Off The Cuff

Food Rationing Beginning At Some Wholesale Clubs

Posted by: From Arkansas in News And More Stuff, Not so fast food on Apr 23 2008

Welcome back!

With the ever increasing food prices, it was inevitable that at some point, someone would get the bright idea to limit purchases in the area of food and related products. At this time, Sam’s Club and Cosco Wholesale Corp. are two that are currently limiting how much of certain items can be purchased. It will likely go to other products as they become in short supply as well.

Sam’s Club is limiting the sale of Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rice (and I quote from Sam’s Club) “due to recent supply and demand trends.” Rice prices are soaring at record levels. Apparently, there is concern that there will be a shortage. Each customer is allowed 4 bags per visit. The club is trying to see that there is enough supply in stock.

At Cosco, as customers stock up on supplies, they are limiting sales of flour and rice. Apparently, customers are worried about the supplies getting short because of worldwide problems with shortages in the staple items. Sam’s Club is not limiting flour and cooking oil at this time but it seems that it will happen sometime soon if demand exceeds current supplies.

There is no doubt that food costs are soaring. We see this every time we head into the grocery store. For those of us who are seeking lower prices for literally everything, it is important to buy in bulk. And that’s what the clubs are for…like Sam’s Club and Cosco Wholesale. But due to recent problems with supply vs. demand, those same clubs are now limiting what you can buy and how much you can have. Yes, I do think that sometimes a limit must be put on things. However, I do not believe that the customers need to go roaring into those places and empty the shelves. That’s like the old days of the runs on the banks when money was in short supply.

For now, we will watch and see what else gets rationed. Hopefully, this is a temporary situation…but I doubt it. Once they get started with the rationing, it would be difficult to stop it without a banner year in food stuffs. I can tell you that rice is likely to be in short supply right now considering all the flooding that has gone on in Arkansas where there are major rice fields. This reminds me of when Florida had that freeze right before they were going to harvest the orange and grapefruit crops. Not a total loss but it was big. But they survived as did we all.

So, don’t be so hasty to go charging into the stores and buy everything on the shelves just because you read that there was a shortage. We all need those foods too. Buy what your family needs and let someone else have some too.

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