Apparently one bank in town has already shuttered their lobby. This is not the same as closing the bank, but you have to admit…it certainly thins down the amount of people that can access tellers. They closed the lobby, obviously, over contamination concerns but it isn’t hard to imagine that it will be a major inconvenience to people who don’t have the time to sit in a drive-thru line waiting for cash withdrawals that exceed the daily ATM limit. But…if you’d kept cash in the safe, you’d be ahead of a bunch of that.
ETA: And my local credit union, where I bank, just sent this:
Wednesday, March 18th, we will close all lobbies in our branches. This is a very important way to limit group interaction to protect your health and that of our co-workers. Drive-thrus will remain open.
I haven’t checked, but I’ll bet the usual local venues are low on gas cans. I actually had some empties sitting around and just got back from filling them. I doubt gas will be affected too much, but who wants to stand in line or deal with that sort of thing if they don’t have to? Plus, I’m eventually going to use it up anyway so may as well have it on hand. Under lock and key, I might add.
And one of the local hospitals is refusing anything except life-threatening stuff. Hmmm.
And here’s some perspective. People are, indeed, stripping the supermarkets bare of certain things. But have you gone into any supermarket and found it it be devoid of all food? Absolutely bare? Probably not. The supermarkets may be out of the food you like, but they’re not out of food. You may not like store-brand rice krispies, couscous and pilaf, canned beets, water chestnuts, and cream of mushroom soup….but you won’t starve.
I have 72 packages of PopTarts left.
It’ll be interesting to see what the social tolerance in America is for isolation. Personally, I really ‘like’ not going anywhere, but I suspect by week 3 we’ll hear a broad consensus that we need to just get on with normal life.
We can ‘flatten the curve’ as my betters like to say, but this ain’t going away. At some point we have to accept the inherent risk of going about our normal lives.
I think it will be more interesting to see what the tolerance is for people being told not to leave their homes. Historically, many people, esp. in free states, have a BFYTW attitude when someone tells them not to do something.
Question is go to where? Bars and restaurants closed,movie theatres closed,clubs closed,gatherings of more than 10 discouraged. Last time this happened was in Boston a few years back after a “Massacre” by a unpopular government.
Mmmmm, poptarts!
My GF chided me for buying a 12 pack of blueberry muffins. Oh, and the metric ton of food I bought pre-panic. I’m down to two muffins.
She hasn’t checked the garage freezer. A plethora of ribeye steaks for me and turkey burger for her.
She’ll thank me later.
I do believe that one of the greatest benefits of this crisis will be the number of wives who curtail bitching at their husbands about “wasting money” on all that “Stuff we’re never going to use”.
Wife said to me when we’ve moved get rid of that stuff!
The other day she said how are sitting on your stuff?
How are we sitting on your stuff?
My wife the M.D.: “They don’t even have any N95 masks for us. Told us to use regular surgical masks.”
Me: [goes to basement, retrieves box of N95 masks, hands it to her]
Wife: “Where did we get these?”
Me: “We’ve always had those. “They were $0.50 a piece.”
Wife: “Oh.”
$.50@, you got ripped off,Menards had them cheap then the rebate made them almost free 2 years ago. Even I thought 100 was a lot. Christmas came early for my elderly neighbors.
Saw a dr. WHINING about lack of supplies(masks,etc) when it was clear they were wasting supplies at astounding rates. Pres. T. was asking construction companies to donate masks to hospitals that couldn’t be bothered to properly stock basic supplies then waste them.
As of last night the Qwik Trip convenience store by my place had a freezer section full of veggies and pizzas. I picked up two pizzas and a package of peas.
Stopped in at our little co-op grocery, mostly to see how the folks there were holding up, and walked out with a five pound bag of rolled oats and a quart of maypole syrup. They were almost fully stocked.
There’s still stuff around. I guess the hoarder types don’t think to check the little places in out of the way corners of town.
Made a run to Wally World this morning to see how things were doing stock wise. Looks as though yesterday was a high volume day with the store catching down to the general national trend of shortages in the usual areas. Plenty of food even though it’s obvious a lot of stock moved out yesterday. The disinfecting and paper sections were cleaned out. Eggs and dairy were still in stock but also heavily bought (plenty of OJ though) while the meat section was at about 25% but in the process of being stocked by multiple employees – same for paper judging from carts of boxes in that aisle.
The produce section was light potatoes but full stocked on everything else (figures) and the instore bakery area had plenty of product being put out. The outdoors and garden section was jammed full of new vegetable and herb flats with nary a customer in sight (also figures). What was most amusing to me was the amount of plain pool shock in stock while every bottle of bleach in groceries was gone… I did pass on how to use it to the clerk who checked me out after she asked if there was any Lysol left on the other side. She looked a little bewildered… Lots of semis waiting to unload in the lot.
Breakfast time: Pancakes from my last batch of frozen, 2 eggs over easy, bacon and Andouille sausage, coffee (100% Kona), OJ, sliced oranges. As CZ has pointed out before, gotta be well fed to deal with the (insert current apocalyptic situation here).
Regards
Just stopped at Cabelas to survey the carnage (and attempt to use an old gift card). Similar to the deli counter, they were taking numbers for firearms purchases. Zero pmags, zero handgun ammo, zero 5.56 ammo. Plenty of 12ga, 22LR, and obscure caliber. It was a frenzy- glad I dont need anything. As I was walking out empty handed, in walked 3 obvious gangsters- tats, colors, visible underpants, and open carrying. Im guessing they weren’t there shopping for fishing lures. This in a wealthy suburb.
I didn’t even bother with the lobby today.
Just hit the drive through. Around here (I live in a rural area. Two small towns close). Nobody is hoarding. Got gas today and it was in and out. I was the only one gassing up. The real action was inside at the Subway. So far I have had no problems getting anything. Have to hit Wallies tomorrow. That might be fun. Plan on getting there right after opening.
The only thing I can see is ammo is going to be hard to get. All my online suppliers are out of the stuff I keep on hand. So it’s going to be skimpy for awhile.
The “stork” delivery system is going to be very, very busy the end of this year and first half of 2021, I suspect. Maternity ward will be packed. Heck, some babies born this year and next might even have the same daddies!
I have seen the entire store stripped twice. Katrina and Rita. Well, there were glass jars of white asparagus during Rita. I mean that literally. The store baker was a little hispanic man. He decided to stay after they told him he could go home, because he knew people would need his products. He made some of the best Mexican rolls evah! We had plenty at home but I certainly bought his handiwork and profusely thanked him. I will never forget him. Now, locally the wife unit went to the local store. She did report spot shortages. There was no milk, bread products, canned goods, and paper products. There was no beef (IN TEXAS??? WTF!) or pork and only a few packages of chicken wings. She also reported no price increases. Interestingly, the pharmacy was closed up tighter than a drum. That really shocked her (Former RN). I have noticed the call outs are going on about C. T. D. price gouging again. $40.00 for Blazer 9mm and $50.00 for crap 223 Tula? Feels so good to look over my stuff and say hell no I need nothing more.
CZ, heads up on fuel storage,prices will continue to drop($1.25-$1.50) as RBOB at$.66. This will continue till more refineries close for “maintenence”. Jerry cans, real NATO surplus(50’s NOS/unused) fair outside(faded/scratches) insides perfect/unused(gray man?),seals dry(cheap to replace) available from Colemans Surplus $21@ real deal got 2 to test,good to go better than new wavians(get small vent”swiss” nozzles)