At the Food Lion grocery today I saw a fellow who lives one block from me with two carts loaded down with gallons of spring water--both top and bottom of the carts were packed with them. I went over to him and said, "Y2K?" and he said, "Yep" and I said, "Enough said". I see him on the street all the time and had no idea he Gets It about Y2K.

Then in the checkout line later, the man in front of me had 10 or 12 boxes of tissues and a huge amount of canned catfood. I again said, "Y2K?" and he said, "No, these were on sale so I'm just stocking up" and I said, "That's exactly what I'd say if you asked me what I just asked you."

I asked the checkout girl if she had noticed any changes in people's buying habits recently and she said, "You bet; we're selling an awful lot of bottled water."

There may be more of us out there than we might think.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), December 05, 1999

Answers

The other day, I saw a guy at Sams Club with 700 rolls of toilet paper, so I said, "y2k?", and he said, "mind your own business asshole!"

-- Rational Doomer (doomer@big.time), December 05, 1999.

No doubt about it people are stocking up, but the panic has not started. Remember those surveys that said in December X amount of people plan to do something? People are quietly preparing and the panic will begin when the first signs and announcements of shortages reach the media. WalMart in our town was wiped out in TP, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and 0 bleach this weekend. Lot's of lamp oil, and oil lamps and accessories. However, Lucky's has a sale going buy 1 get one free on beans, Clorox bleach, and spaghetti and other items. You have to shop around, but stock on shelves are getting low.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), December 05, 1999.

bardou: I don't expect to see any panic until sometime in late January when it finally begins to dawn on people that Y2K is deadly.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), December 05, 1999.

Why do people buy bottled water from the store when it flows almost free out of their faucet? I can't believe how really stupid most people are!

-- bbb (bbb@bbb.com), December 05, 1999.

bbb........the reason I buy some gallons of bottled water, is our tap water is so very chlorinated that I can't even get bread to rise with it. The chlorine kills the yeast!

AND, it just doesn't taste good. So, while I have filled many jugs with yucky tap water, (labelled "grey H2O"), the distilled-bought water will be for drinking and cooking.

-- Birdlady (Birdlady@nest.net), December 05, 1999.

I buy distilled water because that's what I've been drinking the past 25 years. When the jug is empty, I refill with tap water. I'll have to get use to drinking the tap water, but I won't complain.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), December 06, 1999.

If you want to really know, take a sample of your tap water and a sample of bottled water to a lab. I did and my tap water was better!

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), December 06, 1999.

We have one of the best water supplies in the eastern N.Y. area (yes, some bad spots along Hudson river) but it is the distribution of town and city water that worries some. While shopping at two large markets recently and today have noticed ten to twelve foot long rows of bottled water near empty. No, it was NOT mid-night restocking hour! My folks and a friend at church have noticed same big increase in Dec. water buying. Dec. is the month to WATCH!

-- churchorganist (swedemusic@webtv.net), December 06, 1999.

Yep, my local Brookshire's starting putting a page in their weekly ad titled "STOCK UP YOUR PANTRY!" <---exact quote and the items on the page were canned veggies, tuna, diapers, tp, bottled water, etc.

THIS week, the same page, except at the bottom, it said, in big bold print:

"CODATED ITEMS CAN BE STORED FOR 2 YEARS. ITEMS WITH EXPIRATION DATES CAN BE STORED AS LONG AS 6 WEEKS PAST DATE"

Interesting, huh? I was in there and forgot to ask the manager why they decided to put that there.

As for the water: for the past two years, we have been buying 2 liter soda bottles, drinking the stuff, then filling them up with water (only recently filling them). Now, though, since we are so close, I have been buying the 1 gallon waters in milk type jugs. Reason? This type of plastic is HDPE and it does break down over long periods--this will be the water we use first--but it is .69 a gallon, which is 3.79 liters. A 2 liter of soda is .79 at its cheapest price and is making us fat, besides. So I am now starting to buy the .69 water jugs.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 06, 1999.

Oldest son heard an ad on the radio this morning-- local (KC area) IGA stores are having a "Y2K Stock-up Sale".

-- ldeeds (ldeeds@kumc.edu), December 06, 1999.

Cody, FWIW...just got home from the Grants Pass, OR, Wal-Mart. In the pet food section, the bag cat food was more than 2/3 empty. Two stunned elderly folks were talking with an employee about what they needed for their animals and wondering when it would be available. The sales type said she had no idea why the shelves emptied so quickly; said more was on order, but didn't know when it would arrive. Y2K? If you care for your animals, might be a good idea to stock up ASAP.

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), December 06, 1999.

BBB: Because tap water has florine in it, which is toxic! the gov. puts it in because they are being bribed. Also it is used for sheeple control... Hitler first used it in concentration camps to keep the prisioners docile until they could be killed...

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), December 07, 1999.

700 rolls of TP???? HHHAAAAAA. Assume that 1 roll= 6 cubic inches; he would need 350 cubic feet of truck to take that home. Did he have a u-haul outside?

-- Freethinkr (IMA@NUT.COM), December 07, 1999.