Right. Stocking up for the end of the world is not helping anyone.
We went grocery shopping on Friday, and while I'm sure most people saw us and assumed we were stocking up because of what's going on - it's nothing new for us. In a country where 80% of people survive predominantly on food from street vendors and convenience stores (and most apartments don't even have a kitchen), we are the complete opposite extreme (by choice) - we shop for for most things about once every 3 weeks (barring short lived stuff like fresh milk, bread and veggies), cook most meals at home, and have a kitchen that's generally better stocked than the convince store down the street.
Combined with working from home for over a decade, and most of what people are doing to "keep safe" is just how we've lived our every day lives for quite a while really.
I totally agree.
(What follows is social commentary followed by a rant, so feel free to skip unless you are truly bored...)
We have a multigenerational home which includes three teens and a 20 yr old, plus their friends. We have weekly Costco runs that easily hit $600, and that’s with the kids all being able to cook from scratch (actually, they prefer it). [They have also learned to comparison shop, so we also frequent the farmers markets and other stores. We have an oversized fridge in our kitchen, and still ended up buying an extra fridge/freezer set for the basement, just so we can store stuff for the days (hours?) before it’s consumed. Yes, we also use way too much toilet paper.
So we constantly look like we are stocking up for the end of the world, but that’s just our regular consumption. For the record, we still only put out less than 1/2 a trash can of garbage every second week; the rest is recycled or composted.
My question to all those who are stocking up is this: what do you plan on doing with 8 years worth it TP? Even if you are using a roll every two days, ten 12-packs will last well over 6 months. If things are still in lockdown by then, I am sure that Kimberly-Clark or Scotties, or whoever will have increased their production accordingly. And as for the food, it will only last so long. Perhaps if we all take care of each other and work together, this can be an impetus for society to grow and mature a little.
I think it’s safe to assume that if most of the people on this forum are using Apple products, they probably have at least a little disposable income. That puts us in a much better position than 99% of the world, and even a significant proportion of the developed world.
We are now seeing pro athletes (the ones we like to call “entitled”) donating huge sums of money to make sure that those whose jobs are on hold can still get enough to live on. In my area, there are pharmacists and doctors who are volunteering to deliver people’s medications (to the door; no person-to-person contact). On the other hand, I’ve heard of delivery people (Target, Walmart, etc) who are being yelled at because the store ran out of whatever was ordered - as if the delivery person has any control.
This is not likely to be the last crisis of this nature. In the last 20 yrs, we have had H1N1, SARS, Ebola, and this. (Plus many that have flown under the radar).As the population grows and becomes more urbanized, it’s likely to get worse. Either society grows up and learns to deal with this new reality, or it breaks down and we get to see the darker side of humanity.
