The land of the free and the home of limited food supplies
Very Bad
The two biggest U.S. warehouse retail chains are limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., called on Wednesday ”recent supply and demand trends.”…
Sam’s Club said it will limit customers to four bags at a time of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rice.
”At the present time, BJ’s Wholesale Club is not limiting the amount of rice purchases made by our members, but, due to the current market situation, that could change at any time,” spokeswoman Sharyn Frankel said in a statement.
We’re rationing food? In the US?
Related: The End of Cheap Food
Tags: cheap food, rationing, rise
April 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
come on, nathan…we’re not RATIONING FOOD. Ha. The government has nothing to do with this. It’s purely supply and demand. It’s just like any retailer limiting the number of items a person can buy at a time. Happens often. The retailer can choose to do this by price controls (raise the price, people buy less) or by limiting the number people can purchase. Nothing to do with food rationing in the sense you refer to it.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Point me to an example where they limit what you can actually purchase and not just what you can purchase at their crazy weekly special.
I’m unsure how “limiting the number of items a person can buy at a time” is no rationing. Wasn’t the fuel rationing of the 70s simply limiting the number of gallons people could buy for simple reasons of supply and demand?
April 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
i’m fairly sure fuel rationing in the 70’s WAS a government initiative.
example: hurricanes - some stores would limit the number of supplies because of the emergency and supply/demand. even still, it’s a decision of the vendor, based on meeting their own needs, not a government decision limiting your freedoms.
when charged language like “Food rationing” is used, it hearkens images of food lines in Russia, where you are only allowed by law to get a certain amount of food.
“We’re rationing food?” - no. We as a country are not. According to your same line of thinking, if in my house, I ration my daughter to one cookie a day, I could post a story about it and end it by saying “We’re rationing food? In the US?”
ha