7 ms·

The Groceries That No One Wants to Panic-Buy

34 points by Kaibeezy 7y ago

arijun 7y ago
That last photo is from hurricane Harvey, it seems slate didn’t even bother doing the basic fact checking of reading the top tweet responses (where I found this: https://avocadbro.com/fact-check/vegan-food-photo-misleading/ https://avocadbro.com/fact-check/vegan-food-photo-misleading... )
- guitarbill 7y ago
  i'm sure that argument is very reliable, from a pro-vegan blog. easy counterpoints: assuming it is shelf-stable, it would seem like an excellent option to buy it if you had no power? and if they are shelf-stable, why not store them - you know - on a shelf, and not in the perishable rack? seems cheaper, i don't quite follow. you don't store spam in a refrigerator. also, if the power did go off, and caused the refrigeration to fail, and supply chains were down, how did some ostensibly perishable items remain in the rack? (i guess it's possible staff checked them, or something else.) but fair enough, neither of us are journalists. and they definitely should be doing some kind of fact checking.
  - arijun 7y ago
    I wasn't linking that blog because of anything it has to say about veganism and that picture, but rather because it's proof the picture is from hurricane Harvey.
- wmeredith 7y ago
  Slate isn’t exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity. It’s a left tabloid.
gentleman11 7y ago
At my local grocery store, every frozen vegetable package is sold out except for a tall, untouched stack of mashed cauliflower packages. My wife and I laughed so hard about the poor person who is in charge of getting those sold
wahern 7y ago
This panic buying is so ridiculous. If there's one thing the U.S. still does better than any country in the world, it's produce mass quantities of food. There'd need to be an apocalypse before we had trouble stocking grocery shelves over any sustained period of time. Plus, the buying patterns are totally illogical. All I see are people snapping up perishables; nobody's baskets are full of canned foods. How are people going to eat more perishables than they normally do? Are they all using this opportunity to improve their diet? sigh I told my wife three weeks ago that if she was worried she should start stocking up at the grocery store. But, alas, she didn't start caring until everybody else did, and then fought it out with people at Costco. double sigh
- dean177 7y ago
  It’s the opposite in the UK, with the exception of oranges fresh produce is fine and things like pasta, rice, baked beans and frozen fish fingers are long gone
  - wahern 7y ago
    Interesting. I should qualify: I'm in San Francisco and have been to two different grocery and several convenience stories over the past few days. I was in one convenience store today and I noticed the owner had stocked some shelves normally filled with cookies and snacks with different kinds of canned beans. My first thought was, "smart". My second thought was, "sigh but they're the only completely full shelves in the store".
  - arethuza 7y ago
    Really weird in our local Sainsburys this morning - pasta and toilet paper shelves completely empty also no tomato soup. But plenty of everything else!
  - screye 7y ago
    > fresh produce is fine and things like pasta, rice, baked beans and frozen fish fingers are long gone This is exactly what I noticed in the local super market in Boston as well.
- 7y ago
Symbiote 7y ago
From a sample size of two (my local supermarket, and a friend's local supermarket) people in Denmark have followed the government's appeal and stopped panic buying. I'm very impressed. The only sold-out item in both shops is alcohol gel. Toilet paper was on offer at the larger supermarket yesterday. (I was also pleased to learn the Danish word for hoard: "hamstrer".)
- kevsim 7y ago
  Same here in Norway. Grocery stores are feeling pretty normal these days (didn't check for alcohol gel but toilet paper is bountiful).
  - mnky9800n 7y ago
    Who wants to drink 4% hansa anyways.
- dan_hawkins 7y ago
  Oh yeah? But have you tried to buy canned beans though? ;)
- throw_away 7y ago
  When people say "on offer", does this mean "available for sale" or "displayed prominently" or "for sale at a discount"? Sorry, googling wasn't super helpful here.
  - Symbiote 7y ago
    That's the British expression for "for sale at a discount". "Bananas were on offer, so I bought two bunches." "Don't buy milk unless it's on offer." There were several pallets of toilet roll, with a yellow A4-sized price label showing a small reduction in price. Wiktionary is my usual reference for foreign languages, I don't know if you'd have success with English / British English: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_offer https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_offer
    - 7y ago
uk_programmer 7y ago
The vegan food being left at the end is an old photo from a previous disaster.
- ornornor 7y ago
  It's also not like "vegan food" is some magic compound beyond the capabilities of us mere mortals... You don't need to buy overpriced ready-to-eat/processed dishes to keep eating vegan. Everything can be made with the same basic ingredients than any other food: canned beans, pasta, tomato sauce, vegetables, soy sauce, spices... All stuff that everyone buys, including vegetarians/vegans.
ValentineC 7y ago
There was a thread on Reddit earlier explaining why there's still so much Dasani water on the shelves: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/fji87t/what_is_going_on_with_the_hatred_for_dasani_water/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/fji87t/what_i... Spoiler: it's because Coca-Cola (which owns the Dasani brand) restocks the shelves themselves.
- stackexchange 7y ago
  A little anecdote here. I remember when I was suffering from malnutrition issues (due to certain health problems) back in the day, I used to prefer Dasani to any other water as nothing felt as satisfying. Other water felt like tasteless distilled substance. At the time, someone told me Dasani's somewhat harsh taste/texture is due to trace amount of minerals added to it. If true, it does make some sense (at least to me) why some prefer it and others find it repulsive (plenty of anecdotes).
forkexec 7y ago
First thought: "more chickpea pasta for me! Yum."
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I don't remember when I've bought it by choice, but I certainly would be fine with it if it was the last thing left and I wanted spaghetti. On the other hand, I tend to avoid linguini of any kind.
tssva 7y ago
Yesterday I bought the next to last loaf of any type of sliced bread at my local Lidl with the exception of the low carb bread which was fully stocked.
spaceprison 7y ago
To me stocking up means less trips out. What's the point of quarantine if you're still doing a weekly shopping trip?
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  Reducing how often you're around people you're in close, on-going contact with (e.g. office mates). You can't reasonably expect people to just stay put and never leave unless you start bringing them supplies.
vrc 7y ago
Canned salmon and pickles seem to be unpopular too. Sure, pickles aren't a necessity, but if people are buying up canned tuna, sardines, mackerel, clams, and mussels, what gives with canned salmon? More for me, I guess.
stackexchange 7y ago
My local grocery store was unusually busy yesterday. People were stacking up their baskets and running around worried. Amazingly, the only shelves that were cleaned out were those that carried sliced bread, toilet paper and something else I didn't stop to check. Amazing because I don't like slice bread and prefer bidet to toilet paper. There was plenty of what I actually wanted. A lady who was checking out right behind me had only two cases of soda. I was thoroughly impressed with her bravery :) In times like this being a weirdo who likes shit nobody wants actually pays because you can afford to come to the store the next day when everything (but the "repulsive shit") is swept off the shelves. You get to pick up what you need in peace. Of cousrse, then, you're called a bottom feeder who likes leftovers, but that's a hole another story.
MeteorMarc 7y ago
Please upvote https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22654623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22654623 to give IT a useful task in this crisis (yes, this a blog of mine)

34 points by Kaibeezy 7y ago

That last photo is from hurricane Harvey, it seems slate didn’t even bother doing the basic fact checking of reading the top tweet responses (where I found this: https://avocadbro.com/fact-check/vegan-food-photo-misleading/ https://avocadbro.com/fact-check/vegan-food-photo-misleading... )

guitarbill 7y ago
i'm sure that argument is very reliable, from a pro-vegan blog. easy counterpoints: assuming it is shelf-stable, it would seem like an excellent option to buy it if you had no power? and if they are shelf-stable, why not store them - you know - on a shelf, and not in the perishable rack? seems cheaper, i don't quite follow. you don't store spam in a refrigerator. also, if the power did go off, and caused the refrigeration to fail, and supply chains were down, how did some ostensibly perishable items remain in the rack? (i guess it's possible staff checked them, or something else.) but fair enough, neither of us are journalists. and they definitely should be doing some kind of fact checking.
- arijun 7y ago
  I wasn't linking that blog because of anything it has to say about veganism and that picture, but rather because it's proof the picture is from hurricane Harvey.
wmeredith 7y ago
Slate isn’t exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity. It’s a left tabloid.

gentleman11 7y ago

At my local grocery store, every frozen vegetable package is sold out except for a tall, untouched stack of mashed cauliflower packages. My wife and I laughed so hard about the poor person who is in charge of getting those sold

wahern 7y ago

This panic buying is so ridiculous. If there's one thing the U.S. still does better than any country in the world, it's produce mass quantities of food. There'd need to be an apocalypse before we had trouble stocking grocery shelves over any sustained period of time. Plus, the buying patterns are totally illogical. All I see are people snapping up perishables; nobody's baskets are full of canned foods. How are people going to eat more perishables than they normally do? Are they all using this opportunity to improve their diet? sigh I told my wife three weeks ago that if she was worried she should start stocking up at the grocery store. But, alas, she didn't start caring until everybody else did, and then fought it out with people at Costco. double sigh

dean177 7y ago
It’s the opposite in the UK, with the exception of oranges fresh produce is fine and things like pasta, rice, baked beans and frozen fish fingers are long gone
- wahern 7y ago
  Interesting. I should qualify: I'm in San Francisco and have been to two different grocery and several convenience stories over the past few days. I was in one convenience store today and I noticed the owner had stocked some shelves normally filled with cookies and snacks with different kinds of canned beans. My first thought was, "smart". My second thought was, "sigh but they're the only completely full shelves in the store".
- arethuza 7y ago
  Really weird in our local Sainsburys this morning - pasta and toilet paper shelves completely empty also no tomato soup. But plenty of everything else!
- screye 7y ago
  > fresh produce is fine and things like pasta, rice, baked beans and frozen fish fingers are long gone This is exactly what I noticed in the local super market in Boston as well.
7y ago

Symbiote 7y ago

From a sample size of two (my local supermarket, and a friend's local supermarket) people in Denmark have followed the government's appeal and stopped panic buying. I'm very impressed. The only sold-out item in both shops is alcohol gel. Toilet paper was on offer at the larger supermarket yesterday. (I was also pleased to learn the Danish word for hoard: "hamstrer".)

kevsim 7y ago
Same here in Norway. Grocery stores are feeling pretty normal these days (didn't check for alcohol gel but toilet paper is bountiful).
- mnky9800n 7y ago
  Who wants to drink 4% hansa anyways.
dan_hawkins 7y ago
Oh yeah? But have you tried to buy canned beans though? ;)
throw_away 7y ago
When people say "on offer", does this mean "available for sale" or "displayed prominently" or "for sale at a discount"? Sorry, googling wasn't super helpful here.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  That's the British expression for "for sale at a discount". "Bananas were on offer, so I bought two bunches." "Don't buy milk unless it's on offer." There were several pallets of toilet roll, with a yellow A4-sized price label showing a small reduction in price. Wiktionary is my usual reference for foreign languages, I don't know if you'd have success with English / British English: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_offer https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_offer
  - 7y ago

uk_programmer 7y ago

The vegan food being left at the end is an old photo from a previous disaster.

ornornor 7y ago
It's also not like "vegan food" is some magic compound beyond the capabilities of us mere mortals... You don't need to buy overpriced ready-to-eat/processed dishes to keep eating vegan. Everything can be made with the same basic ingredients than any other food: canned beans, pasta, tomato sauce, vegetables, soy sauce, spices... All stuff that everyone buys, including vegetarians/vegans.

ValentineC 7y ago

There was a thread on Reddit earlier explaining why there's still so much Dasani water on the shelves: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/fji87t/what_is_going_on_with_the_hatred_for_dasani_water/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/fji87t/what_i... Spoiler: it's because Coca-Cola (which owns the Dasani brand) restocks the shelves themselves.

stackexchange 7y ago
A little anecdote here. I remember when I was suffering from malnutrition issues (due to certain health problems) back in the day, I used to prefer Dasani to any other water as nothing felt as satisfying. Other water felt like tasteless distilled substance. At the time, someone told me Dasani's somewhat harsh taste/texture is due to trace amount of minerals added to it. If true, it does make some sense (at least to me) why some prefer it and others find it repulsive (plenty of anecdotes).

forkexec 7y ago

First thought: "more chickpea pasta for me! Yum."

perl4ever 7y ago
I don't remember when I've bought it by choice, but I certainly would be fine with it if it was the last thing left and I wanted spaghetti. On the other hand, I tend to avoid linguini of any kind.

tssva 7y ago

Yesterday I bought the next to last loaf of any type of sliced bread at my local Lidl with the exception of the low carb bread which was fully stocked.

spaceprison 7y ago

To me stocking up means less trips out. What's the point of quarantine if you're still doing a weekly shopping trip?

blaser-waffle 7y ago
Reducing how often you're around people you're in close, on-going contact with (e.g. office mates). You can't reasonably expect people to just stay put and never leave unless you start bringing them supplies.

vrc 7y ago

Canned salmon and pickles seem to be unpopular too. Sure, pickles aren't a necessity, but if people are buying up canned tuna, sardines, mackerel, clams, and mussels, what gives with canned salmon? More for me, I guess.

stackexchange 7y ago

My local grocery store was unusually busy yesterday. People were stacking up their baskets and running around worried. Amazingly, the only shelves that were cleaned out were those that carried sliced bread, toilet paper and something else I didn't stop to check. Amazing because I don't like slice bread and prefer bidet to toilet paper. There was plenty of what I actually wanted. A lady who was checking out right behind me had only two cases of soda. I was thoroughly impressed with her bravery :) In times like this being a weirdo who likes shit nobody wants actually pays because you can afford to come to the store the next day when everything (but the "repulsive shit") is swept off the shelves. You get to pick up what you need in peace. Of cousrse, then, you're called a bottom feeder who likes leftovers, but that's a hole another story.

MeteorMarc 7y ago

Please upvote https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22654623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22654623 to give IT a useful task in this crisis (yes, this a blog of mine)