Scary times bring out the hoarding instinct.  Anyone who lived through World War II remembers the hoarders.  My mothers best friend hoarded sugar, even though she seldom baked, and both she and her husband were thin.  At the end of the war, she still had metal canisters of the stuff in her attic.  Some of it had hardened into lumps.  I’ve always wondered if she kept it forever, or if not, how she disposed of it. Now, people are doing it again.  Notice the empty shelves for certain items?  Odd stuff, you would never dream of.  Yesterday, I tried to buy some pepper, but the shelves were totally cleaned out. It’s a puzzle.  Who’s hoarding black pepper?

 

Back in March, when the pandemic first began., I saw a man at CVS with over twenty bottles of Picante  sauce in his cart.  The manager  asked if he would leave a few bottles on the shelf.  Picante  sauce?  Does this guy eat it on his eggs at breakfast, his grilled cheese at lunch, and on his beef tacos at night? Or is he afraid they’re going to run out?  It’s hard to believe anyone would hoard Picante sauce.

Canned soup is another scarcity.  About all that’s readily available on the shelves is Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle.  A lot of people don’t like mushrooms, so that’s easy to understand.  And Chicken Noodle isn’t filling enough to make a meal.  The other day, I opened our pull out cupboard shelves, and noticed they were full of canned soup.  My husband has secretly been stocking up every time he goes to the store and finds one of his favorites, like Nacho Cheese.  Last week, they had Tomato Bisque, which is another favorite.  So he brought home more cans of it.   Since I don’t have soup for lunch, I’m thinking there’s enough soup in the cupboard  to get him through the fall.

Technically, these people aren’t hoarders, they’re panic buyers.  Hoarding is a mental disorder where someone acquires a lot of things they don’t need, and can’t throw them away.   Panic buying started when everyone was told they need to stock up for two weeks worth of groceries. People weren’t sure how much they might need, so they began over buying. With panic buying, people fear scarcity. They want to stay in control of the situation.

Meanwhile, the grocery business is exploding. Before the pandemic, you seldom saw people buying over $100 worth of groceries at a time.  Now, it’s quite common. If and when the pandemic ends, I’m wondering what people are going to do with all that black pepper.