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Companies that feed America brace for labor shortages and worry about restocking
- sand_castles 7y agoStart paying people 40 USD / hour and watch even people in wheelchair start walking.
- epicureanideal 7y agoExcept California has price gouging laws that make it illegal to increase prices more than 10% in an emergency situation. Good luck doubling or tripling wages with that 10% margin. Price gouging laws should have a very high ceiling to ensure legitimate business needs can be met, to compensate workers for increased risks and or extra shifts.
- jacobwilliamroy 7y agoIf the auto and finance industries can have government hand outs, then surely the food industry can have them too?
- HarryHirsch 7y agoDon't worry, they'll get them. It's a matter of national security. Food riots are a traditional precursor to revolutions.
- jacobwilliamroy 7y agoWhy doesnt everyone just eat cake?
- bruceb 7y agocould just stop having the sales they have in the weekly coupons that are ussually 30% off or B1G1 free. No law against ending "on sale" prices.
- lalaland1125 7y agoPlease stop spreading misinformation. The price gouging laws allow prices to increase without limit to pay for increased wages or costs: https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/pricegougingduringdisasters#8C https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/pricegougingduringdisasters#8C
- graeme 7y ago“Can prove”. “May not be liable”. Sounds like a hassle, and uncertain. Especially given the prevailing mob mentality against raising prices in an emergency.
- netcan 7y agoFirst, these laws are generally pretty flexible. They account for cost increased during emergencies. Also, grocery costs vary anyway and so the "base" price can be higher than normal supermarket prices. Second, labour costs are not 100% of a supermarket's costs, so a 10% increase covers a lot of extra labour. Considering the sheer volume of sales they're doing, it might actually pay for that %200-%300 wage increase... though you don't actually need it to go that high.
- pmoriarty 7y agoI do wonder how long the general public, many of whom are now sitting at home on their ass all day, are going to continue doing so and let themselves, their families and friends, and the rest of the nation starve, instead of taking a risk and volunteering to help make and deliver food. The divisive, isolationist, "only me and my immediate friends and family matter" attitude that is so prevalent in America starkly shows its corrosive effects in crisis.
- pengaru 7y agoSocial distancing or voluntary unnecessary exposure to help others, which is it gonna be?
- jborichevskiy 7y agoYup. Also, would love to hear how I, as a quarantined software developer in an apartment in one of the densest metro areas in the U.S., can "help make and deliver food" in a way that doesn't kill even more people in the process.
- pmoriarty 7y agoNot all food has to be made by hand. There's a lot of machinery that can make it, and food could be run through pasteurization and other disinfection processes (such as irradiation) to kill off any pathogens. This machinery has to be operated by somebody, and people can be trained to do it. It takes people willing and able to do it, however. Also, once delivered the food doesn't have to be eaten right away. The virus only lasts a certain number of hours or days (I've heard estimates of up to two weeks). After that, it can be eaten safely even if it was contaminated with the virus when it was made. Of course, that means perishable food that won't last that long is out of the question, but other food that can last should be fine.
- jborichevskiy 7y ago> After that, it can be eaten safely even if it was contaminated with the virus when it was made. Of course, that means perishable food that won't last that long is out of the question, but other food that can last should be fine. This makes sense, I don't disagree. But to my limited understanding most large scale food prep & processing happens well outside of city limits. Apart from some bakeries and doughnut shops I imagine most of what I find on the shelves of common grocery stores is largely shipped in via complex distributions chains originating either a) much closer to the farms/source ingredients or b) outside the state/country entirely. > This machinery has to be operated by somebody, and people can be trained to do it. It takes people willing and able to do it, however. So if things start going really bad (ie, large scale interruptions in production AND delivery) then yes, your situation starts to apply where I, a software developer, might have to trek out hundreds of miles somehow and start learning and operating food production equipment. I'm not saying I would refuse to do it -- but things would have to get incredibly bad for that to be a reality. To my knowledge there is nobody seriously predicting collapse on that level.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoCan we talk about illegal immigrants in the vegetable farming and meat industry? They constitute a major part of the workforce but have no rights and no access to healthcare in the time of coronavirus.
- gruez 7y ago>no access to healthcare in the time of coronavirus. aren't emergency rooms required to treat patients regardless of whether they're able to pay?
- pengaru 7y agoI believe it's normally limited to life-threatening circumstances, like showing up at the ER with a gunshot wound.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoYes. Good luck with chronic conditions, like diabetes, cancer, &c. If you show up with a broken bone you'll probably get a plaster cast but no physiotherapy.
- 49531 7y agoERs in the US primarily act as triage and stabilization centers for emergencies. Treatment for chronic illness or preventative care can't reliably be found in an ER. An anecdote, the last time I had to go to an ER in the US was when I cut the flexor tendon in my pinky, I knew it was severed but since it wasn't life threatening they stopped the bleeding, put some liquid stitches in the cut, wrapped and braced it and sent me on my way. I had to wait until the weekend was over to see my primary care doctor which I have access to because I have insurance / money.
- gruez 7y ago> ERs in the US primarily act as triage and stabilization centers for emergencies. Treatment for chronic illness or preventative care can't reliably be found in an ER. I get that, but how is that relevant when it comes to the coronavirus? It's not like it's a chronic condition. If you had it and were experiencing pneumonia, I doubt you'd be turned away for being undocumented.
- finaliteration 7y agoThere’s a lot of discussion about flattening the curve to lessen the impact on healthcare providers and hospitals. Wouldn’t the same sort of thinking apply for grocery stores and food supplies? It seems like people need to stop stockpiling and hoarding food so the most vulnerable people from an economic standpoint (who likely don’t have the means to stock up for weeks or months) can still have access to it.
- humaniania 7y agoThat's a good point. I wish more stores had implemented restrictions on purchasing volume much earlier to slow down the hoarding.
- xenospn 7y agoBoth of these points rely on people acting rational in the face of the unknown. I think it's safe to assume this is not going to happen.
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoI disagree. These are classic game theory problems where what is unilaterally rational doesn’t optimize group welfare. You need rationing and market intervention. The problem is relying on capitalism for distribution based on aggregated price signals.
- xenospn 7y agoDid you also factor in the fact that this is America, where people own guns and believe they have a god given right to use them?
- pmoriarty 7y agoWhat exactly are they going to do with those guns that'll get them more food? Looting and robbing, even were they to get away with it, will only get them a limited amount when there's virtually no food to be had. I don't think guns are going to be the solution here.
- netcan 7y agoSince this is going to play out over time, won't we reach a point where people are basically stocked up.. and the more avid shoppers have already filled their pantries? We're going to keep shopping at this rate for months, are we? After all, we don't eat more than we usually do.
- i_am_proteus 7y agoMy concern is local disruptions in supply and food availability. Three days without food won't kill you, but it certainly will change your outlook on life. There are a number of "pinch points" in the supply chain, vulnerable to employees getting sick, that (coupled with inventory problems from hoarding) could easily result in reduced local supply for a week or two.
- dillonmckay 7y agoThere are only a few companies the control the majority of the US food supply, and seem to rely heavily on hourly workers for logistics. I don’t know the sick-leave policies of Kroger, Walmart, Publix, or Aldi, but there does not seem to be a high-availability, fault tolerant system to handle an entire workforce being unavailable for weeks at a time.
- tyleo 7y agoI personally stockpiled enough food to cover about 4 weeks of illness. It seems like people who catch this pandemic are being quarantined for 2 weeks. I live with 1 other person so I figure that 4 weeks of food is plenty for us to self-quarantine if we both get ill with poor timing. Most of this food is reasonably long-lived (frozen meat, frozen veggies, rice, etc.) yet I plan to continue grocery shopping as normal (weekly) and only dipping in to my supply if we need to quarantine or lock-down.
- pmoriarty 7y agoBut the outbreak is not going to be over in 4 weeks. In fact, with every passing day going out becomes riskier and riskier. Eventually, enough people will have been infected to build up immunity, and eventually there'll be treatments and vaccines, but that again is probably going to take significantly longer than 4 weeks. It might take a year, or even two. At this point no one knows.
- drummer 7y agoThe coronavirus has exposed the herdmentality of most people worldwide. Especially the hoarding of toilet paper. Major hysteria for a simple flu virus. At least we got some good memes out of it.