Life in the time of Wuflu, Part 26: About that supply chain thing-and a warning

Mrs. Freeholder and I went grocery shopping yesterday. This is unusual.

Normally, one or the other goes. However, Mrs. Freeholder has passed some non-verbal clues that she isn’t really comfortable out in public places alone these days. She also passed along, not so non-verbally, that she is concerned about the situation with our food supply and that our personal food supply needs some upgrades.

This is a major break-through in my battle with her normalcy bias. I’m most happy that the scales are falling from her eyes and that she is starting to see the things we have seen for quite a while now.

So, off to a couple of grocery stores. Our first stop was Aldi, which I’m coming to be quite fond of. Their prices are reasonable for the most part, and most of the items they carry are as good, and in many cases better, than the similar item at Food Lion or Walmart. At the moment I’m particularly fond of their chocolate chip cookies-a darker, slightly less sweet chocolate makes then more tasty to me.

The store was well stocked with no limits on purchases. We stocked up on a couple of high-use items and bought several others to try out.

Contrast this with the situation at the Food Lion up the street. The paper products aisle was nearly bare again. Just a few packs of cheap paper towels and a small stack of a name brand toilet paper. The health & beauty aisle was hammered. I’d guess 30% of the slots were empty, with some categories totally out. Most of the rest only had a few packages of whatever item. Canned veggies were again hit hard. I’d say they were half full. No boxed Kraft mac and cheese, but there were a few boxes of some brand we’d never seen. Plenty of meat, because the prices were way on the high side for most folks.

I’m liking my freezer more and more. Still in good shape for meat, but we’re nearing time where we’ll refill even if we aren’t quite ready to do so.

Son-in-law reported that the local big box home improvement place had a ton of toilets. Mrs. Freeholder said they probably ordered toilet paper and got toilets.

Our Sunday night family outings are becoming more difficult. A number of restaurants are now closed Sunday evenings. Others are not drawing the number of patrons they were a month or so ago.

I’m seeing the beginnings of a disturbing set of patterns. If I were pressed into making a prediction, I’d say people are getting nervous. Violent terrorism in the streets of cities and towns, continuing poor economic news, the slow pace of reopening/building our economy, the continuing media-driven bad news cycle-they’re all contributing to a low- to mid-level anxiety. 

Coupling this with the mainstream media-hyped Wuflu news, where every new case is breathlessly reported, and with the widening reach of “alternative media”, where end-of-the-world scenarios abound, and we’re priming the pump. Couple that with the continual statist demands to shut down the economy again, and the pump is going to kick on. Then the feces will flow.

I’ll repeat earlier warnings-it’s going to get festive this winter, and you need to be ready for it, as much as you can. Anything you do to improve your position, whether it’s food storage, medical supplies, education on dealing with hard times-it’s all going to put you ahead of the curve. Do it now, because next week may see an unexpected panic that wipes out the grocery stores again.

March and April sucked. Don’t let November, December and January suck.