A local paper did a story on a local Appliance dealer who sold out of freezers after this Corona stuff started blowing up.

My comment on facebook; How about a list of the hoarders who bought freezers? Inconsiderate

Karen: you mean the people who are smart enough to think ahead?

me; No I mean hoarders who had plenty of freezer space before. "As soon as this pandemic started to get rolling, we had a high demand for freezers. We sold all of them that we had," said Tami Saugstad, part-owner at Kollman Appliances

Karen; OK, so we agree then, the people who had enough sense to buy a freezer and fill it, rather than running to the store every other day throughout a pandemic. Gotcha.

me; ok Karen. They should leave some for others. Not be selfish. (her real name is Joni, lol)

me; The shelves were empty

me; Because some were greedy

me; Prove me wrong

Karen; last night I ordered every staple I need from Amazon and other items from Schwan’s. Haven’t been inside a store since the last week in February. Shelves are empty because of the people who failed to plan ahead saying stupid stuff like this corona stuff is no big deal and now are going into the store to buy what they can with the whole family every other day. Prove me wrong.

At this point I'm starting to question if I'm wrong so I decide to compromise with her.

me; OK, half were hoarders and half were planning ahead.

https://siouxlandnews.com/news...dJgDfHiEkwNJDyh9COto

Question:
So now I wonder, Is running out and buying a freezer at the beginning of a pandemic scare is Hoarding and okay?

Choices:
Hoarder
Normal behavior, thinking ahead after it starts
People like this are why the shelves are empty

 

The only people who dislike people who plan ahead or 'hoard' are the people who don't think fast enough.

I'm not talking about essentials like gas, or medicine, but shit you really should have on hand for a week or two - like toilet paper, food, essentials.

Going out to but a freezer is not hoarding. Going out and buying seven freezers is hoarding. And stupid.

Substitute guns for the freezers and I'd love to know what here response would be at that point.

quote:

Originally posted by F12517:
Substitute guns for the freezers and I'd love to know what here response would be at that point.

You're unprepared / not planning ahead? Ain't my problem.

Aesops Fable the ants and the grasshopper. Learned this as a child.

Sometimes it just takes a kick in the head to get people going.
Probably should have done it before but just needed some motivation.

People in general have an attitude of "it can't REALLY happen". Then when it does they do panic shopping. I get it. Not a fan of it. I always have about 2 weeks of toilet paper on hand. That's not hoarding but it is planning ahead a bit. So then there was no toilet paper after 2 weeks and I started to panic.

Soooo I don't really have room for an extra freezer or months worth of tp. But if I'm seeing something like this happening again I may be hoarding.

I don't really know the answer to the question. It's a bit of both.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
I always have about 2 weeks of toilet paper on hand. That's not hoarding but it is planning ahead a bit.

Not remotely hoarding. I would call 2 weeks of TP 'low stock'.

Several years ago I got tired of the "oh we are out of <insert cheap items, easily acquired>" and from that point on, I put automatic monthly orders for that kind of thing. Soap, shampoo, dish detergent, laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, bleach, dog food, dog treats, coffee, etc. Figured out the number to never run out, then added a bit on top to have it always around.

I'm not sorry because people are short sighted - it's a free country and some people live day to day, week to week. They are same people who cry when they can't get instant gratification because guns / ammo / food / tp / etc is out.

So far, I haven't heard of a single case of someone in American starving to death because they can't get food. Now maybe some people are stressed because they can't get exactly what they WANT to eat and have to settle for something else.

But no one is starving because they can't find food. No one. Zero.

Have to agree with Rhino on this. People around here tend to be prepared for hurricanes, if they think ahead a little.
When this started showing up did I lay in some extra? Sure did. It’s going to get used.
Foresight and awareness aren’t hoarding.

Other than perishable items, I keep months if not years worth of supplies on hand. I tend to buy in bulk and when on sale whether I need stuff or not. Right now I’ve got around 6 months of TP supply on hand, all purchased months ago in bulk and on sale.

Just as this thing was getting started I became worried about my employment situation so I went to the store and bought a ton of ramen noodles. I wasn’t worried about the store running out of food as much as I was with them running out of cheap food, and I was afraid I’d need cheap food. Was that hoarding? Or planning ahead based on an ever changing environment? I call it planning ahead but the guy who thought of it a day later probably would call it hoarding.

Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is a behavioral pattern characterized by excessive acquisition of and an inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects that cover the living areas of the home and cause significant distress or impairment.
^^^^^^^^
There are these folks as well.

I had trouble following all that back and forthing in the original post, but I have pretty firm opinions about “hoarding” and even so-called profiteering.

It’s not necessary for me to justify my beliefs about the matter, so I won’t explain them in detail, but in short, if it doesn’t harm another person then what someone does in his own best interest is no one else’s business. No one dies because of lack of toilet paper or even hand “sanitizer.” There are alternatives if it comes to that. As I mention every time something happens to cause a run on a particular product and the subsequent shortages, a “panic buyer” is the guy who got to the store just before I did to buy what I was in a rush to buy.

Just as the government’s not interfering with what someone who has a high-demand product to sell wants to charge has direct benefits for everyone involved, when people discover that “just in time” sourcing may not always be the best plan, it contributes to overall resilience. And as for something like a freezer, who is to say who should be able to buy one when it looks like it might be a good idea to have one? Should the government establish an agency and hire a bunch of arbitrators who get to review every potential buyer’s application and decide who is more worthy of having a freezer than someone else? Or should the store just say, “Yeah, everyone wants one, so no one gets one?”

And this, too:

quote:

saying stupid stuff like this corona stuff is no big deal

Not seeing that so much any more, are we?
I won’t claim to have been particularly well prepared for how things have turned out. As a couple of friends and I discussed at a last supper before all the restaurants were ordered to close, we would, or should have been better prepared if we lived in a hurricane zone. Even then, though, our preparations would probably have been different. The consequences of a pandemic wasn’t something any of us really thought about (except for my stash of N95 and N100 masks from a few years ago). I was, nevertheless, far better off than most people.

In addition, I have taken advantage of the opportunities to improve my situation as they have presented themselves. If much of that has merely given me peace of mind that I won’t have to dig down through the snow to find some sagebrush to wipe my butt, well then at least the county doesn’t have to pay for a mental health professional to say, “There, there, don’t cry: Everything will be all right.”

4. Why blame others when you're the one who's unprepared.

We bought a chest freezer for our garage at the start of this because of concerns about getting enough dog food for our dogs. We feed raw and can only fit at most 3 boxes worth of food for them in our freezer in the house. I’ve been wanting to buy a freezer for a long time now and I finally got my wife on board with the idea...so we got a freezer. It now has several weeks worth of dog food and some overflow for us as well...but it’s full nevertheless.

A long time ago, a friend gave us a 1951 International Harvester Model 70 Freezer. We have kept it consistently stocked. In reality, at the start of this, nothing changed. We've always had 60 - 90 days food/soap/paper products on hand. Fresh produce is the only thing needed and restock of what gets used. Buying a years worth of TP at the outset of a crisis might be overkill. People are crazy.

Guns and ammo, same thing. but I reload and have plentiful stock.

The well prepared person did not run out to buy a freezer. It is the idiot who never planned who became a panic buyer. That person has too much of things now and not enough of other things. They are the problem... I have plenty of food, soap, Clorox wipes, toilet paper, etc because I have strategically planned ahead for years. Keep enough on hand for normal life for 60-90 days. Rotate stock constantly...

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by F12517:
Substitute guns for the freezers and I'd love to know what here response would be at that point.

You're unprepared / not planning ahead? Ain't my problem.

Not mine either...I am VERY well prepared.

quote:

Originally posted by armedprof:
Keep enough on hand for normal life for 60-90 days. Rotate stock constantly...

Yup, then you avoid the expensive "oh I bought this crappy survival food years ago and it's all going bad".

A buddy of mine (Mormon and proud of it) said "get stuff that you like to eat and also stuff you don't need to do much to prepare, if needed". Then rotate the older stock to eat and replenish with newer.

Not only does it prepare you for disasters, panics, or other stuff like that - but also layoffs, furloughs, medical injuries.

I couldn't follow the question, but I've seen what happens when people panic. I stocked up on anything I might need months ago before this was on anyone's mind. If you were following me around you'd have no clue I was stocking up on items. Just one trip to Costco to get staples we always eat, then I went to grocery store a number of times and bought a little at a time, nothing the cashiers who all know me and know what I buy would bat an eyelash at over a couple of weeks I squired away a lot of TP, shelf stable canned stuff, flour, etc.

I also got a months worth of mountain house food. That I barely got in time before it was hard to find. Mountain House actually cancelled my order. Between Sierra and REI I was able to get what I wanted (thanks to some advice on here).

Call me a hoarder or prepared or whatever you want. My wife and am prepared for this storm or whatever society or mother nature throws at us in the future.

I will always keep a stock of essentials from now on. I hadn't in the past due to laziness, other priorities, and lack of space.

Buying a freezer worth of food is not unreasonable, especially if you have a large family.