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Prepping for biological disaster

More supply chain problems, Safeway grocery store warehouse just closed down due to COVID with one death in Turlock about 50 miles from here. Also being told in a subtle way to expect shortages. Although I went to the grocer up town this morning, They had everything. I bought them out of chicken breast, I got enough of everything to last about a month. They even had T/P but no paper towels, I'm ok on those as I was able to get them form Costco delivered. I keep hearing about supply chain but it keeps coming. ( for now anyway ). What worries me the most is a Depression and civil unrest in my golden years. My dad lived one when he was a kid and looks likes I'm going to live one in my senior years. I don't see at this point how we are going to come out the other side intact. Not only are we set up to lose everything the Country is split down the middle and un able to communicate. Things could be worse than 1929.
 
Man, you paint a pretty dreary picture but it may well come true.

My wife went to town today for the first time in two weeks. She had to go to the bank and the grocery store. The bank wasn't a problem but she was shocked by what she found at the grocery store. Nobody was wearing gloves. Okay, East Texas grocery stores have asked people to stop wearing them and use hand sanitizer instead. Masks? The only people wearing masks were the old people, 65 and older. People from 60 on down to teenagers didn't wear masks at all. That pretty much reinforces what I saw yesterday on my quick trip tp town. Everybody was out and about, especially the young people who were congregating in bunches all over town.

It would seem that the quarantine, except for the old people like me, is effectively over. People want to get back to their lives or maybe they are tired of having their kids at home all day, every day and are throwing them out of the house.
 
Man, you paint a pretty dreary picture but it may well come true.

My wife went to town today for the first time in two weeks. She had to go to the bank and the grocery store. The bank wasn't a problem but she was shocked by what she found at the grocery store. Nobody was wearing gloves. Okay, East Texas grocery stores have asked people to stop wearing them and use hand sanitizer instead. Masks? The only people wearing masks were the old people, 65 and older. People from 60 on down to teenagers didn't wear masks at all. That pretty much reinforces what I saw yesterday on my quick trip tp town. Everybody was out and about, especially the young people who were congregating in bunches all over town.

It would seem that the quarantine, except for the old people like me, is effectively over. People want to get back to their lives or maybe they are tired of having their kids at home all day, every day and are throwing them out of the house.

Same in my town of a few thousand, No one likes to be controlled, but I'm not sure going back to daily life right now is a good idea either. I have to go to the field and deal with jobs. I try to be safe, but there is always someone wanting to get to close. I have a good friend of mine that thinks the whole thing is bullshit and we should have just plowed right through it. That would have been one way to deal with it but I'm not sure what that would look like in real life. I don't see normal life on the horizon for some time.
 
More supply chain problems, Safeway grocery store warehouse just closed down due to COVID with one death in Turlock about 50 miles from here. Also being told in a subtle way to expect shortages. Although I went to the grocer up town this morning, They had everything. I bought them out of chicken breast, I got enough of everything to last about a month. They even had T/P but no paper towels, I'm ok on those as I was able to get them form Costco delivered. I keep hearing about supply chain but it keeps coming. ( for now anyway ). What worries me the most is a Depression and civil unrest in my golden years. My dad lived one when he was a kid and looks likes I'm going to live one in my senior years. I don't see at this point how we are going to come out the other side intact. Not only are we set up to lose everything the Country is split down the middle and un able to communicate. Things could be worse than 1929.

Man, you paint a pretty dreary picture but it may well come true.

My wife went to town today for the first time in two weeks. She had to go to the bank and the grocery store. The bank wasn't a problem but she was shocked by what she found at the grocery store. Nobody was wearing gloves. Okay, East Texas grocery stores have asked people to stop wearing them and use hand sanitizer instead. Masks? The only people wearing masks were the old people, 65 and older. People from 60 on down to teenagers didn't wear masks at all. That pretty much reinforces what I saw yesterday on my quick trip tp town. Everybody was out and about, especially the young people who were congregating in bunches all over town.

It would seem that the quarantine, except for the old people like me, is effectively over. People want to get back to their lives or maybe they are tired of having their kids at home all day, every day and are throwing them out of the house.

If this country does not get open soon it is going to be much more than just a dreary picture. It is going to be an unmitigated disaster for everyone.

We still have people here that have been waiting 4 weeks now for their unemployment checks and no idea when they are coming.

Businesses here are now being told the Paycheck Protection Program is out of money so all these businesses that applied and kept people on in the hopes of getting the money and following all the rules so the loans would be forgiven are now being told to lay them off or continue to pay them for not being at work at company expense.

Landlords are suffering because April rents checks are not there and in a few weeks May checks will be defaulting as well. Stimulus checks helped, but too little too late in many cases.

Lines at food shelves are longer by the day and running out of food.

Meanwhile Congress is doing nothing, Pelosi is showing off her $100.00 a half gallon of gourmet ice cream collection while people are suffering. Let them eat cake.

Yeah, it is one fucking dreary picture for many folks and getting worse by the day.
 
If this country does not get open soon it is going to be much more than just a dreary picture. It is going to be an unmitigated disaster for everyone.

We still have people here that have been waiting 4 weeks now for their unemployment checks and no idea when they are coming.

Businesses here are now being told the Paycheck Protection Program is out of money so all these businesses that applied and kept people on in the hopes of getting the money and following all the rules so the loans would be forgiven are now being told to lay them off or continue to pay them for not being at work at company expense.

Landlords are suffering because April rents checks are not there and in a few weeks May checks will be defaulting as well. Stimulus checks helped, but too little too late in many cases.

Lines at food shelves are longer by the day and running out of food.

Meanwhile Congress is doing nothing, Pelosi is showing off her $100.00 a half gallon of gourmet ice cream collection while people are suffering. Let them eat cake.

Yeah, it is one fucking dreary picture for many folks and getting worse by the day.
Someone needs to tell the Clinton's that Pelosi said they have bad breath.
 
Well, there is not much more need to prepare for the virus as the country is set to reopen in the coming weeks. Now it is time to prepare for what that opening looks like. Some will go back to work, some have no jobs to go back too. People will have to find new hobbies as Gyms, and all contact sports will take a while to normalize. What is the economy going to look like going forward?
Myself I just turned 62 and literally was just about to drop my retirement papers in the mail when this happened, the language in my union retirement package says they can make adjustments to payments for up to 5 years after retirement so I held them back.Are we headed for a recession or worse a depression? Lots of small business will go belly up. and we just spent a couple trillion and are looking to spend more?? The whole world just got screwed.
 
You all are going back to work. Me? I'm staying home until I'm sure this whole thing is over.

The whole world did possibly just get screwed. It'll be interesting a few years down the road to see if this was the biggest scam ever foisted on humanity.

I'm still in the, "I don't know what to believe camp". There is just too much misinformation and disinformation out there for me to reach any clear, logical conclusion or course of action.
 
You all are going back to work. Me? I'm staying home until I'm sure this whole thing is over.

The whole world did possibly just get screwed. It'll be interesting a few years down the road to see if this was the biggest scam ever foisted on humanity.

I'm still in the, "I don't know what to believe camp". There is just too much misinformation and disinformation out there for me to reach any clear, logical conclusion or course of action.
I'm right there with you, Frank.
(Besides the staying home part).
 
You all are going back to work. Me? I'm staying home until I'm sure this whole thing is over.

The whole world did possibly just get screwed. It'll be interesting a few years down the road to see if this was the biggest scam ever foisted on humanity.

I'm still in the, "I don't know what to believe camp". There is just too much misinformation and disinformation out there for me to reach any clear, logical conclusion or course of action.

I hear what you are saying. one report says after testing the death rate is the same as the flu, then another I just watched on the news says it causing heart disease and kidney problems. if you get it it never goes away and can come back when it feels like it. Also read it will not be going away with summer. It is hard to deal with a moving target. The US hit 40,000 deaths today, that is the population of the county. I still plan on doing what I am doing for a while before getting to cocky.
 
My wife and I are still sitting up on our little hill and watching the world go bye. Every 10 days or two weeks she'll make a run to the grocery store for fresh veg but apart from that we are suffering no hardship what-so-ever. Last week when she made a grocery run she brought home a ton of fresh fruit. She was craving fresh fruit. I really think that was the main reason she went in to town.

Today it was a thunder and lightening day, not too severe. I was sitting around thinking that this thing may be over in a couple of months but it may fire up again in the fall. I know that I have enough to get through another couple of months quite comfortably but I'll need to restock before the fall. What would I do differently if anything? Would I get more freeze dried stuff? We haven't used any so far. Would I get more canned stuff? We haven't used any of that either. I'm thinking that it would just be more of the same, fill the freezers with more meat and frozen veg, sit back and enjoy.

Would any of you guys do anything differently on the second go around?
 
My wife and I are still sitting up on our little hill and watching the world go bye. Every 10 days or two weeks she'll make a run to the grocery store for fresh veg...

... but it may fire up again in the fall...

... What would I do differently if anything? Would I get more freeze dried stuff? We haven't used any so far. Would I get more canned stuff? We haven't used any of that either. I'm thinking that it would just be more of the same, fill the freezers with more meat and frozen veg, sit back and enjoy.

Would any of you guys do anything differently on the second go around?

Darn good question.

I'd probably buy a 3rd freezer and pack it :hammer: But I would probably throw in a bunch of dozen pizza. Some frozen oriental foods. Some frozen prepared meals of some sort. I'm not complaining about having a freezer packed with meat, but sometimes I like to go to a restaurant and get stuff we don't normally cook. Having a 3rd freezer, and packing it with stuff that we enjoy but perhaps don't know how to make, or just to add more variety, etc, that would be great.

CANNED FOOD: We use very little canned food, but we do use some. I think I'd probably buy more canned stewed tomatoes, canned beans for chili, and of course Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash! We have more cans of sweet corn than I can eat. Plenty of green beans but more people eat green beans here than canned corn. So 2 cases of canned corn should have been 1 case. I did buy a few cans of several types of things like Chef-boy-r-dee Mini Ravioli, Beefaroni, etc. Most of that remains untouched, but every once in a while I've found an eaten can in the trash. I might have added to that trash once or twice too. Canned SOUPS are sitting on our shelves, we mostly use those for casseroles, might be time to make some?

FRUIT: I like fruit in my oatmeal. But I don't need fresh fruit. I'm happy with freeze dried strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. They can be used in smoothies and even in vanilla ice cream to make flavored ice cream. Some stuff is available as Dehydrated, other stuff as Freeze Dried. Freeze dried is crazy expensive by comparison, but it tastes better and reconstitutes better, if budget is no object, I'd buy bulk freeze dried berries, apple slices, banana chips. I'd buy dried apricots, mangos.

Probably going to run out of maple syrup. So I'd buy more pure maple syrup. I'm eating a lot more oatmeal lately. I like a shot of syrup in my oatmeal to give it a bit of flavor, along with the fruit.

PACKAGED SIDE DISHES: 1- POTATOES, We have boxes of Scalloped Potatoes (and other varieties). Basically just boxes of cheese mix + flavor mix + dried potatoes. In normal times we eat a box of those a month. I'm finding they are over-loads of cheese. We have some boxes of stuff that contains NO CHEESE, they are more like a skillet fried potato mix. I prefer those. Probably get fewer of the cheesy type, more of the skillet type. 2- RICE, again we normally eat rice dishes periodically, I prefer red beans & rice, or Cajun Dirty Rice, even Rice-a-Roni is OK. I think we've made it once since we've been locked down. Got lots of it. 3 - CAULIFLOWER 'rice' is more popular because its lower calorie and low carb (Melen is diabetic) but its difficult in normal times to find shelf stable packages. We have a bunch of frozen cauliflower (I broke down heads, individually froze the pieces, and then vacuum packed the pieces) but it seems like we use this more than either rice or potatoes so I'd probably have more.

BREAD MIX has been a blessing. Not only does homemade bread taste really good, and make the house smell great, it just makes us happy. I bought 4 or 5 different varieties of and bought several boxes of each mix (probably 36 total boxes). We also have various things like 1 pound bags of flax, pumpkin, poppy, etc seeds that we can use to modify the bread mixes. These are things we normally have in the pantry, but not normally in such large quantities.

NUT BUTTERS: I didn't realize my daughter eats so much peanut butter. I buy the natural stuff. 1 jar will last us a full year. Melen has been locked in the house for over a month and we are now on our 3rd and last jar of peanut butter. She also eats Almond and Cashew butter, but I didn't have any of those so I guess that explains why the P.B. is moving faster. Realize she has been away from home since starting college so I didn't realize some of the foods she is eating.

I still have a few dozen eggs, and a can of powdered eggs. I guess the powdered eggs are overkill. They will be used for baking/cooking.

We ran out of lactose free milk. We started in on the 'shelf stable' milk. It comes in 8oz containers. We have 23 of those 8-oz containers. They are not lactose free so I'm using Lactaid if I have things with milk. I would source a lactose free version of the shelf stable stuff. It is available, but difficult to find in normal circumstances.

We also have a #10 can of powdered milk that is unopened. It works fine for baking, cooking, etc. We will save the 8-oz shelf stable milk for when we really need milk for drinking?

SNACK FOODS: Dark Chocolate, small portion snacks, lower calorie snacks. I'm happy to snack on sardines, Spam, smoked oysters, etc. I normally have a half dozen cans of each in the house. I have sardines and Spam but no smoked oysters. I also like to snack on pickles. I had several jars that we canned ourselves, and I bought a half dozen jars at the store, but currently I'm probably down to the last 3 or 4 jars. I do like pickles. I bought a couple cases of individual serve bags of low calorie pop-corn and a couple boxes of OREO "2 packs" and both of those snacks have helped ... but Melen baked scratch made chocolate chip cookies last evening.

I would have more PUZZLES in the house. I don't make them but the girls do.

We found 2 plastic bins of YARN in our pile of craft supplies. That has occupied hours of the girls time and has been a blessing for them.
 
Would any of you guys do anything differently on the second go around?

1. More Mountain House. I want a 90 day supply of the stuff for two people. It has a 30 year shelf life so it will outlive me and son will inherit it.

2. More canned food. I am a big canned food fan. It lasts a long time. The best use dates on the can are just that, best use. In reality most canned goods with the exception of high acidic products last well past the due date. I just used a quart container of Vegetable Broth. to make a Vegetable soup. that was dated 3/15/18. It passed the smell test, taste test for both of us. It was fine and made a great soup. That was 4 days ago and we are not dead yet. No issues.

Canned meats are high in salt, but that keeps them going for a long time in the can. Spam, Corned beef, chicken and turkey breast and Tuna are my favorites. I will get more of those as I find them on special. Not paying panic prices right now, do not need to.

3. More vacuum lids for my 1/2 gallon canning jars. I use fermenting lids as you can reuse those to release the vacuum and re-pump them up after you use some of the product. I store 3 types of flour in them, regular, bread and self rising, pasta and rice in them. I need to do more of that.

4. Dinty Moore Stew. Crazy long best use date, right now out to 2024. A very versatile food. Great on rice, potatoes, egg noodles or just plain in a bowl. We currently only have about a dozen cans of this and should have more.

Ideally I too would like two of those commercial grade freezers in the basement running 24/7 off a small solar array that would also run the small 10 cubic foot spare frig and the kitchen fridge. That would be an ideal situation for us and I am going to look into that once it is feasible.

Lots more things I could mention and Bob brought up lots of great stuff too. In reality I missed lots of things and could have done better in many areas but overall we are still in a very small group that saw this coming and prepared better than most
For that we are thankful. :clap:
 
My wife and I are still sitting up on our little hill and watching the world go bye. Every 10 days or two weeks she'll make a run to the grocery store for fresh veg but apart from that we are suffering no hardship what-so-ever. Last week when she made a grocery run she brought home a ton of fresh fruit. She was craving fresh fruit. I really think that was the main reason she went in to town.

Today it was a thunder and lightening day, not too severe. I was sitting around thinking that this thing may be over in a couple of months but it may fire up again in the fall. I know that I have enough to get through another couple of months quite comfortably but I'll need to restock before the fall. What would I do differently if anything? Would I get more freeze dried stuff? We haven't used any so far. Would I get more canned stuff? We haven't used any of that either. I'm thinking that it would just be more of the same, fill the freezers with more meat and frozen veg, sit back and enjoy.

Would any of you guys do anything differently on the second go around?

Between the first wave and the second wave I think I will pick up a dedicated freezer. The one on the fridge holds a months worth. I learned thats not enough as I want to minimize trips and there can be shortages.
My 30 year and canned food are stocked up and I have not gotten into it. Some more medical supplies and masks. I fell down on my trailer and without the supplies I had on hand I would have been forced to go to a hospital. It would also be nice to have more medicine on hand like antibiotics and anti viral. I am on a well so as long as I can get or make electricity I got water. We planted many fruit trees about 3 years ago that are now baring fruit and I am planting the garden. Maybe stock up on building materials for the work cabin I am going to need and building supplies in general for repairs. Oil, grease ,filters, spark plugs etc. for the vehicles and equipment around here. I still have the Diesel and gas I stored. Im sure there are other things I will think of but I feel I have a good start.
 
Thank you guys. You have given me quite a few things to think about. We are both in our 70s and it has been surprising just how little we actually eat in a day. Not at all like the old days when it used to be 3-squares a day.

I'm diabetic so there is never any candy or cookies in the house. My wife does have her hidden stash of cookies that I will raid once in a blue moon. There have been occasions though when I've had the longing for something sweet. I usually satisfy it with coffee laced with zero calorie Skinny Syrup.

We have 2 jars of peanut butter and haven't touched either. Like Bob, my snacks tend to consist of canned fish, spam and the like and I still have plenty of those. I did run out of Bumble Bee tuna and chicken salad lunch packs.

I think that I need to build up my freeze dried foods to last about a month. For us using it would be a last resort but it would be comforting just to have it sitting there. Like TR, I saw this coming and stocked up on bread. We don't use a lot of bread but need it for sandwiches and the like. It would be nice though if we had some of those frozen biscuits, rolls and things in the freezer. My Wife swears that she can bake bread but I've never seen her do it. Just in case I started researching bread making machines and low carb bread mixes.

We are a potato and pasta household. We still have plenty of low carb pasta but being Scottish I can't live without potatoes. I did look at the boxes of instant potatoes and decided to give them a pass. I won't do that next time.

I drink lots of zero calorie sports drinks. I never appreciated just how many. I will have to address that or substitute water. That should be easy enough.

All in all, we've come through the last 5 weeks with little or no difficulty but I am ready for it to be over.
 
While we sit here still pretty comfortable and slightly inconvenienced most the rest of the world is in dire straights. Countries that are perpetually teetering on the edge are now going over the edge. As this thing goes on I ask myself is this going to be our future if this thing just keeps going and going. Like the frog in the pot with the water heating up are we going to wake one day to 1929. I can remember having conversations with my dad as an adult about the Great Depression, how quickly everything changed then stayed that way for a long time. Someone straighten me out if I am missing something but the parallel is frightening. Experts are predicting up to 1/2 of all small business may fail, while statistics say that small business employs 60% of Americans so right there that is 30% unemployment. In the Great Depression it was 25%. The country is broke and owes trillions and so does most of our citizens. Before this more than 1/2 couldn't deal with a $1000.00 emergency. Essential businesses are being decimated financially, Farms, travel, restaraunts you name it. What is happening now is deflation because there is no demand for manufactured products and what can come next is hyper inflation on essential products like food and medicine because when most everything goes under production will stop there will be shortages.Then maybe none at all. I know its doom and gloom but a possibility that needs to be thought about.
 

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Interesting. I had my annual physical on March 12. Just so happened it was the last day my doctor was doing physicals due to COVID. We touched base a little about preparing for what was coming and he told me to call him anytime and he would write a RX for a 6 month supply of my meds. Of course, I would need to pay out of pocket for that as the insurance would not cover that, of course.

Still thinking about that.

We are working on that six month food prep as well. Already started as a matter of fact with more coming in tomorrow and still waiting on our latest Mountain House shipment we placed 4 weeks ago.
 
My wife went in to town today in the rain. She went to the vet to pick up a 3-month supply of allergy meds for one of the dogs.

While there she swung by the grocery store as the carpark was empty due to the weather. I love it when she comes home from the grocery store. For me it's like Christmas morning waiting to see what she brought. Mainly it was green stuff and salad dressing although she did pick up more cans of beans and things that I have ever seen her buy.

Coming home she stopped by Mineola Pack to pick up our order of small filets, NY strips and ground beef. We're having one of the strips for dinner tonight.

At the beginning of this I thought that I had about 3 months of supplies on hand. We're almost 6 weeks into this thing, I'm losing track of time, and I still think that I have easily 3 months of stuff left. Since we could be doing this for another 6 weeks we may need it.

Something that Melensdad said made a lot of sense to me. It involved laying in a stock of food that you like but don't necessarily cook at home. Something like pizza. We never eat pizza at home because my wife's and my taste in pizza differs so much but half a dozen differing kinds would be an occasional treat. Likewise prepackaged frozen oriental dinners. We have some of those because that is one of her go tos when I'm having chicken for dinner but more wouldn't hurt. I'll have plenty of time to give this some more thought.
 
It's not that hard to make a pizza from scratch, esp if you have a bread machine.
I do it rather often.
It just takes time, and who doesn't have a little extra of that these days?
 
It's not that hard to make a pizza from scratch, esp if you have a bread machine.
I do it rather often.
It just takes time, and who doesn't have a little extra of that these days?

Easy peasy to make the crust by hand. Only raise the dough once. Then you get to practice fiipping it in the air like the experts do. :th_lmao:
 
Easy peasy to make the crust by hand. Only raise the dough once. Then you get to practice fiipping it in the air like the experts do. :th_lmao:

We talked about this and my wife returned from town today with all the fixings to make pizza. We'll see how this goes. It won't be done tomorrow but it will be interesting.
 
We talked about this and my wife returned from town today with all the fixings to make pizza. We'll see how this goes. It won't be done tomorrow but it will be interesting.

They sell pre-packed pizza dough mix in pouches. Just add water!

They also sell refrigerated 'tubes' of pizza dough that you pop open like crescent rolls. Just pop the tube and unroll the dough.

We use pizza dough to make tomato flat breads more often than to actually make pizza.
 
That may be the way to do it. As I said, we never make pizza at home because I'm diabetic and there is just too much bread and carbs unless it is an ultra thin crust. My wife prefers the bread to the actual toppings. I like the flat bread idea. I have a thing about smoked salmon flat bread but I do rearrange the topping and leave half the flat bread.
 
They sell pre-packed pizza dough mix in pouches. Just add water!

They also sell refrigerated 'tubes' of pizza dough that you pop open like crescent rolls. Just pop the tube and unroll the dough.

We use pizza dough to make tomato flat breads more often than to actually make pizza.

I tried that stuff once. For me, and I am NOT a picky eater, it tastes like shit, to be honest. Now, others may like it, but I sure as hell do not.

BTW, Youtube is full of videos on making pizza dough. Pretty awesome how some folks approach it. Interesting.
 
I tried that stuff once. For me, and I am NOT a picky eater, it tastes like shit, to be honest. Now, others may like it, but I sure as hell do not.
I don't think we've ever used it to make PIZZA ... the lovely Mrs_Bob has used it to make flat breads that she seasons with garlic, olive oil, and various seasonings.


....


And more about the possibility of MEAT shortages.

We are going to pick up an on-line order today at the local grocery where they pick it and bring it out to our car.. Our main goal is to get some fresh veggies. But for the fun of it I looked up meat prices after seeing the article that I have linked below. I guess I'm not really seeing a shortage in my area. I also don't really see price spikes in this area. Pork prices seem the same. Beef prices rose before Covid, not sure they have gone up since February? Some of the chicken availability seems to be in shorter supply, and some of the prices seem a bit higher?

I'll say that pork is still available in my area, and the prices are reasonable. Center Rib Pork Roast $4.99/#, tenderloin $5.99/#, center cut chops $5.49/#, Semi-boneless chop $2.49/#.

Beef is still available in my area, prices are what they are; boneless Rib Eye is $15-$17 per pound, ground chuck $4.99#.

Chicken is available but our top choices are in short supply. We prefer thighs to breasts. Boneless thighs are scarce. Bone in, skin on, is $0.99 per pound for the economy stuff but $2.99/pound for the larger, select thighs and $7.99/pound for Organic chicken thighs!!!

Those prices are as of 5:45am Central time, April 25, '20. They seem ONLY VERY SLIGHTLY higher than the prices we paid about a month ago but I'm using my faulty memory so perhaps they are about the same. I do know the low priced chicken thighs have been in the 99-cent/pound range for a couple of months.


ARTICLE FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grocer...irus-hobbles-beef-and-pork-plants-11587679833

Grocers Hunt for Meat as Coronavirus Hobbles Beef and Pork Plants
Surging consumer demand also tightens supplies; supermarkets brace for shortages


By Jacob Bunge, Sarah Nassauer and Jaewon Kang April 23, 2020 6:10 pm ET

U.S. beef production fell 24% last week, compared with a month earlier.

U.S. grocers are struggling to secure meat, looking for new suppliers and selling different cuts, as the coronavirus pandemic cuts into domestic production and raises fears of shortages.

Covid-19 outbreaks among employees have closed about a dozen U.S. meatpacking facilities this month, including three Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -3.15% plants this week. Other plants have slowed production as workers stay home for various reasons.

Grocery executives at retailers including Walmart Inc. WMT 0.71% and Costco Wholesale Corp. COST 1.69% worry supplies of some products could run short just as demand is surging.

“I have not seen beef sales and all protein behave this way since the Atkins Diet days,” when shoppers bought up meat as part of the low-carb diet, said Jeff Lyons, senior vice president of fresh food for Costco. The warehouse chain is considering new suppliers to shore up its meat supplies, he said....

FULL ARTICLE IS AT THE LINK ABOVE!​
 
Thought I'd report on the grocery pick up. I've already gotten home and washed everything and put it away.

So here is the update. We got about 50% of what we wanted exactly as we wanted it. Of the remaining 50% we got about 1/2 of other stuff scratched from the order and about 1/2 substituted items. So clearly the local store is suffering from a lack of selection on some items.
I probably should have tried to get more meats. We eat some form of meat every day, I have a lot in the freezers, but there are 'holes' appearing in the freezer and what I ordered will certainly not replace what we have already eaten. And based on what I ordered versus what I got, there are shortages at the store.

MEAT
  • Ordered a pork roast.... out of stock .... they had spare ribs. I took them, not even close to what I wanted but spare ribs are always good.
  • Ordered 4 thick rib eye steaks.... out of stock .... I got 2 thin cut rib eyes + some chuck steaks. Again, not a good substitute but its what I could get.
  • Ordered Oscar Meyer liver sausage.... out of stock .... got Frick's liver sausage
  • Ordered 2 full pork tenderloins and got both of those

Thought I'd try for some desserts:
  • Ordered LACTOSE FREE Vanilla ice cream.... out of stock
  • Ordered Vanilla ice cream.... out of stock, got some peanut butter ice cream
  • Ordered Strawberry ice cream.... WE GOT IT
  • Ordered frozen mini eclairs.... out of stock.... got frozen mini cream puffs

Ordered Lactaid (lactose free milk) MILK.... out of stock, but they had Fair Life lactose free in a smaller bottle at a much higher price!

Ordered some 2# bags of shredded cheese. Couple flavors.... All flavors out of stock in 2# sizes.... got some 8oz bags of the same flavors

Ordered various produce, got everything we ordered EXCEPT for Peaches.

Ordered 8 to 10 various spices, canned and boxed items, mostly from the Asian food aisle, got all the various misc items, but then again I don't think there is much demand for toasted sesame oil, Thai glass noodles or even more common bottles of vanilla extract.

Motts brand apple juice was out but we got Old Orchard brand.
 
My wife made a flatbread pizza last night from some packaged dough and it was pretty good, not great but definitely worth eating. We'll do it again.

We haven't got meat from the grocery store for quite some time because, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't very good. It was expensive for what it was. It was a lottery, sometimes it was edible and sometimes you couldn't cut it with a chain saw. We started going to Mineola Pack for all our meat needs. We usually get NY strips and ribeyes, small fillets, 3# roasts and ground beef. In pork we get roasts, tenderloins and chops. We don't get chicken as my wife doesn't eat it so I'm on my own for that, besides I have bags of frozen wings in the freezer. I also have Cornish game hens, a couple of ducks and a goose. My wife will kind of pick at a game hen, she will eat parts of a duck and will eat goose. I never figured out this thing of not eating birds. Generally speaking, we are in pretty good shape for meat protein for the foreseeable future.

What does worry me a little bit is that during all the panic buying Mineola Pack closed down their retail sales to the public for 2 weeks to concentrate on filling their commercial orders. If meat is getting in short supply from other sources they may have to do it again in order to meet increased demand.
 
Fox News announced that Tyson Foods has shut down a plant this afternoon.

Sounds more and more like I need to go on a meat recon search and destroy mission this coming week.

Now where in hell did I put those night vision goggles. :th_lmao:
 
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