'Of course, the larger problem is people spreading complacency.'
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Re: 5% Prepared? NOT! more options
Author: cory hamasaki
Email: kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net
Date: 1999/03/11
Forums: comp.software.year-2000
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On Wed, 10 Mar 1999 23:15:23, tcmay@got.net (Tim May) wrote:
> You know, Cory, you continue to amaze me. After explaining how bad things
> are going to get (which I tend to agree with), you then tell us things
> like how you bought 6 cans of corn on sale at Giant, or brought back a
> bucket from Hawaii that you save a dollar on, and other "round-off error"
> sorts of things.
You misunderstand the point of the bakery bucket story. I went to the
bakery because I wanted to buy a bunch of donuts. I take them to my
boss, the guy who pays for the junkett, ah, important business trips.
While there I noticed that they were selling plastic buckets for 50
cents. Say, I thought, could those be? So I bought one, dragged it
back on United Airlines. I'm not proposing that anyone fly to Hawaii
($1,400 restricted coach, 14 day prepay.) to save a couple bucks.
After I got it back, I looked it over carefully, posted details like the
manufacturer's name, address and lot numbers. As hoped someone
explained that it was a "food grade" bucket and good to use, although
not gasketted like Jim Abel's.
On my next trip, I stopped at the bakery again, this time thinking I'd
buy some buckets for my mom. This was after I posted the first "Go to
Leonard's for cheap buckets" article. They didn't have any in the store
but had a bunch in the back and we took all they had. I didn't drag
any back to DeeCee. As you say, it doesn't make good business sense.
Mom filled them with stuff she bought, rice, beans, you know the score
and since then I've gotten reports from her that the bakery is still
sold out. Since she's at a full year of storage, the pressure is off on
that issue.
There're several things that strike me. Did I cause the run on buckets
at Leonard's by writing about them? I'll bet I did.
Did several hundred or thousands of people rush out to their local
bakery and score a bunch of buckets? I think that's possible. If so,
it's a "good thing".
Yes, it doesn't make business sense for a programmer to buy buckets one
at a time. (actually in this case, it did but that's a donut story,
not a bucket story.)
I'm doing this affordably so I can write about it. It's not that I
allocated 20 bucks a week to the program and saved a total of a thousand
dollars or what ever over the last 6 months. It's that I did the
exercise and that I took note of the price fluctuations of tuna and
Campbell's soups.
One small goal is to notice and report on the undercurrent of the
market. Can I spot "buyers" in the stores? What do the shop
proprietors say? What's selling and what isn't?
I'm concerned that there are people who aren't preparing because
they're afraid that they can't afford it. Others who are wasting
resources by purchasing yuppie-hiker freeze dried food.
Of course, the larger problem is people spreading complacency.
But money is an issue for a lot of people and for Y2K it doesn't have to
be. I know that the food thing is a negative cost.
I started the 20 dollars a week plan 6 months ago. I wouldn't attempt
it now. I haven't written about it directly but I'll be shifting to
pushing flats at Sams. These will be monthly visits. The food will be
for long term and current needs.
I will still visit the local supermarket once a week for eggs, milk,
pork chops, lemons and will buy 20 bucks of whatever is on sale. I've
found that the supermarket sale price is lower than Sams every day price
and that Sams has far fewer SKUs.
I strongly agree with Tim. People, if you don't have 3-6 months socked
away, do it now. Take a couple hundred bucks and solve the mid-term
food problem right away. Don't wait for deliveries, don't fight the
backlog at the storage food companies. Hit a big box warehouse store and
take care of it immediately.
That's rice, beans, pasta, and jars of sauce, tuna, olive oil, sugar,
oatmeal. Just the absolute basics. If you can get 100 lbs of popcorn
or hard red winter wheat, get that too (even if you don't know what
you'll do with it yet.) The right price is less than $10 bucks per 100
lbs.
You can fill in the gaps, worry over Dinty Moore v. Campbells Chunky
Beef later.
Forget the 3 day, 14 day baloney. Your goal is 3 to 6 months. Right
now.
cory hamasaki 296 Days, 7,104 Hours, kiyoinc.com
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