Sign of Things to Come?

[mwfanelli2]

Seen in passing...

Due to shortages of rice, Costco and Sam's Club are now limiting how much rice people are allowed to buy.

Audio from NPR at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...19&ft=1&f=1001

[GB1]

I've heard about the following shortages lately:

- fuel. The cost of oil has skyrocketed.. The people who own oil wells must be popping some serious champaign bottles. it's almost $4 a gallon here in San Diego, and diesel is as high as $4.50 a gallon And the "experts" say it ain't going to get better any time soon.

- food. The cost of all kinds of foods has shot up dramatically. Some of this is blamed on the use of corn for ethanol which has affected the cost of cattle feed. But I think we might really be seeing the effect of a growing world population because a lot of demand is coming externally - China, and India.

- Everything else. Seems like so much stuff is tied to the cost of energy. transportation and delivery is shooting up. The cost of the wars in the ME is affecting budgets in other DOD projects.

What no one is talking about lately is the national budget deficit. it is shooting up, up and away and the rebates for economic stimulus will add about 100-150 B to it this year. The repubs answer is yet another tax cut, which hurts in the short run (and maybe the long run too).

[retroactiv]

I heard about this, and it is one of the reasons I plant my own garden. Simply it is only going to get more costly, nothing is getting cheaper we all work longer and harder for the same amount of pay.

[victorhuang20]

good idea chris!

[another view]

That is a great idea - thought of doing it myself. We're re-doing the fence this year and will probably set it up differently to accomodate a small garden. Doesn't hurt to be a little more self-sufficient! Plus you can grow exactly what you want, how you want.

[adina]

We're getting a cow!!!








okay, not really, but we do a garden as well. And we have a chicken guy where we get eggs from. Buy local. The cost to transport it is less, and it's healthier in general.

[Medley]

Seen in passing...

Due to shortages of rice, Costco and Sam's Club are now limiting how much rice people are allowed to buy.

Speaking as someone who works the receiving dock of one of the largest Costcos in the world, I can tell you that yes, we are indeed limiting rice to five (5) bags per member per day. However, if you are a business member, with a track record of purchasing more, we will be happy to accommodate you to the best of our ability.

So if, as a regular member, you are in the habit of eating more than 250 lbs of rice per day, you may have to cut back- they're 50 pound bags people.

So why the limitation? NPR pointed out the reason. Costco has a set profit margin that it will not exceed. I'm not saying what that is, but I will say that it's a single digit number. The last time I checked (2 days ago). a 50lb bag of rice was selling for $16.74. Following even NPR's 'suggested retail' price of 50 cents/lb, I could easily resell that same bag for $25.00, earning a profit of $8.24 per bag. 120 bags per pallet- Cha Ching!- $988.80 in my pocket. I'll take three pallets please.

This is the type of thing the limitation is designed to protect against. If we allowed that to happen, there would be a REAL rice shortage at Costco.

For what it's worth.

- Joe U.