Reality: from aisle-full to awfully quiet

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

In the "Storm's offshore" post several down, GIs from all over the country talked about preps (or not) going on.

One would note that shoppers were everywhere, while in another part of the country all was quiet. What sort of dynamic is at work here?

Is there that much difference in Americans from one location to another? Why would a Wal-Mart in North Carolina be wall-to-wall while one in Arizona was quiet? Or vice versa?

Doesn't make much sense.

-- Vic (rdrunner@internetwork.net), December 30, 1999

Answers

People in areas that have recently experienced natural disasters are more likely to take precautions. Here in northern Ohio, the last great disaster was the Blizzard of 1978, but it's just a faded memory now. No Y2K panic here. The stores are quiet and there are no gas lines at all.

-- Boy Scout (boyscout@beprepared.com), December 30, 1999.

I think it depends on the quality/quantity of info. made available to the public (that varies substantially)

AND

Peer pressure. Word-of-mouth passes not only technical information, but also feeling--a very persuasive medium. Ask any salesman.

Just my thoughts, don't mean I'm right...

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), December 30, 1999.


Darn good question. I'm sure it's based how the info is presented. A little too late now to do anything but join the panic. Pretty frustrating to me, personally. Let's all of us hope the supply chain supports peoples preps enough not to cave in. Info, Info, Info, should have been presented to the "sheeples" a long time ago.

Now we just wait and hope we are wrong.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 30, 1999.


Long-time residents of Tornado Alley (Kansas in particular) react to storm forecasts like shark at the smell of blood. You don't have to see it to get the piture. If the weather man says snow here, people are very quick to get to the store and get a week or two's rations (grin).

Other than that, I can't explain it either.

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 30, 1999.


Same thing in southern California... lots of us still remember trying to get to the stores after the Landers quake... I remember trying to find a flashlight and batteries if the power went out again, all this while aftershocks kept rocking our world...

Looks to me like places where people have recent memory of empty shelves, days without power or clean water, are getting it... plus we can say, "oh well, I'm ready for the next quake (tornado, ice storm, flood, hurricane, riot), anyway!"

-- Carl (clilly@goentre.com), December 30, 1999.



FWIW ONLY :

notes from a just completed phone conversation with my sister in Las Vegas:

1) major city streets already being closed off and roadblocks manned by NHP - Trop, DI, Flamingo, etc. [from her local TV]

2) ALL tow trucks in LV to be available for the weekend per NHP [from her friend, a tow truck driver]

3) nobody claiming to be prepping ; BUT, watching the carts in K- Mart; most carts have the same things :

- 24 paks Charmin - 6 paks Bounty - Multiples of gallons of water in the bottom of the carts - case lots of canned goods - matches - sanitary items - Case lots of TVP - etc.

[her personal observation]

4) caselot canned goods REDUCED in price! [she's buying them]

5) no 'fresh' meat at Smiths, McDonalds and one casino/hotel; (her conversation with a butcher who says "its Y2k stocking-people are filling their freezers with meat(!)")

6) LOWER room rates with refunds at major hotel/casinos due to massive cancellations; i.e. $159/nite for as many nights as you might like now, rather than $2,000 per night reservation from a month or more ago! [local TV news]

7) she says she has friends who have just THIS week became GI, and who are calling her NOW - this week - for advice on things to buy for prepping...

make of this what you choose...

-- Perry Arnett (pjarnett@pdqnet.net), December 30, 1999.


Here, my take is that since we are seeing a VERY warm winter so far, it has lulled even more people into doing nothing because their senses have not correlated to the outside world, or to the possibility that their creature comforts could vaporize in a flash.

Still all kinds of generators available at all the big stores, lots of candles, flashlights, sleeping bags, propane stoves, paraffin lamps, propane tanks, etc.

Only thing I really note that is moving is TP, some small batteries, lots of chips/snacks(for New Year), some bottled water(but lots left).

NOBODY is topping up their tanks, except me today, and I got a out-of-character look when I did--I bought only $6 worth! NO gas lineups. City is about 200,000.

Sheeple really asleeple. Big story on Canada newswires about how Canadians are NOT taking out money for Y2K since they have TOTAL confidence in the bank system!

Meanwhile, INVESTECH issue out tonight paints a dark picture, and this is NOT about Y2K! It assumes Y2K will be minor enough for the first weeks anyway to let normal market forces duke it out and determine what happens to the stock market. Jim Stack has a whole front page of NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN precedents and valuation measures, streaks, etc., that make the 1929 mania look like a piker.P/e of Nasdaq 4800 stocks has just surpassed 200. Even in the early 1990's, a flying tech stock had a p/e of maybe 30, and that was one with high growth rates and rising earnings!

Look for a fall of 85% (I say it will be closer to 95%) before the crying is over, and we enter a deep abyss.

He warns that the parabolic blowoff in Nasdaq due to GREEDSPIN pumping HUNDREDS of billions into the economy because he's wetting his Pampers over Y2K is what will sink this market when the psychology undergoes a sharp reversal due to some kind of "shock".

Remember, Japan peaked exactly 10 years ago at NIKKEI 39000, AND IS NOW AT ABOUT 18000. A -60% RETURN OVER 10 YEARS.THE US ECONOMIC CONDITION ON ALL FRONTS IS WAY WORSE THAN JAPAN'S WAS THEN.

There are still major brokerage house researchers who maintain(LIE) that they see NO evidence of a bubble!

Another great American company has bitten the dust, and these are the GOOD TIMES? Fruit-of-the-LOOM, which tried even to the extent of locating their factories overseas to compete, realizes that NEW ERA economic principles are lies built on shifting sand. Are you listening, NIKE?

Like to say a big "THANK YOU" for all the work and sweat done by the forum founders to get this site back up! What a well-done epic! Also, glad to see the regulars back posting, not missing a beat, especially Gecko and Beanfang.Homer, it's too bad you have the same name as a guy named Simpson! You post some great material.

Also, a thanks to the Sysops for deleting that stinking spamming troll LL 2 nights ago! I would have sworn it was her wreaking revenge by trying to bring down the forum. That's all for now.

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), December 30, 1999.


I've been feeling rather out of place at the stores as of late. Me with my cart of preps and everyone else with "other stuff". This evening, I made one last stop at Costco for a few items. To my shock, the store was the busiest I've ever seen it, including Christmas eve. It was even eerie as I began to feel somewhat claustrophobic, standing in a line of people that stretched out to oblivion. Carts full of water and TP and paper towels and canned goods.

While packing everything into my car, the man in the next stall looks at my cart and says..."are you ready?"

I think they are finally starting to get it around here (Orange County, CA)

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), December 30, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ