March 16, 2020

Thanks!

50 comments:

Inga said...

Truck drivers, store employees, delivery people and medical staff the new heroes. It’s about time they got some appreciation. I nominate working parents with children too, who are scrambling to try to make keeping their jobs and taking care of the kids, who are home from school, work for the family.

Greg said...

Just anecdotal to my own location an hour from Toronto. My son works the night shift for a Loblaws grocery store - the biggest grocer in Canada. Word is that the warehouses are full, but deliveries are about 36 hours behind. The weak link is truck drivers, not enough of them to keep pace with the hoarders.

mockturtle said...

Yes, the private sector will keep us going.

brylun said...

Pierre Delecto wants to send every adult $1,000. Tell him to file his bill in the Senate.

Ann Althouse said...

".. not enough of them to keep pace with the hoarders"

If people can feel confident that the food stores will remain open, they should be able to let go of the hoarding.

Deb said...

Some stores are limiting quantities.

My cousin in Texas said she normally orders groceries online at night and picks them up the next morning. Lately she has had to wait a week.

mockturtle said...

If people can feel confident that the food stores will remain open, they should be able to let go of the hoarding.

Exactly. People are afraid of things not being available. Once they realize they will be, their anxiety will decrease. I hope.

brylun said...

Once the hoarders have hoarded what they think is sufficient, the shelves will be full again. Maybe by mid-next week we will have a glut of toilet paper...

brylun said...

Isaac Asimov, 1956, "The Naked Sun" - no human contact, robots deliver necessities...

YoungHegelian said...

I told a checker at my local grocery store on Thursday that, while it may not feel like it to her, she's doing God's work.

I tipped the bag boy $5. Last night, on a $42 take-out bill, a $20 tip.

MayBee said...

people like them are and will be heroes to keep humanity fed! Thank them!

That's true, and I did thank the people at Target yesterday.

BUT ALSO....the people who make the products have to go to work too, right? And the people who work at the facilities that produce electricity and gas, and who make the water flow.

So we can't shame everyone who has to work- or who we believe have to work, because they take care of *us*.

Inga said...
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Inga said...

“If people can feel confident that the food stores will remain open, they should be able to let go of the hoarding.”

Exactamundo! There seems to always be an initial wave of panic at the beginnings of world events like wars, pandemics, etc. I recall reading how during WW2 people were panicking trying to evacuate their cities in masses, with news of the enemy’s army advancing, only to have to turn back and go home again when they realized their circumstances were more precarious than had they just stayed put.

Panic buying at first was inevitable, but even during the height of the epidemic in China, people were still ordering take out, the grocery stores were still being stocked on a regular basis. People were paying for groceries via a phone app that would get scanned, no debit or charge cards or cash of course were allowed in the transaction. Store staff were gowned up and gloved up. People went out and got prescriptions from the pharmacies for each other, the deliveries were left at the door. They made it work, so can we.

Breezy said...

People may be hoarding so they don't have to go to the store, among other people, in order to buy more. It may have nothing to do with availability, in other words, but it has to do with exposure. YMMV. It is possible to shop in "off hours" to reduce that exposure, but some people are more extreme than others in these times we're in.

Greg said...

My wife called me while I was at work. Now there are rumours about the government forcing the liquor stores to close. So she went and at 10am it was packed with people stocking up

Rory said...

Costco on Friday morning was a madhouse, much improved this morning as I got what I couldn't get then and had what could pass for a normal line.

tcrosse said...

Here in Las Vegas our local Kroger-in-all-but-name is shouting from the rooftops that they're hiring. Everything else in town is shut down.

rhhardin said...

Restaurant workers have a job waiting at supermarkets.

JohnAnnArbor said...

I don't understand the bottled water. The water plants mostly run themselves with a few people. The water will be fine.

JohnAnnArbor said...

Restaurant workers have a job waiting at supermarkets.

Kroger is hiring--they blast-emailed their customers about it. A first.

n.n said...

Flyover country. The builders of ivory towers. The workers behind the cosmopolitan coif.

Francisco D said...

Exactly. People are afraid of things not being available. Once they realize they will be, their anxiety will decrease. I hope.

The coronavirus outbreak is probably going to peak in the US in the next 5-10 days, until then people will be afraid and they will feel feel helpless.

Panic buying gives people some sense of control. At this point, that meager sense of control is more important than having more toilet paper.

Kevin said...

Agreed with Breezy, the issue is not whether the stores remain open or not, it's that every time you venture into one you risk exposure, even if you are gloved and masked.

LA_Bob said...

I think it's rumors of "lockdowns" (as in Italy and a rumored lockdown coming to NYC). People are afraid they won't be able to leave their homes to shop normally. Certainly true in very populous Southern California. People are stocking up so they won't be caught short.

As for water, God forbid anyone drink tap water. Regardless of "contaminants" it will keep you very much alive for the hopefully short time this crisis ensues.

Ice Nine said...

>> Kevin said...
Agreed with Breezy, the issue is not whether the stores remain open or not, it's that every time you venture into one you risk exposure, even if you are gloved and masked.<<

This. And it's amazing to me many how many people don't understand this. We stocked up big three weeks ago because we knew this last weekend's bare shelf scene was coming soon. And we did it strictly in order to be able to stay home and not have to go out for groceries if/when the Corona SHTF. We had little doubt that there would be food available during a quarantine period; scarcity was not our concern.

Francisco D said...

As for water, God forbid anyone drink tap water. Regardless of "contaminants" it will keep you very much alive for the hopefully short time this crisis ensues.

I have been suing Brita filters for years because I don't want a lot of empty water bottles filling up my recycling bin. It is cheaper and better for the environment.

Francisco D said...

using not suing

Rick said...

mockturtle said...
Yes, the private sector will keep us going.


A natural emergency spurs business people to overcome obstacles to get you what you want. Contrast that with socialists whose reaction to this emergency is demanding government take over healthcare to further their political careers.

Rick said...

Once they realize they will be, their anxiety will decrease. I hope.

Milk, eggs, TP, frozen foods, and many kinds of meat were completely gone from Sams this weekend. Milk was also out at the regular stores but was back on the shelf this morning.

People are worried about needing to feed the kids extra meals while they're off from school, frozen pizza is apparently the meal of choice.

Larry J said...

Arthur C. Clarke famously said that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. This is a great learning opportunity about the countless people behind the scenes who make everyday magic happen. It takes a lot of people to grow, process, package, and deliver those thousands of items that go on the grocery shelves. Likewise, it takes a host of people to make the lights come on when we flip a switch, for clean, safe drinking water to flow when we open a tap, and for our wastes to go away when we flush. A secure food supply and public utilities make modern life possible. They're an invaluable public health component.

Most of the time, these people are invisible to most people. But, as the old saying goes, not all heroes wear capes.

TickTock said...

Not all of the buying is fear of stores running out. I started buying canned goods from amazon for myself and my sons family so that no one had to be exposed in a supermarket for a while.

reader said...

In California we are constantly lectured about having an emergency store of water either in case of losing service due to earthquakes or being directed not to use water during a fire. In San Diego we have had issues with water pressure during wildfires - Witch Creek and Cocos. It’s Pavlovian now. There is an emergency where is my water.

mockturtle said...

Rick observes: A natural emergency spurs business people to overcome obstacles to get you what you want.

Yes, one thing I appreciate about Trump is that he's not a bureaucrat.

mockturtle said...

Francisco D notes: I have been suing [sic] Brita filters for years because I don't want a lot of empty water bottles filling up my recycling bin. It is cheaper and better for the environment.

Me, too, when at home. And my RV has a reverse-osmosis filter for drinking water. It's bizarre that so many people who claim to be environmentally conscious buy cases of bottled water for everyday use. It's insane.

jaydub said...

“If people can feel confident that the food stores will remain open, they should be able to let go of the hoarding.”

Hardly. The current reaction is no different from the reaction to the threat of snow flurries in the South were everyone immediately heads to the stores to stock up on bread and milk, immediately followed by the schools closing. (Don't know why bread and milk, but it never varies.) This allows the local authorities and the media to work overtime to create a perception of pending snowmageddon in order to stampede the herd. Keeping the herd in a frenzy is required to get the mayor and school board some face time on local TV in order to demonstrate strong leadership and to keep eyeballs on the TV weatherman - until people happen to notice there was no accumulation of snow and their day was wasted for nothing. Then, all the politicians and school officials conduct a postmortem on the non event in order to get more face time explaining why it turned out to be overkill but it was all necessary to ensure the safety of the children because even though there was no snow maybe there was black ice on the roads or something and the buses should run. This TV episode, of course, concludes with all involved being praised for recognizing it was better to be safe than sorry and the TV station advising all to stay tuned to WKXY for up to date weather alerts on the next weather emergency.

The current panic smells much like the snow-flurries-in-the-South situation, only on steroids and involving national and state politicians and national media and will last months instead of a day. Hopefully they know what they are doing because this also involves the whole economy, peoples' livelihoods, mortgages, future retirement plans and mental health on a scale that allows no room for error. The people living on the edge may never recover from all this social distancing, so the powers that be had better hope that it was the only option and totally worth the pain to the country. I have my doubts but I pray they are right. As for the folks working overtime to stock grocery store shelves and drive trucks, they are victims of the panic, too, but at least they have a continued source of income that is being denied to millions of their fellow citizens.

Michael K said...

In San Diego we have had issues with water pressure during wildfires - Witch Creek and Cocos. It’s Pavlovian now. There is an emergency where is my water.

In the 1961 Bel Air fire, Red Skelton, who lived down the hill from my in-laws, ordered a gasoline powered pump delivered to his home that morning when he heard about the fire. He pumped out his swimming pool and saved his home, one of he few in that area that survived.

tim in vermont said...

I am torn between wanting to help out, and knowing that there are members of my household who would be at very high risk, should they get it. I feel like not being part of the problem is the most that I can realistically do right now.

tim in vermont said...

"They made it work, so can we.”

I don’t trust a word out of China, but we can make it work. People have lived through worse.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

You realize that about HALF of those people being thanked for helping society get along will be forced to stay home in Newsome's dictatorship.

You're welcome.

MayBee said...

DBQ- that's what I was just thinking.

wild chicken said...

Agreed with Breezy


Yeah that was totally wrong. It's about being able to stay home for a couple weeks.. Some of us would go shopping every day otherwise.

tim in vermont said...

I still have the water in my basement stored in jars from the Cuban Missile Crisis.

mockturtle said...

Squirrels can sense a harsh winter coming and store up more nuts than usual. There is a human instinct for this kind of thing, although I'm pretty content to keep a minimal amount of anything on hand. My sister has always kept enough food and supplies to feed and equip a small army for a year. It's a nesting thing and seems to affect women more.

Yesterday, I did go out to my RV, parked in the yard, and sanitize the water system and then filled it up with fresh water. But I have NO bottled water on the premises. None. Zip. There are some dried camping meals leftover from when I was kayak camping and a dozen boxes of spicy chicken ramen, unrelated to the virus. I'm good.

mockturtle said...

Now 4430 confirmed cases in the US and 77 deaths.

Michael K said...

Apparently, truck stops are closing all but gas pumps. Drivers can't get showers or food.

Not smart.

Inga said...

“They made it work, so can we.”

“I don’t trust a word out of China, but we can make it work. People have lived through worse”

I don’t either, but there are several documentaries filmed by people from different countries with hidden cameras.

Michael K said...
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Michael K said...

Britain has now announced that their plan for COVID 19 will result in excess deaths and they are changing it.

The UK only realised "in the last few days" that attempts to "mitigate" the impact of the coronavirus pandemic would not work, and that it needed to shift to a strategy to "suppress" the outbreak, according to a report by a team of experts who have been advising the government.

The report, published by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team on Monday night, found that the strategy previously being pursued by the government — dubbed "mitigation" and involving home isolation of suspect cases and their family members but not including restrictions on wider society — would "likely result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and health systems (most notably intensive care units) being overwhelmed many times over".

DanTheMan said...

Why are all these people congregating in single place? Don't these lower class laborers understand how important it is that we all self quarantine?

They should be told to work from home.

arog1999 said...

When's the last time jossie andresse told the truth?