890
Covid-like shortages for US consumers ‘within weeks’
(www.thetimes.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
890 points (99.2% liked)
politics
31261 readers
3211 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
- No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
- No manipulating votes via bots or alt accounts; this will result in permanent bans. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules and use critical thinking when reading, posting, and commenting. Users that repeatedly have comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all his carpenter friends what the fuck did you spend 700 dollars on? Is that US?
Like I know you said groceries and various toiletries but the curiosity is tickling me.
A few dozen eggs?
Eggs.
4 of them to be precise.
Could actually be a lot of canned goods. The top shelf stuff is like $5 per can 😳
Probably a lot of non-perishables, or like those camping meals with a 10-year life span.
Stockpiling
Yes, USD. I bought some fresh food (and do so regularly), but also a ton of non-perishables: lots of canned food, various kinds of rice, cereals, oatmeal, lots of water, etc. Protein and carbs. 48 rolls of toilet paper (I have a bidet so this will last me about two years), and so on.
I'm building up my reserves. I have a large pantry and several large cupboards to keep it all in, and could probably buy another $700 worth and have a place to keep it. I also cook at home for most meals and so I rotate through these food stuffs faster than you'd expect. There's no canned food older than two years, and most items are newer than six months. I generally buy more than I need, but not usually this much.
I'm not a "prepper" in an "underground bunker" sense, but I do prepare for emergencies and instability, whatever form it may take: political, yes, but I also live on several fault lines, so "the big one" might happen at some point. In the winter, ice and snow occasionally confine me to my home for a week or two at a time. They're all the same to me from a planning perspective.
The original price was $850, but I clip coupons and maximize sales and brought it down by over $150.
Assuming you're a homeowner, make sure to check if your home insurance policy covers earthquake damage. By default most insurance policies don't cover seismic.
It does, and I have an automatic gas shutoff valve as well (it's gone off once before, which made for a pretty surprising morning shower).
But this is good advice for anyone who lives in a similar area. Don't put yourself in a position where you could lose everything because you were trying to save a few bucks a month.
As an individual I spend about 100 a week on groceries. My guess is stocking up for weeks of food which I've been slowly stockpiling myself. Or a large family 4-5+
Wild. Our house has six and I'd feed us all for the week for about 180 euro / 200 USD. We cook all our meals though, with some exceptions like occasional frozen pizza or chicken nuggets for convenience.
I spent a summer in the US in the late 90s and I remember basically everything being cheaper there at the time but we have lots of discount supermarkets here now that we didn't then.
Last time I was in the states I figured it worked out to about 100 per bag of grocerys.
So they bought 7 bags. Or maybe 5 now.
Easy to do.