As things with the covid-19 virus are unfolding, it seems that it might be a good time to jot down what's happening around my life, and Pleasanton and the small sphere I call home.
First anecdote: Barb says, "Go over to Trader Joe's and get some mixed nuts and a small cake and some ice cream for my investment club." Sure, no problem...
I wander over and it's yesterday, March 13, 2020, and the parking lot seems busy. This is nothing too unusual, but it's only 2:30 and it does seem strange. It's crowded a lot after 5 to 7 or so as folks shop after work.
I go inside and it's crowded. Every check out line is running and the lines are long. And there are a lot of empty shelves. I've seen this before, but it was in Budapest... I was astounded. I'd heard about toilet paper being horded, but I've not seen TJ's sold out of soup, most meats, all the milk, and all the eggs. Yes, eggs were on the list too.
I was looking for salted mixed nuts -- sold out of what I wanted. I get to the check out counter and the guy in the checkout line next to me has a cart with 50 bags of nuts in it -- and nothing else, he just bought all the nuts. "So that's where all the nuts went," I say with maybe just a touch of disapproval in my voice. The guy looks at me and says nothing.
I took a picture and a couple of videos of the store shelves and meat counters.
So, did I stock up? No, I did buy a couple of things not on the list, but I made no attempt to hoard.
Today, Saturday, we stopped in Safeway after a cup of coffee. They had almost everything. No TP, those shelves were cleaned out. Some of the fruits and vegetables were in short supply and avocados were $2.50 each. Not sure if supply lines are an issue at this point and it's raising prices.
We bought $100 worth of groceries, which is a lot for us. But we are going to do some cooking and it will get eaten.
I've not heard of any restaurants having supply issues. At this point it all is strange, perhaps/hopefully pointlessly strange. I'm not worried about the future at this point. There are no reported cases of the virus in our area. People are being careful touching things and shaking hands and the post golf luncheon discussions touch on this topic. And except for the TP issue, everything is available.
Future thoughts: It might be a nice time to replace the cars if things get bad. We bought on the dip in 2008/9 and saved about $5000 each. I probably have one more car purchase in my life time and it might be useful to do it now. The same can be said for the stock market. It's been jumping and dipping. Business has to be slower due to government actions, so quarterly news is probably going to be lower. For example I looked at Exxon the other day. It's down about 50% in cost and the dividend yield is over 8%. I have a long window and one might expect that investment there would have long legs. I'm sure there are other stocks that have been punished.
That's the news for the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment