Panic-buying emptied the shelves of rice, canned goods, bleach,
toilet paper and paper towels at the base commissary. Even the much-neglected
Underwood potted meat was sold out. This was not a surprise, as every military
family is required to have a nucleus of survivalist / prepper mentality
(Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape is the name of the mandatory course).
But the grocery stores, convenience stores, and pharmacies
in town were also laid bare. I thought of one place that hoarders may have
passed over: the windowless urban corner store. Tiny and dim, small selection,
but carrying all essentials. Including toilet paper and paper towels. They had
a different supplier, perhaps the back of a family minivan or pickup truck: The
brand names on the shelves were from Maryland and New York, not Lower Virginia.
Or perhaps, living paycheck-to-supplement check, the neighbors couldn’t afford
to hoard like the city gentry and suburbanites. More likely, the shopkeeper
controlled demand by raising prices. Any big store or chain which took that
libertarian step would’ve been pilloried by the press, excoriated on social
media, and investigated by the attorney general. The corner store was small
fry, probably selling 12 rolls of paper per day.
In the end, nobody ran out of toilet paper. Most consumers
were able to procure their paper products through traditional means, as
supplies were available, and at a fair price. Voluntary rationing and
redistributing toilet paper from offices and schools to retail stores helped
close the gap. As I only shopped once every other week, there was a snowball’s
chance in hell that products would be on the shelf during the two hours a month
I was in the grocery store. Paying a bit more for toilet paper saved me from making
a special trip to the office, where that commodity is kept unused by the crate-load.
No comments:
Post a Comment