So, today I read about rationing in Costco, Wallyworld and other big-box stores. For all you people in the States, I have to ask if you’ve seen it yourself?
For any people who are likewise in the land of the rising sun; My significant other buys the rice so I havn’t noticed any increase in the price. Vegetables, bread and flour are all the same but beef has gotten a bit - maybe 120 yen - more expensive. Milk is still cheap but butter is very hard to come by. Dog food is also pretty unchanged. Gasoline has gone down by about 15 yen. Have you noticed any price spikes or availability issues where you are, and if so where are you? I’m about 40 minutes by train from Osaka.
Yeah rice is 50% more than what it was a month or so ago here in British Columbia. Gas jumped by ten cets a litre in the last two weeks. We’re paying $1.27 per litre now for reg. gas.
i don’t grocery shop much at all, but i work in food service. a lot of rules regarding food consumption by employees as well as generous portions have been changing lately, food prices cited as the main reason.
i have noticed that milk is outrageous, and due to my geographic location I can’t help but know the price of wheat per bushel is through the roof (even if it did go down a little recently).
This may sound silly, because espresso drinks are a luxury of sorts, but in the past two weeks or so, more and more customers have been switching to Americanos, which are up to a dollar and a half cheaper than lattes and mochas, as well as drip coffee, which is 2 dollars cheaper. And they’re complaining somewhat about prices, which I don’t really know how to respond to because I don’t set the prices. Sigh. Fewer tips for me. 
I worked at a coffeehouse briefly in mid to late '07 and when we had to up our prices (by as much as 50 cents!), even our regular customers flipped out and swore to never return.
Of course they did, though, when they noticed all the other coffeehouses were upping their prices, too.
My friends who still work there told me they’ve raised the prices again (especially on pasteries) and have started making things smaller as well.
I have a theory that, like bars, coffeehouses might be the last ones standing.
I’d comment on the prices for shopping at Wal-mart fluctuating, but I haven’t noticed any change in the value of my soul lately.
Such a snob.
Anyway. All the stores we normally go to were out of rice, except “minute rice” and the like. However, I’m not sure this means much (besides at Costco, where they still had the “one bag or we shoot” signs up) as we had a serious(ly fun) snowstorm – two feet in about 14 hours – and with almost all of our food being trucked in that would make more sense.
Whole wheat flour was out, too, except for the fancy brands, which were more than twice as expensive. Eggs are up a lot (like 30% in the past few months, though ten percent of that in the past week or two), milk a little. Beef was up, too, but we snagged some on sale for half so it didn’t matter. It was about to flip but the freezer takes care of that. Most of the beans were really low, stock-wise, too. I needed to load up on some chickpeas but they only had 9 pounds across all the stores. Again, I think this is more due to the trucking issue than anything else.
I know gas is up but I don’t have a car so I haven’t paid attention to whatever ridiculousness it’s at right now. I don’t drink coffee, either, so I’ve avoid the two crudes that people seem to be most outraged over.
Maybe it’s time to learn how to hunt with a bow. Something I’ve never done in my life but I’m seeing a potential necessity for such knowledge coming on fast.
I don’t notice prices because i shoplift everything.
Definately makes things a lot simpler
here ! here! noah.
Maybe this will wake some people up…
An interview with Dmitri Orlov about all this:
[quote=“Willem, post:11, topic:835”]An interview with Dmitri Orlov about all this:
http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/economy/ES_Orlov_2.mp3[/quote]
Wow. thats pretty good.
Has anyone read Dmitri Orlov’s book?His comments during the interview on deploying the US military in this country raise a flag in my brain.The ideas he expressed for what could be done with the military seem harmless enough but a trained military could be used for more devious purposes.And as he said they just take orders like a machine.
Remember, he speaks from experience of how Russia went through collapse. This acts as a double edged sword; some information he has, really only applies to a country still able to feed its soldiers (probably because of outside aid, from Western countries).
In our situation, mobilizing the army probably won’t work out in the way he imagines. And certainly any group with guns just loves to have villages conveniently tilling the soil nearby so they can skim off the “surplus” food in exchange for “protection”.
This reminds me of that same ol’ rewilder’s chestnut: eating and tending invisible foods, out on the hoop, makes for the one of the best survival (and “thrival” too) strategies.