Outsource FEMA to Home Depot
When we went through Hurriane Fran in Jacksonville, NC, the fourth day without power we couldnt take it any more. We borrowed the parents credit card and headed to Sears to buy a generator. We were informed there was a line and the generators would be there in a few hours. We waited around 15th in line and by the time we got to the front, the small generators were gone and they had only the huge 8000 watt whole house model left. We bought it...for twice the normal price, $2000. We took it home and fired it up. An hour later, the power came on.
Sears was eventually sued and forced to refund the charge acct for the extra 100% they tried to charge us.
Shouldn't that be "Walmart had the foresight to hire a staff meteorologist?"
“”We’ve got all the key news agencies on the big screens up front,”
They ought to have all the big screens on trucks heading out of town. They’ll be the first things to go once all the looters show up for the things they “need” to “survive”.
I’ve always wondered what homeowners do with the plywood once the storm has passed. These news stories give the appearance that they buy more with each storm.
My local grocery store had pallets of bottled water in the store yesterday. They had put the 24 bottle packs on sale and customers were grabbing them up as quick as the employees were putting them on the shelves.
Canned tuna fish, peanut butter and bread were also selling out real quickly. I notices that quite a bit of the canned goods, such as canned chili and soups, had also been put on sale.
“says Russ Householder, the company’s emergency-response captain.”
Householder is aptly named.
OMG it’s gonna rain in NYC!
The real untold story here is that the reason why Wal-Mart and other big box stores are so good at getting supplies where they are needed in emergencies is because of the profit motive. FEMA doesn’t exist to make a profit — it exists to employ government workers. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, exists to make money for its shareholders. If Wal-Mart thinks they can make money at something, they will do it. If that means sending hundreds of trucks to every area of the country affected by a hurricane, they will do it, and make a pretty penny at it as well. This is why the free market always handles disasters better than any FEMA-like agency could. Their logistical capabilities are easily 10 times better.
At least this preplanning and hysterical hoopla over a tropical storm will do something for somebody’s economy....we all will just have to pay for it ..... at least the few of us that actually pay income taxes any more.