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I was in a Watertown MA supermarket at about 5 when my mother, who lives an hour away, called to tell me she saw this on TV and Watertown was affected. I went
by ericb 17y ago
I was in a Watertown MA supermarket at about 5 when my mother, who lives an hour away, called to tell me she saw this on TV and Watertown was affected.
I went to the bottled water aisle to get water for my family. It was mostly large packs of bottles. I managed to get 15 gallons in big jugs by going in the direction I saw a guy with jugs come from. They wheeled a cart with water out, and people were pulling it in boxes straight from the cart. At first, maybe 3-4 people were loading up on water, but that was it.
Within the 20 minutes I was there, I watched the shelves almost empty completely of water.
One nice thing--the supermarket manager, before I even got to the checkout, had discounted all the water--thank you Shaws!
The psychology of it was interesting. I felt bad about the jugs (I am I hording? should I share) but then thought how I would feel if I didn't have enough clean water for my pregnant wife and child, and family who is visiting for the birth. I calculated that I would feel like a bigger jerk if I didn't look out for them, so I went with it. I also called several friends and gave them a heads up on the run on water. One of them didn't know, and was able to find some at a CVS. So that is my story so far.
The article I just read said that the pipe was a "custom pipe" that burst, so they have no replacement ready and can't even give a timeframe.
edit: on the news they now think it was just a "connector" so it may be an easier fix.
- jackowayed 17y agoSo there's already going to be a major shortage, so they discount to further aggravate the problem? Now, it's not really a major thing to consider since water is so cheap already that almost no one is thinking about the cost when filling their cart with ~$1 gallons of water. They were going to sell out in basically the same amount of time regardless, and this way buys the store good will ("thank you Shaws!", for example). And I agree with your moral rationalization of you hording as much as you can get (within reason), adding in the fact that if you realize it's more than you need, you can always share it with friends/neighbors.
- jcdreads 17y agoAt least Shaw's didn't multiply the price by ten. Sounds like the manager at Shaw's cleverly identified getting rid of all of his (probably profitless) bottled water as fast as possible (and posting a sign outside saying they're out) as the best way to prevent clogging the store with the hoarding hordes.
- jackowayed 17y agoIf there weren't laws against price gouging, I'm sure they would have strongly considered multiplying the price by 10.
- ars 17y agoMaybe not. If you had a choice, would you shop again in a store that did that, vs one that didn't? Shaws will still be selling stuff long after this is over, but people will remember.
- dmm 17y agoHe should have multiplied the price by ten or whatever the market would bear. To do otherwise would create shortages.