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> This appears to be rational at first, but it only led to people all rushing to those few supermarkets the moment the convoy arrives, and them being emptied cl

> This appears to be rational at first, but it only led to people all rushing to those few supermarkets the moment the convoy arrives, and them being emptied clean by first 50 something people. Wait, they didn't place restrictions on how many items individual customers could buy?

baybal2 7y ago
Around fifty people, each buying 2 bag of food, is all that's needed to empty an average load of a 40 feet truck. > Wait, they didn't place restrictions on how many items individual customers could buy? Barely did, and even when it was enforced, this didn't prevent panickers reliably rushing to supermarket all and every time the truck arrived to buy full bag of food, or two. People were literally running after that truck. And the more people see that, the more people do that. Even switching to food stamps wasn't able to stop that entirely until they got the trick with small shops.
- dantheman 7y ago
  Where was this? Is there an article about it?
  - baybal2 7y ago
    Nur Sultan city. Stuck here when I came to collect last payment from a delinquent client for whom we did a project half a year ago. That was a very foolish thing to do just for a few thousand dollars The very same situation was happening in some cities in China in first weeks of quarantine, before they also realised that. After some reading, I realises that this did happen during great lot of modern day famines around the world. "Throwing food off the truck" seems to be a really counterproductive way to distribute food, because of it facilitating overconsumption by the few.
- nullc 7y ago
  > this didn't prevent panickers reliably rushing to supermarket all and every time the truck arrived to buy full bag of food Please don't characterize buying a bag (or two) of food as panicking. That is less than an ordinary amount of shopping at a time for me during times when there isn't a public health order to avoid going out. And I'm not shopping for half as many people as some people are. Characterizing the reasonable and prudent behaviors, directly driven by the advice of public health officials as "panic" because it is exposing supply chain limitations is extremely harmful.
  - baybal2 7y ago
    2 full bags of food will reliably last me 2 weeks. Even for a family of 4, this should last at least 3-4 days of comfortable living. Those people there were buying that much food daily. I do remember their faces.

baybal2 7y ago

Around fifty people, each buying 2 bag of food, is all that's needed to empty an average load of a 40 feet truck. > Wait, they didn't place restrictions on how many items individual customers could buy? Barely did, and even when it was enforced, this didn't prevent panickers reliably rushing to supermarket all and every time the truck arrived to buy full bag of food, or two. People were literally running after that truck. And the more people see that, the more people do that. Even switching to food stamps wasn't able to stop that entirely until they got the trick with small shops.

dantheman 7y ago
Where was this? Is there an article about it?
- baybal2 7y ago
  Nur Sultan city. Stuck here when I came to collect last payment from a delinquent client for whom we did a project half a year ago. That was a very foolish thing to do just for a few thousand dollars The very same situation was happening in some cities in China in first weeks of quarantine, before they also realised that. After some reading, I realises that this did happen during great lot of modern day famines around the world. "Throwing food off the truck" seems to be a really counterproductive way to distribute food, because of it facilitating overconsumption by the few.
nullc 7y ago
> this didn't prevent panickers reliably rushing to supermarket all and every time the truck arrived to buy full bag of food Please don't characterize buying a bag (or two) of food as panicking. That is less than an ordinary amount of shopping at a time for me during times when there isn't a public health order to avoid going out. And I'm not shopping for half as many people as some people are. Characterizing the reasonable and prudent behaviors, directly driven by the advice of public health officials as "panic" because it is exposing supply chain limitations is extremely harmful.
- baybal2 7y ago
  2 full bags of food will reliably last me 2 weeks. Even for a family of 4, this should last at least 3-4 days of comfortable living. Those people there were buying that much food daily. I do remember their faces.