BS: New rules for Grocery shopping

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 09:39 AM

Himself is making bread right now; I can hear him slamming the dough ball on the countertop. Dunno if that really does any good, but he swears it develops the gluten.

The baking aisles at our two supermarkets are cleaned right out of flour and yeast, but we have enough to keep us going for a couple of weeks. When that runs out, the grist mill at Arva, a village about 45 minutes down Highway 7, sells to the public -- all you have to do is go there. They use wheat from Ontario growers.

Fleischman's active dry yeast (the old-fangled kind, but not quite as old-fangled as yeast cake) has been out of stock in Stratford since Saturday. I guess if things get really bad, we can start another sourdough culture.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 09:41 AM

On a serious note, how can one person do the shopping for a few vulnerable people when they are restricted in what they can take? The advice is to help your elderly or at risk neighbours but would you be able to justify the duplicates in your trolley?

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 10:24 AM

That's a very good point Dave. We could have shopped for half the village (lots of elderly folk here) but we'd have been challenged if we'd had more than the permitted amount of items in the trolley.
I suppose one would have to go back and forth like a shuttle. But we'd have been recognised. ("Only black man in Fakenham...")

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 01:03 PM

OK, Rain Dog, I've let them out now. But only because they insisted on not keeping the required social distance apart. At the same time, I've cleaned my reading glasses... :-(

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Rain Dog
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 01:12 PM

Glad to hear it sir.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 01:20 PM

You will have to cope with things that are not well thought out on the fly. The least of these are Pet foods which will be available by and by.

You should note that most of what I have fortold has come to pass.
Its time to say what I DO NOT forsee.

IN A YEAR FROM NOW we will not see; still no petfood, in fact no more pets since most have been consumed. The Recipe thread will Not describe how to prepare and serve each other. etc

Yes anti virals and anti malarial drugs may be as or more helpful than aspirin, but do not pin your hopes on these miracle cures like Boris or Donald.

You are the ambassador of your culture/science and with sacrifice we shall see our finest hour.

EDIT '20' to 54 will display 39% of dire symptoms from corona infection. Older people with extra conditions carry most of the fatal results.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 02:50 PM

How much stockpiling can one house hold?

Then again, when will panic buying level off?

Anyone in the UK remember the salt shortage? No reason, just irrational panic.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 03:03 PM

I'm wondering how many times I've watched a scene in 'break down of civilized society' movies,
where despised wealthy greedy hoarders, and black market spivs,
get beaten to death,
as their hoarded stash of vital supplies is ransacked by desperate starving local citizens...???

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 03:20 PM

Is that why some Americans were (on the TV News) queuing up to buy guns?
"Stick 'em up! Hand over ya toilet rolls buddy!"

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 03:23 PM

Good thing I bought next month's supply of dog food earlier this week, though it was to save myself having to make extra trips over there when I've only just started driving again.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 05:46 PM

I was talking to a Folk Club Organiser now principally a vintage shop owner/muso.
He spent time in the Netherlands. And when talking about shortages and comparing now and tales of WW2 I commented "on that scale, we are barely registering". He was told the Netherlands had it much worse, and (exaggeration maybe, but not that much) - a person could get mugged, shot and who knows, for the turnip in their bag!

Judith van Dijkhuisen who runs the Cheltenham Folk Club wrote a tune for me "Drowning in the Deep Canal" from her mother's memories of the bodies that could be seen in canals during WW2 - collaborators and maybe black marketeers.

Call me perverse, but it is at the level of adventure/amusement/challenge at the moment to many of us. Even (hopefully) if we get 'flu.

King Boris's 12 weeks will put us in the middle of June. Personally I reckon: bless his tiny little mind, he has a job on his hands. AND hoping, against hope.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 05:58 PM

When I was teaching in TAFE (Technical and Further Education i.e. post-school) classes, at one stage I was working with the literacy and numeracy teachers. I sat in on one of the numeracy classes and the teacher was doing the numerical estimations topic. She was talking about scenarios like being at the supermarket and doing price comparisons on different brands. At that stage supermarkets were not showing the price per unit under the price of the items so the calculations needed to be done either in your head or with a calculator. E.g. if a 300 gram can of beans costs $1.20 is that better value than a 400 gram can which costs $1.50?

This is something I have always done whenever I shop, however for a lot of the students in that class this was a whole new way of thinking and decision making.

So then I was thinking about the panic buying of toilet paper. One estimation of the duration of the COVID 19 pandemic is about 6 months. so, if a family uses 2 toilet rolls per week and they panic-buy 5 packets of 30 toilet rolls, thats 150 toilet rolls divided by 2, that's 75 weeks' supply of toilet rolls for that family, or 1.5 years worth.

Have they really thought this through?

Anyway, after yet another dawn raid on the elderly & disability shopping hour I have finally come home with a packet of toilet rolls. I now do not have to contemplate making my own or using soap and water or an ancient Roman sponge on a stick. I have also offered some of my meagre stash to my sister and her hubby who are currently in self isolation after returning from overseas.

So, no more of this up at sparrowf@rt malarky. I can sleep easy tomorrow morning.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 10:35 PM

I've seen some great cartoons about toilet rolls, here's a good collection The Cartoons Of Christopher Downes most of his current cartoons refer to covid 19 (p.s. his first cartoon refers to the belief that the long extinct Tasmanian tiger might not be extinct)

During the recent bushfires planes dropped water - picture a plane dropping toilet rolls to the happy population, & imagine a lovely photo of St Bernard dogs, with each barrel replaced by a toilet roll!

I'm heading to the supermarket soon & am down to my last 2 & a half rolls, & tho my younger neighbour has offered his spares if I need them, I'll inspect the empty shelves (in case I'm there at stocking time - a faint hope at lunch time, it's even a faint hope for those who wait for the doors to open) before calling on him in the future. He also gave me his spare (small) hand sanitiser & I've been looking for one to replace it - he needs his big bottle for work, but it might run out ...

sandra

we can never have too many cartons in trying times - Political Cartoons Australia
Political cartoons - US & more

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 10:42 PM

Just use both sides of the paper, Sandra, and you'll be fine! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 10:43 PM

Ok, second Christopher Downes cartoon, Where's Pestilence? He's self-isolating.

I've been thinking that having watched Terry Pratchett's Good Omens a couple of months ago, it might have been more prophetic than I realised.

Apocalypse, here we come!

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 10:49 PM

eek, a typo & I previewed twice

we can never have too many cartons (CARTOONS) in trying times

I was not referring to boxes of toilet paper, tho a family here ordered what they thought was a box of 48 rolls from a independent manufacturer Who gives crap & got 48 boxes, 12 years supply! The load is being sold to friends & will become a school fundraiser.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Iains
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 11:55 PM

Desperate Times

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Mar 20 - 11:56 PM

I was there at stocking time! tho lots more shelves are empty, the shop is full of signs restricting purchases of various items, but I got everything on my list & a few sales items, too!   

Helen, when the series came out I re-read Good Omens (yet again!), & for once wished I had a Television to watch the series.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 01:09 AM

Sandra, I never saw Good Omens listed on TV here unless it was on the subscription channels. I only have free-to-air. I bought the DVD on pre-order, but re-read the book before the DVD arrived. I just Googled and the DVD's are only about $20 from a lot of shops.

And we all know you meant cartons and not cartoons. Of beer that is. Unless you are a teetotaller of course.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 02:40 AM

Every one is a drinker, it's just that some of us don't drink fermented liquids!

Good Omens was on subscription channel, Amazon but not Netflix

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:02 AM

Not even kombucha?

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:33 AM

that's 75 weeks' supply of toilet rolls for that family, or 1.5 years worth.

Well, Yes. In normal times, but COVID-19 - by its nature - demands higher usage, and more often. Say 3 times more. 1.5 years looks more like 0.5. And overstocking is insurance, ie redundancy in the original etymological meaning, not the JIT/kanban of modern thinking.

I'm not condoning it, but people are resourceful (& lazy), so the philosophy is: hoard toilet rolls first. Think of alternatives when supplies are gone.

I remember an example of East German humour in the Soviet era of shortages. Picture a man trying to snatch a toilet roll from a taller man holding it a loft. "Give it to me, I need it" - "Why should I? I have only just had it laundered!"

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 06:38 AM

So Mr Red, does the virus cause diarrhoea? I didn't know that!

Husband has just got back from our little village shop with a small bag of potatoes. He's very sensible and didn't try to buy loads to stockpile, just a few spuds for our needs. If the shop continues to supply the village like this, we won't need to do battle in a virtually empty supermarket again for the 'duration'.
I see there are now eleven cases of the virus in the whole of Norfolk.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 07:38 AM

I think he means that since you are at home, you are only using your home supply of toilet paper, whereas if you are employed and otherwise out and about, you will sometimes use the office supply, the cafe's supply, whoever hosts your folk club's supply ….

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 08:30 AM

Ah I see DMcG, thank you!

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 10:52 AM

The early news articles that I saw did mention diarrhoea, but not later ones.

My point was that I very much doubt that the panic buyers sat down with a calculator or pen and paper to work out how much toilet paper they normally consume over a specific period and therefore how much they may conceivably need if the supply becomes scarce. I doubt whether they even thought it through about whether toilet paper would become scarce and why. The definition of panic buying seems to imply a severe lack of rational analytical thought. (That's excluding the people who thought they would make a quick buck selling them at exorbitant prices.)

The people who now have a huge number of toilet rolls stored in their home are possibly looking a bit bewildered when they see how slowly their stash dwindles. A wall of toilet rolls today will still be a wall tomorrow and next week, and there will not be much of a dent in it even in a few months, even if they do contract diarrhoea.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 11:07 AM

It's a shame we can't get bogrolls on prescription for IBS...

or.. is it worth asking...???

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 11:14 AM

But why toilet rolls FFS? It's coronavirus, not dysentery!

Well one of the symptoms is diarrhea. So it is dysentery, I'm afraid.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 11:20 AM

Apparently, even worse.. violent coughing and the runs at the same time..

Is there panic buying of Tena adult nappies...???

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 11:35 AM

I've been wondering whether our government will make an announcement that every household will receive a grant of a packet of toilet rolls and some hand sanitiser.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 11:48 AM

For a couple of years since realising just how expensive bogrolls were becoming,
I have been trying to implement a primarily arse wiping only rule,
but my wife can still find endless non essential uses to waste toilet paper..

EVEN NOW.. we had a row about it the other night...

What annoys me most is when she absent mindedly throws away the sheets of Kitchen roll
I've already used with anti bac spray for food preparation surfaces,
and have left to dry out to use for dirtier jobs like mopping the floor around the bins...

What were the world war 2 mottos about careless waste...???

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Iains
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 12:47 PM

With supermarket shelves emptying at a vast rate of knots(hopefully a temporary aberration) Here are a couple of articles to give pause for thought.This is not to scare but indicate vulnerabilities to be aware of.
1)By 1995 the UK had dismantled strategic foodstocks
2)The truck driver refinery blockade of 2000 scared the UK government silly.   So much so that one has to go to Canada for an analysis
3)It is said that society is but 9 meals from anarchy.


https://www.subbrit.org.uk/features/strategic-food-stockpile/

http://www.iwar.org.uk/cip/resources/PSEPC/fuel-price-protests.htm

https://internationalman.com/articles/nine-meals-from-anarchy/

https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/e0923bb9ffdeef6ebd_34m6bv9jo.pdf

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 12:52 PM

We'd better hope organised crime gangs get too ill
to hijack food and bog roll lorries...

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 01:57 PM

When the schools close will robber-gangs break in and steal the bog rolls and hand sanitisers?

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 02:13 PM

More to the point, if we do have any bogrolls left in the house,
do we need to notify our insurers
to add them to the list of valuables...???

Gold may soon be worth it's weight in bog rolls...

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 02:31 PM

I didn't even bother trying a Walmart or Costco but large local grocery stores have everything we needed even a couple days ago.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 02:42 PM

I saw one of the recent Adam Hills The Last Leg episodes and there was an image of a man at the seaside playing one of those game things with the big glass case and the hook to pick up prizes but the case contained toilet rolls instead of trinkets or chocolate bars.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:31 PM

Aldi had everything I needed today, though some categories are running low, and they were limiting facial tissue to two boxes. I will note that it's a really good thing that I love spinach, because that's about all that was left in the frozen vegetables section. There were plenty of opinions while standing in line to check out, and I did suggest that the three women behind me were standing too close together so they spread out.

I live near a restaurant supply store, and today their staff were in the parking lot directing traffic. It has always been my well kept secret, a little placed tucked out of sight in the middle of an industrial area, but not so much now. But I did buy three boxes of vinyl gloves (one for me, two for family members.) I've used them for years for cooking and crafts and painting and such. Now, they'r also for things in public like doors and shopping carts. Since I intend to be in for at least the next two weeks I was fortunate to find frozen broccoli and bags of frozen carrots at the restaurant supply cash and carry store.

If I can get the garden started soon I can soon have my own lettuce.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:48 PM

If incubation is taking on average 5 days, I'm thinking do buy more than normal such that one may have a couple of weeks worth of groceries, in order to, if need be, effectively isolate...but, in my case, that would mean going without sliced bread - the best thing since...

Either way, provided people are not buying foods that will go off, after a while the shelves may go back to normal with such change in shopping habits/frequency, yes?

My poem "My Diet"

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:51 PM

You're like Trump, bending every conversation in a way to blow your own horn. Enough with the bad poetry.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:56 PM

It depends how much of this selfishly horded food gets thrown away uneaten in bins..

Semi fresh refrigerated foods easily catch up beyond use by dates before folks realise it..

I always go by what it looks and smells like, rather than dates..
and if in doubt boil suspect meat to buggery with plenty of garlic and curry sauce..

I hate chucking food away...

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 03:57 PM

But I prefer rotten meat to rotten poetry...

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 04:14 PM

hehe Trump is too inflexible to blow his own horn but he has this fiction that he has an image to protect.

Much like the fiction that he has a respondsibility to uphold which he then deflects onto Pense or others to blame but he is the first to say that he takes no respondsibility. I've never seen anything like it except among psychopaths.

When he can't blame the facts or media he lies outright.
Truth can not get a word in edgewise. But on rare full moons he can resemble a human being like the legendary Anglo Saxon Lucanfuerer

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 04:51 PM

Vogon poetry is often accompanied with the aroma of spoiled hamburger and eggs. If you can survive that, there is dumpster diving which can net you great sealed cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:04 PM

...I'm sure that was a typo, folks - Donuel, being as sweet as a mango, was, rather, most likely referring to my vegan poetry just above.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: gillymor
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:14 PM

I haven't read food poetry that good since the last time I visited the Taco Bell drive-thru.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:31 PM

...very sorry I don't have a poem about it but, as a kid going out with family and friends in Sydney, I recall hating Mexican food; however, when running low on cash during a visit to LA in 1996, I decided to go over the border and pay for a week in a Tijuana hotel, which served delicious Mexican food - bello.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:35 PM

But this is about grocery shopping.

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: Iains
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:51 PM

All the checkouts in my neck of the woods have perspex panels giving a modicum of protection for the cashier from the hungry hordes

Subject: RE: BS: New rules for Grocery shopping
From: gillymor
Date: 20 Mar 20 - 05:58 PM

I guess you don't get sarcasm, WAV.

Back to groceries, I visited my Publix at opening time this morning and was happy to find an ample stock of TP (all gone by now, no doubt). They've instituted a policy of one package per family and did the same with water in larger containers so perhaps they'll get this hoarding and panic-buying under control. It's a shame that it has to be enforced.