“People always clear the shelves of milk, eggs and bread,” Paul Shipman, a spokesman for the American Red Cross’s Connecticut chapter told the Hartford Courant in 2012. “Well, the milk doesn’t do well without refrigeration, eggs are useless if you can’t cook them and the bread is not going to provide much nutrition on its own. You need non-perishable food, water and other necessities to be safe.”
It’s all about humanity’s hoard/horde mentality, except even this doesn’t explain why the hordes tend to hoard the least useful items (if, when) expecting a catastrophe.
Why Do People Buy Bread and Milk Before a Storm Hits?, by Laurie L. Dove (HowStuffWorks)
At issue, however, is a seemingly unavoidable urge to stock up on perishable items before a storm hits. If you’re buying multiples of milk, yet fully expect your electricity to go out, there’s probably an emotional rather than practical motivation at work.
And that’s not the only conundrum people encounter when stocking up on milk, bread and other perishable items before a storm hits: They simply buy too much of a good thing. The universal truth about perishable items is that they have an expiration date. And if you buy them in abundance, you may not be able to consume them all before they expire. Most perishables, like milk and bread, will only last about a week. The same is true for some fresh fruits and vegetables. So if you’re expecting to be homebound because of a storm for only a few days, why buy so much food that’s sure to go bad?
Yesterday at Aldi in New Albany, the barest section of all was the chips, dip and snacks aisle. Beer and wine remained ripe for plucking; maybe this testifies to the trendiness of Dry January.
Let’s be careful out there (thank you, Sgt. Esterhaus). I’m considering taking the day off on Sunday. We’ll see. Today’s cover photo credit goes to my heroes at Tin Can Fish.
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