A week or so ago, I threw up a late night post about rioting around the world over food shortages, especially rice.
It seems it is starting to hit here at home, already.”Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World”
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 21, 2008
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.
“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
snip
Go read the rest of the article, it’s no joke.
Stores don’t carry lot’s of inventory anymore, it’s too expensive.
They rely on regional warehouses and bring in what they expect to sell.
It seems that this doesn’t bode well for the average American when it comes to food stocks.
A run on a store could clean it out of fresh, raw food in two hours.
The next time you are in your local grocery store, pay attention to just how much floor space is actually used for fresh foods and grains, not as much as you would like to think, actually.
They have aisle after aisle of things like laundry detergent, cat and dog food, prepared food, kid’s cereals, soda pop and cleaning things.
Actual food is a small percentage of what most large stores sell anymore.
Think about that the next time you see you need to “run to the store” to pick up a little something for dinner.
Original link found at Raw Story.
April 27, 2008 at 8:58 am |
I saw this happening at a Costco in Concord, CA about ten days ago. A Filipino couple, older, had five fifty pound bags of rice on their dolly. There was an edge in their activity…initially they wanted 10 bags (500lbs of rice!!!)but the limit at the time was five (still, that’s 250 lbs…)…I heard someone mention a worldwide rice shortage, but since it was not receiving the same level of attention in the media as Obama’s pastor, it obviously didn’t merit attention.
Scary times we live in.