5 ms·

Since 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 p

by netcan 7y ago

Since 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 ago
My 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 ago
  There 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 ago
I 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 ago
  But 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.

by netcan 7y ago

i_am_proteus 7y ago

My 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 ago
There 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 ago

I 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 ago
But 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.