Shops Ration Sales of Rice as US Buyers Panic

The Guardian (U.K.) ^ | April 24, 2008 | By Andrew Clark in New York, Rory Carroll in Caracas, and Julian Borger

[stravinskyrules]

Super Target rocks. I’ve become addicted to their Archer Farms line.

[acapesket]

Well, if you watched what passes for the TV News tonight, Sam’s club has stopped their unrestricted sales of 20 bags of rice by Consumers only. Those with a business Card or a Gov’t card can still purchase 4 separate 20 lb bags per week.
Apparently there exists a third market for Rice in the US of A.

[acapesket]

By the Bye... try
dictionary.com
Hoarding begins with an “H”.

[eyedigress]

Welcome to FR. I cooked one of their Lasagne’s over the weekend and it was OK.

[elkfersupper]

I haven't eaten a cup of rice total in the last 40 years.

I am not panicked.

[acapesket]

Good on ya mate!
Stuff sucks.

[eyedigress]

I get the same feeling. This is obviously directed to a certain demo.

[6SJ7]

Watch for Barry and Hill calling for a halt to rice exports.

... and call for taking the windfall profits from Big Rice.

[Rembrandt]

The global toothpaste crisis reached the U.K hundreds of years ago resulting in widespread yellow teeth and really awful breath, not to mention a perpetually stuffy and pretentious attitude toward all things not of the U.K..

[Freedom4US]

Well, dictionary.com is singularly useless here, defining hoarding as the act of one who hoards, or hoarding things.

[Cobra64]

"Shops Ration Sales of Rice as US Buyers Panic",/I>

What a bunch of crap. We feed half the world.

[Cobra64]

But seriously, how many Americans would hoard rice?

Not me. I'm hording ammunition.

[Shadowstrike]

agreed.

[ansel12]

“But seriously, how many Americans would hoard rice?”

---

It is a basic stock up food because of it’s shelf life, I like to stay 6 months to 12 months ahead with my rice stock.

[ToastedHead]

Perfect time to put all Americans on Atkins diet. Will lower health care costs too.

[peggybac]

What? No rice?

[VeniVidiVici]

Wal-Mart's cash and carry division, Sam's Club, announced it would sell a maximum of four bags of rice per person to prevent supplies from running short. Its decision followed sporadic caps placed on purchases of rice and flour by some store managers at a rival bulk chain, Costco, in parts of California.

Notice the Brits don't mention the SIZE of the four bags.

[txhurl]

Watch the free traders pounce on me in t-3:

Hedge funds exhausted their equity in mortgages and are now investing heavily in commodities, including Gasoline, Oil and Foods.

[familyop]

"Retail experts said there was little evidence of panic hoarding by the public but that restaurants and smaller retailers were buying up stocks at wholesalers in the expectation that the cost would go even higher."

Ah, I see. So it hasn't been only psychotic weirdos buying so much rice from the bulk retailers.

[familyop]

"Watch the free traders pounce on me in t-3:

Hedge funds exhausted their equity in mortgages and are now investing heavily in commodities, including Gasoline, Oil and Foods."

Why would they pounce? That's one of the messages that they've been sponsoring the media to pump out: only "speculators." The truth of the matter is that China and other producers are still chugging along and using more resources (including much oil) to provide for new domestic consumption and other trading partners. Freight fuel continues to rise along with foreign wholesale prices regardless of our "recession."

My point is that in the consequences of our global economy, nearly all who don't actually manufacture wealth or service such manufacturing from close proximity (and nationality) will soon be replaced in the markets by those who do.