Friday, March 13, 2020

Good GOD, people are dumb.

I went to Sam's Club this morning.  Dropped the kids at school (last day before their Spring Break) and went straight there.  My sister had asked me to get her a mega-pack of TP since they'd just opened their last package.* 

There are no paper products left, except for those used in the dispensers--there were a few boxes of the dispenser-rolls of paper towels and some of the tri-fold ones.  No toilet paper.  No paper towels.  No Kleenex, no "facial tissue."  Nothing. 

I went back to the pharmacy section for toothbrushes...and there's plenty of bar soap left (Dial brand), but not a lot of pump soap (and what's there is limited to two per customer, now), and no hand sanitizer at all

I have NEVER seen Sam's Club picked that bare. 

Here's the funny thing:

Their food was fully stocked.  Soups, Ramen, canned veggies, pasta--all fully stocked.  The peanut butter was lower than usual, but that goes in cycles.  I had no issue re-stocking the household Nutella supplies.  Plenty of ground beef.  The rice was low, and so were the dried beans.**  But the easy to fix stuff that's really all you want when you feel awful?  Yeah, all there.  In massive quantity. 

Locally, there's one tested-positive Corona virus case.  She's in the next big town/small city over east of us (about an hour away), twenty years old, a college student, and newly back from a trip to Austria.  Next closest case is in St. Louis--5 or 6 hours from here on the interstate.

The university's closed, starting the Monday following Spring Break.  All classes are transitioning to online-only for at least the month of April, if not all the way through the end of the semester (there's one week left, plus finals week, after the end of April).  The state capitol is closed to tours (which we'd been planning to do next Friday).  These strike me as sensible precautions, really.  The ones most likely to bring in the Corona virus are stupid college kids catching it over Spring Break; the ones most likely to be in danger from it are our politicians, given the average age of said politicians.

But for fuck's sake, one 45-roll package of toilet paper lasts my family of four six monthsOne 15-roll package of paper towels lasts, again, about six months.***  Why are people buying three or four packages of these supplies from Sam's Club, leaving the bars of soap, and not stocking up on food?  Say we do need to self-quarantine to prevent the spread of this mess.  Say it does last longer than flu season.  What the hell are these idiots going to eat?  

I'm pretty sure it won't be toilet paper, soft-soap, or paper towels. 



*The Sam's Club brand of TP, Member's Mark, is comparable in quality to the Charmin.  And there's 45 rolls in the mega-pack--5 packages of 9 rolls.  One pack usually lasts a while, but...it's never wise to not buy a new pack when you've opened your last one.  

**No toilet paper or paper towels, rice and beans low...these idiots are buying out what they think they should be getting, or what they've been told they should be getting, and leaving the things that they actually need to be getting.  And I'd be willing to bet they've got no clue how to actually cook those dried beans and rice.   


***I'm going to have to cut up some old shirts for basic cleaning rags, though.  I'm down to my last two rolls of paper towels, and those get used in heating breakfasts.  

16 comments:

  1. The Costco I went to last week was out of flour, yeast & regular long grain rice. The TP was gone but there were still paper towels.

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    Replies
    1. Sam's Club will probably be restocked before the end of the month. And nobody's gonna be buying TP for a while.

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  2. We're in Texas county. Walmart here is mostly stocked. Some tp on the shelves. Walmart in Rolla(where mominlaw shops, picked clean). College town. Same as you say, both places. Lots of ravioli, etc. Dollar General here seems untouched.

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    Replies
    1. People are panic-buying what the media is telling them to panic-buy, without thinking about what they might NEED.

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  3. I just put up a report on my blog from my shopping trip last night (and a small one this morning).

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    Replies
    1. I tend to keep my pantry--and the medicine cabinet--well-stocked. I don't do panic buying. And most of the people around here are doing it in an incredibly stupid manner.

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    2. Given that just in rice/grains and beans I have over 400 pounds (dry), let alone everything else... I can only say this about the panic shoppers. "Amateurs". :D

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    3. I'm not to THAT level, but I've got enough between pantry and freezers that I don't HAVE to shop for a while, it's just nice to go get some fresh stuff weekly.

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  4. People are dumb, but even the smart ones are coming down with a bad case of ignorance. Unfortunately, we'll never be safe from that malady, and it seems to be getting worse.

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    Replies
    1. I encourage the people panic-buying all the toilet paper to ALSO panic-buy condoms: we don't need that kind of stupid perpetuating.

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    2. If they're THAT stupid they won't use them. Alas.

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  5. MSM got their wish, they have panicked people into buying stuff they don't need and blaming the administration... sigh...

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    Replies
    1. People around here aren't blaming the administration, so much as blaming travelers, hoarders (while panic-buying and hoarding their own damn selves), and China.

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    2. Well stated. I suspect the drooling morons who are stripping the local grocery store shelves
      bare are outsiders. As for their panic buying, Something dawned on me. Six montsh ago, an
      average 50 people were shopping when I went grocery shopping. Now, imagine 2 or 3 hundred
      hysterical hoarders going from aisle to aisle panic shopping like a school of bloodthirsty
      sharks.

      I was a bit of a science geek in my teens but it does not take a PhD in Virology to follow
      this concept: More shoppers+ more time spent in the stores= more exposure to someone who
      might be infected. On my first shopping trip in weeks, I did a survey of the store. Butt-
      wipe, canned and dry goods and low end meat and poultry were all gone! The one exception
      was the frozen foods aisle. My conclusion was that the hoarders lack enough freezer space
      to accomodate them. If you don't mind Hungry Man, Swansons or Banquet TV dinners, you will
      do OK. Walmart has just limited paper towel and toilet paper purchases. I have a small
      upright freezer, so most people will do just fine if they can also add some canned and
      dry goods build up a reserve in the coming weeks.

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    3. I lived through periods of food insecurity when I was little. Specifically, when my dad had custody, there were times that there was no food in the house. I've responded to that as an adult by making sure I have a full pantry and freezer. I'm not worried for my sake so much as I'm frustrated by the idiocy of others.

      Delete

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