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.
Which works fine, until your suppliers are out, and THEIR suppliers are waiting on raw materials. And WalMart constantly squeezes their suppliers on price, with the result that, if there's a real shortage, those suppliers may decide to ship to higher margin customers instead.
So, walmart bigotry raises it’s ugly head
I just got home from a mainstream grocery store and it was NUTS. TP gone, meat gone, canned goods gone. Whoever wrote that BS article apparently didn’t do their homework.
It's a flu virus, I guess most people blow their noses with toilet paper instead of Kleenex. Then again some people can't tell the difference.
Just in time inventory is the bane of good civil defense planning.
Warehousing items with a margin is important to national security.
because wealthy snowflakes are easily panicked by the fake stream enemedia because they haven’t figured out that pretty much everything they say is propaganda and/or a lie?
It's been mused that probably the folks buying hundreds of rolls of TP are the same ones that don't believe you should be able to buy hundreds of rounds of ammo.
I just got home from Publix in Greenville SC and it was an absolute zoo! No toilet paper and barely any eggs or milk. Meats are going quickly too.
bc they watch CNN?
I was happy to stock up on two liters of azeotropic ethanol today. Sanitizer, fuel, and makes a nice drink if needed. Cheap, available, and stores well. (It’s Everclear..)
Yep.
I tried the regular grocery store last night to get a few things and it was cleared out madhouse
This morning my wife went to our pricey whole food equivalent and the liens were long but they had everything, long lines but all good.
Either, as they mean both the same
to quote KK
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose
He’s thinking ‘what the **** dis she do that for?
Sure. There’s a difference between genuine shortages caused by a spike in demand which is now happening with hand sanitizer for instance. But we’re pooping the same amount and thus the demand for TP is unchanged, the “shortage” is a result of panic buyers who see other people buying TP so they buy some too out of fear they won’t be able to get it in the future.
Which is wrong because all that will happen is a temporary outage til the stock is replenished and then no one will be buying truckloads of TP because they’ve already got a closet full at home.
The question was really about why the regular chains are coping better however, and that’s because they have better distribution systems and more leverage with suppliers.
Kleenex paper towels? There is no such thing
I guess that if you have the right condiments and cook it right you could subsist on toilet paper for a good while.
Not ten minutes ago I was wondering about just this subject.
Our neighbor, who fills Mrs. Flash in on all the latest gossip about pretty much everything, just stopped by to report that Costco has lines going out the door. I was wondering if the Safeway right up the street was busy.
LOL !!
Interesting that East and West coast have the same responses.
I thought perhaps it was more Jewish clientele than liberal, but same response for Dollar General, Costco, Trader Joe’s and Bristol Farm’s, Krogers, Von’s, Stater Bros, & 99c Store.
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