Posted on 03/13/2020 1:49:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
Fancy grocery stores like Trader Joe's in affluent neighborhoods have lines out the door, regular stores, not so much.
Different types of people handle situations differently, especially when it comes to stuff like a pandemic of a deadly Wuhan virus. But in New York City and elsewhere, an interesting pattern is emerging in regard to fancy chain grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods which have been picked over like a carcass and still have long lines. Meanwhile, regular neighborhood chain stores have a few shortages, but are operating pretty normally.
The evidence is anecdotal, but it’s reflected on social media as well. I went to my local grocery this morning and there were a few people hoarding, but it wasn’t packed, it was well stocked, and seemed to be humming along.
COVID-19 has officially hit NYC.
There’s not a single piece of food left at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. pic.twitter.com/L5mF15LmRs
— Yano (@JasonYanowitz) March 12, 2020
Over at Trader Joe’s, multiple news reports have made the popular millennial hot spot sound like a post apocalyptic hellscape.
Here is video of the line inside one Manhattan location.
There is probably more than one reason that these differences are occurring, but it seems highly likely that the dispositions and incomes of the two sets of customers are playing a role in the run on Trader Joe’s and the slow steady traffic of old school grocers. The former are almost all in affluent sections of the city, the latter more often in middle and lower middle class neighborhoods.
But it’s not just in New York City.
This pattern is also happening in DC. Costco and big-box stores much worse than neighborhood grocers. https://t.co/mq9XzZaUfm
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) March 13, 2020
Whole Foods, Los Angeles. 8:00pm Thursday, March 12. pic.twitter.com/fpVJb4yHK3
— Arezou Rezvani (@ArezouRezvani) March 13, 2020
In the industrial part of Houston supermarkets are stocked with light traffic. In the expensive parts of town the whole foods are packed. It doesn't pay to be extremely online.
— Chris Raab (@ChrisRaab3) March 13, 2020
Welp.
This is what the Trader Joe’s on 14th street in DC looks like this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/31BDKERnEn
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) March 13, 2020
The scene this afternoon from the Trader Joe’s in Cambridge. pic.twitter.com/wysIrl8Ujz
— Jonathan Yuan (@jyuanathan) March 13, 2020
There is something to be said for the fact that more affluent people may be paying closer attention to the virus, but before we get to that, there are a few practical reasons this could be happening.
The first is income. New Yorkers who aren’t wealthy are not known for being swimming in savings. For many, the idea of dropping $500 right now for a stockpile would interfere with tight budgets. Another factor is space, people in small apartments don’t have storage for 27 twelve packs of toilet paper. And small apartments mean small fridges and freezers compared to those in new luxury buildings.
But it’s not completely off base to point to some psychological differences as well. For one thing, white collar professionals are far more likely to have jobs that allow them to stay tuned in constantly to the updates that cause anxiety and panic buying. The wage-worker, who isn’t on a device all day, is watching a severe pandemic occur, but not in a constant cascade of panic. The affluent in these areas also tend to be more progressive than middle class New Yorkers, and the progressive media has leaned very hard into the worst possible outcomes, whether for political reasons or not.
Whatever the reasons for the disparity, there seems to be two different realities playing out in the city regarding the Wuhan virus. Everyone might be taking precautions, but in different ways across socio-economic lines.
In the working class neighborhoods rules and advice from officials are being followed, but not exceeded to the point of baring the the shelves of the stores. Ultimately, this is probably a much more responsible approach, as local stores will have better control of their supply lines.
It’s a tale of two cities, one experiences a bit of a panic-driven freak out and another takes a more measured approach. I find myself in the latter camp, and I could be wrong, but at least I won’t be spending two hours on line at Whole Foods.
david marcus is full of used food.
My wife went to two unglamorous stores yesterday and night before and there were lines going out the door.
A co-worker relayed to me the scene his wife saw at a Wally World near where they live. Lines down the aisles.
She had to get an attendant to open up a self-serve line and two people were incensed he was helping her out rather than them. They were yelling at him to open up the ammunition case, “We need that ammo RIGHT NOW!!!”.
I don’t worry about the water. It is highly unlikely to be cut off in this sort of a crisis and besides I have a fifty gallon barrel full with two silver dollars in it.
My son cynically posited that the coronavirus is a plot by Big Bidet...
Went to a Walmart to top off some food items and it was packed. Many shelves already partially barren.
Stopped at another local grocery store and it was busy but still had reasonable stocks outside of toilet paper and cleaners.
The one thing that I noted was each store had every single register staffed and the lines were deep at all of them.
It’s a line from Me and Bobby McGee written by Kris Kristofferson
Our Logistics from farm/factory to shelf averages 17 days.
This will cause so many nightmares that I can see suppliers sitting on their goods. It might take months to catch up to the normal supply flow if this keeps up.
I started stacking my freezers/dry goods deep about 2 weeks ago in anticipation of all this madness. My wife looked at me like I was crazy when I showed her the receipts. I just told her to trust me & wait a week or so.
Yup! And they pulled a thread of mine because I stated that fact.
A lot of people on here now are completely out of their minds.
GD! You cant kill a Finlander. My wife is proof.
Her folks are from near South Range. The only place where I got to see dogs sunning themselves on the roof of a house in April. They got up there on the snow banks.
AND THAT my friend is a absolute fact!
I started a good month ago when I saw how China was reacting to the virus.
I didn’t listen to what they said. What they did told me it was far more serious than most people are admitting.
Anyways, I didn’t tell mr. mm until today, about all the stocking up cause he’s always telling me to not buy so much stuff and *Do we really need all that?*.
Well, heck yeah, now we do.
And I am vindicated.
Especially since he was telling me to make sure to buy lots of extra meat and stuff.... today. I was getting a laugh out of it because now HE’S the one panic buying, so to speak.
I also realize that if I get this, I’m probably not going to make it and the food will not be necessary, but someone will use it. It will not go to waste.
So our goal is to survive the economic disruption and not being able to get food for a couple weeks and to avoid as much human contact as possible.
Agree I went to a local supermarket in a blue collar neighborhood and it was no issues everything in stock and no crowds. Today I went into the big higher end market in my area and it looked like bomb went off
Very interesting and large contrast
If you have a couple weeks worth of groceries that should be enough to weather this storm.
If this starts to spread like wildfire (cheer for it Libs, we know you love & worship death), then I can see everything tanking & fast.
A lot of companies are now forcing their staff to telework. Not a good sign for commerce.
The Lord is still in control, though. This too shall pass.
Fortunately, mr. mm works from home as a consultant.
After he was let go a few years ago and invited to take an early retirement, he did what he always talked about doing, and that is start a consulting business.
It’s worked out well and most of his work is on the computer so there’s virtually no need to go out in public or amongst crowds. Saves on gas, work clothes, extra food costs, etc.
I will also be stopping by the stores as I go past them to see how they are doing with supplies and replenish mine as they get low and I run across things I need/use.
Walmart in my rural area in Virginia is jammed with people buying entire buggies full of white bread or diapers or paper towels. These are not prosperous, educated people, but almost all of them are white, interestingly.
Rich suburbanites like to live in a bubble. Every possible threat causes panic. They were the ones who stopped buying apples after the bogus Alar scare.
My boy in the Salt Lake City area reports WinCo and Sam’s Clubs are being stripped of EVERYTHING. At WinCo, you had to catch someone emptying their cart in order to grab one - none at all were available.
Like many of us, he’s totally pist at the hysteria being exhibited.
It is the same thing when a hurricane is coming. Go buy 20 loaves of bread and 5 gallons of milk, but don’t get any peanut butter. Mind you that will all go bad when you lose power (which we won’t with the virus, but probably would with a hurricane). To heck with the fact that you don’t drink milk, nor will you eat a sandwich. These are the same people who have a six-pack of beer or soda in their fridge, and maybe some cheese. If they normally have two rolls of toilet paper in their house I would be surprised.
Local Wally World was running over with people. Not a single roll of toilet paper in the store, nor any dry beans or rice.
Seems like a contradiction - if you eat a bunch of rice you won’t need toilet paper....
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