every hour "customer touch spots", i.e. register's card readers, handles on the freezers, produce scales, etc. This was Sunday or Monday, I can't quite recall. The store I work at hadn't been hit yet, but by this point some of the bigger/busier stores had begun reporting on selling out of things. I had the next couple days off, then came back Yesterday (Friday) to find the store a madhouse, things out of stock and everyone running around like mad.

Shortly after getting there one of my bosses told us to cease making hot food for the hot case side (fried chicken and such) and focus on keeping our cold prepped stuff stocked. In the latter half of the shift we were told going forward starting immediately the Deli would not be maintaining the hot case or salad case until further notice, only keeping up pre-prepped cold stuff, with Rotisserie chickens and the sliced deli meats being the things we still provide other wise,and even the latter we'd be focusing more on keeping pre-prepped deli meats available versus people having to come and order them. Even that however I expect to change within the next week.

16 hours ago, Richardhead said:

It’s the way people are fighting about things and acting like the world is ending that bothers me. I see people getting more and more crazy/dangerous every day.

I'm with you. In general things could've been handled a lot better from the start when this was first becoming an issue for sure, but even with all the missteps people are completely losing their shit over it in a unhealthy if not destructive way. Things are already rough with things being shut down/cancelled, we really don't need to add mass paranoia and hording to the mix. If people would just practice good hygiene and preventive care measures before all this, we wouldn't nearly be in this situation. It's the proverbial closing the barn doors after the cows have already gotten out.

[Link | 2,880]

We don’t own a car, so our typical mode is to rent one every other month and stock up at various stores, meanwhile fill up on fresh things with quick small trips in between.  We did the car trip on Monday, and were well overdue for it as we hadn’t had one since November. Just the way things have worked out since then.

Toilet paper supply was a little short, but we were able to procure a 20 pack and a 12 pack. 

Mrs Link laughed that the aisle for canned beans (one of her favorite staples) was abnormally crowded with a bunch of noobs mooning over the options. 

Our favorite bread was not available, but that is not unusual. Ditto her preferred hand and dish soaps. We got acceptable alternatives for both. 

The fresh produce at Whole Foods was somewhat devastated, particularly the stuff right by the entrance. Everything else was in pretty decent supply.

The later it got, the more emptiness we saw. For instance my solo afternoon trip saw nothing out of stock. By 9pm some shelves were empty. By seeing that progression on a random day (happened to be my rotating day off) I doubt we are running into supply problems yet. I would have to go back in the morning  to confirm this and haven’t had time, but I hope things will stabilize thusly and I think we are fine. I love living in the city. 

Respect and thanks to all the stockers and cashiers, who have all been in friendly moods. Also to the warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and those further down the chain, who must all be slammed. I worked in a produce warehouse some years ago and it was a grueling, long hours job even in normal times, so it must be really rough right now. 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Link

[a3quit4s | 4,360]

I only grabbed a few extra items to stock up for my 8 month old; formula, wipes, diapers. Grocery store has plenty of toilet paper but oddly no Clorox wipes. People do understand that is just heavy paper soaked in the stuff that comes in the spray bottle which the shelves were full of?

I tried to run to Costco yesterday to grab the formula but hahaha noooooooo the parking lot was a shitshow. Got it at Target for a few extra bucks. I live outside DC so yes there is no hand sanitizer but everything else seems to be attainable. 

[AlfPogs | 29]

Don't sleep on places like walgreens, rite aid, etc. for food.

I've been picking up a few extra things here and there every time I go to the store over the past five weeks just in case, so I'm comfortably prepared. But I woke up today feeling like I should grab some extra vitamins so I went to Walgreens and there was tons of food.

It's weird seeing empty shelves for toilet paper on one side of the aisle and full shelves of food on the other side of that same aisle.

[Gloves | 12,261]

[Hammerfestus | 4,107]

39 minutes ago, Gloves said:

One can only hope they get the coronavirus.

[Gloves | 12,261]

Some justice in these hard times.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,654]

1 hour ago, AlfPogs said:

Don't sleep on places like walgreens, rite aid, etc. for food.

I've been picking up a few extra things here and there every time I go to the store over the past five weeks just in case, so I'm comfortably prepared. But I woke up today feeling like I should grab some extra vitamins so I went to Walgreens and there was tons of food.

It's weird seeing empty shelves for toilet paper on one side of the aisle and full shelves of food on the other side of that same aisle.

We have a less popular/more expensive grocery store near us (there's maybe 10 cars in the parking lot when I go by, no idea how they stay in business) that worked out perfectly when we found out the kiddos were going to be off school for 3 weeks.   

It was probably an extra 30 bucks or so for groceries but very worth it to be able to find things and it not be a madhouse.   

We already have a full freezer (thanks quarter cow!) and a decent non-perishable stock.   It was more to cover the 3 weeks of kid lunches  (and now 2 weeks for me too).

[Hammerfestus | 4,107]

So I’ve got a buddy that works for the federal gov in DC and apparently they had to force their supplier to release 3000 bottles of hand sanitizer they were holding in their warehouse to increase cost.  

[Redmond | 152]

I will resell/speculate on certain things, but doing it on stuff in this type of situation is way too low.  The only real reason to stockpile this stuff would be to prevent other resellers from doing the same and then resell/redistribute it on a rationed out basis at cost or with a slight markup to deter resellers ( which is what stores should've been / should be doing ).

[Estil | 1,291]

Back on the subject of the NCAA Tournament getting canceled and all the US major league sports being put on hold...

Would I be out of line to suggest that in light of the NCAA Tournament (and I'm presuming pretty much all the other NCAA postseasons around this time) getting canceled, that all the players should be granted an extra year of eligibility, seeing as how they didn't get a fair chance of competing for a championship? Honestly I don't know off the top of my head if anyone in the media or whatever has brought this up but it's just something I've been thinking about ever since the NCAA-T was called off.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,654]

1 hour ago, Estil said:

Back on the subject of the NCAA Tournament getting canceled and all the US major league sports being put on hold...

Would I be out of line to suggest that in light of the NCAA Tournament (and I'm presuming pretty much all the other NCAA postseasons around this time) getting canceled, that all the players should be granted an extra year of eligibility, seeing as how they didn't get a fair chance of competing for a championship? Honestly I don't know off the top of my head if anyone in the media or whatever has brought this up but it's just something I've been thinking about ever since the NCAA-T was called off.

They already did yesterday.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

3 hours ago, JERedmond said:

I will resell/speculate on certain things, but doing it on stuff in this type of situation is way too low.  The only real reason to stockpile this stuff would be to prevent other resellers from doing the same and then resell/redistribute it on a rationed out basis at cost or with a slight markup to deter resellers ( which is what stores should've been / should be doing ).

Yeah, arbitrage on luxury items (electronics or toys) is one thing, but for crisis related items it is deeply immoral and often illegal.

[cartman | 195]

4 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Yeah, arbitrage on luxury items (electronics or toys) is one thing, but for crisis related items it is deeply immoral and often illegal.

What items are those where it would be illegal?

[Mega Tank | 1,099]

13 minutes ago, cartman said:

What items are those where it would be illegal?

Every state in the U.S. has different price gouging laws for different items. 

[Estil | 1,291]

34 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

They already did yesterday.

*smacks forehead*

WHY CAN'T I STAY ON TOP OF CURRENT EVENTS!?!?!?!?!?