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Daily News

Food Industry Y2K Ready

By Bob Woods, Newsbytes.

December 11, 1999

Food industry and government officials gathered at a supermarket in suburban Washington, DC to declare that local food stores will be ready for the Year 2000 date change. But a new survey shows that not all Americans are buying Uncle Sam's view of Y2K.

At a press event held in a Bethesda, Md., grocery store, Giant Food Inc. Vice President Barry Scher said that food companies are "ready for consumers to buy food and grocery products over the New Year's holiday and beyond."

Scher and others assured the public at the event - which Newsbytes attended - that there is no need for concern from the public about the ability to buy food, as "there will be plenty of groceries on hand."

Echoing what many officials said at this morning's event, Scher urged consumers to "shop like they would for any other holiday season."

"Even without the year 2000, there's going to be a lot of busy stores, and a lot of shopping," Scher said. "Your local retailer has been working with suppliers to be well-stocked. If people would just use common sense, there will be no problems."

John Koskinen, the chair of President Clinton's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, said the food industry has spent "billions" in fixing and remediating their systems for the Y2K event.

The task of fixing the food industry's Y2K bugs, though, were daunting as the sector has many links where a failure could hurt the overall system, said Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.

But all may not go completely smoothly, Glickman said. "I'm not saying there might not be some spot shortages because of consumer overbuying or weather-related problems, but that is no different from... any storm situation." Most wholesalers and retailers have 30-day to 60-day inventories of non-perishable goods, though, so any spot shortages would be short in duration, he also said. Many companies also have contingency plans to deal with any unanticipated events.

Additionally, the US' trading partners around the world have also shown "great improvement over the year," including Mexico, which is a key supplier of winter fruits and vegetables, he said.

Overall, the food industry sees Y2K as "a non-event," Scher added.

A new Harris Interactive pool that tracks the public's "panic level" in regards to Y2K, though, shows that 24 percent of all consumers are planning to stock up their pantries with at least some food-related goods in preparation for Y2K.

Bottled water and canned fruits are predicted to top the items to fly off the shelves at higher-than-normal rates, according to the company's survey - nine in ten consumers said they expect to buy bottled water, and four in five anticipate purchasing canned fruits and vegetables before Jan. 1, 2000.

"Regardless of whether Y2K proves to arrive with a bang or a bust, a number of consumers are hedging their bets," said Peter Gold, director of consumer services for Harris Interactive, in a statement. Gold blamed media attention being given to the Y2K bug for some Americans' need to feel "safe rather than sorry."

The media's spotlight on Y2K was also a topic at today's event in Bethesda, with "Y2K The Movie" being broadcast this weekend on NBC. Both government and food-industry officials, though, said they believed that the public would be able to see that the movie is just entertainment, and would not go off in a panic-buying binge.

"The entertainment industry is very good on capitalizing on problems - where they exist," Glickman said. "What we're trying to tell people today is that there's no reason to panic, and entertainment is entertainment and nothing else."

Yet not everyone is convinced that Y2K will be A-OK. Harris Interactive's study found that female shoppers were 50 percent more likely than male shoppers to pantry-load before the end of the year. Female shoppers aged 25 to 44 were "much more likely" to load up on groceries before Jan. 1 than females in other age segments.

Meantime, male shoppers aged 25 to 34 were two to three times more likely than male shoppers were in other age ranges to stock-up, Harris Interactive said.

For its QuickQuery study, Harris Interactive asked 1,903 people via the Internet for their opinions on Y2K. Individuals in the sample are reportedly responsible for at least half of their household's grocery purchasing.

Harris Interactive said it is conducting the QuickQuery studies to aid in manufacturers' and grocery retailers' forecasts for the upcoming holiday/Y2K season. Harris officials said they will conduct their survey two more times before Jan. 1.

General merchandise purchases, were not included in the survey, Harris Interactive added.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), December 11, 1999

Answers

Yeah but Koskinen just realized that there are Y2K issues with embedded chips. I've heard he might even suspect that there are Y2K issues with computers.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 11, 1999.

Scher urged consumers to "shop like they would for any other holiday season."

Think "holiday season"... think "holiday" = "party"... think "season" = winter... think winter + party... think Donner Party... think Costco/Walmart/Sams

Sometimes if the food can't get to you its a read bummer.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 11, 1999.

Sometimes if the food can't get to you its a real bummer.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 11, 1999.

These people are living in never-never land. The fact is thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, are going to be without food and water. How are they going to explain that? You can't eat them words.

-- iamnow (staying@home.com), December 11, 1999.

If only six months ago the government had said prepare for two weeks!

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 11, 1999.