Winter has not been kind to the states on the eastern seaboard, and the current snowstorm closing in on the mid-Atlantic has already wreaked havoc in the snow-averse state of Georgia, where three to five inches of the white stuff was enough to send people rushing to stock up at Walmart.
Some citizen reporter at CNN sent in the following photos of a ravaged Walmart in Athens, GA. He also notes that the middling amount of snow had the University of Georgia delaying the start of its spring semester.
We here at the Consumerist Bunker in Brooklyn grow our own wheat grass and have a month’s worth of milk, water and vodka stashed in the vault for just such occasions.
How much snow does it take for you to make a run on the grocery and/or gun store?
Northeast Georgia Snow [CNN.com]
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I live in Midtown Atlanta and grew up in SC. I’ve always said that snow shouldn’t shut down the world here since everywhere else gets it done. But there really just isn’t the infratstructure in place. The whole driving argument can’t really apply as very few people actually drive compared to a regular day (like less than 1%, I’d say). They just stay inside. You just don’t do anything.
I do think the bread and milk thing is retarded. But I don’t use that much bread and HATE drinking milk. I think it’s just an old Southern tradition, one of those things you always do (but not me haha).
Snowmageddon gate just started here today actually. 10 plows owned in a city of 500,000 (and a metro area of 5 million).
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-weather-city-bringing-801515.html
The video of the kid ice skating was pretty cool, though.
http://vimeo.com/18654578
All of this aside, I’m ready for it to get back to normal. My train was 45 minutes late this morning (normally one comes every 7 minutes).
I’m here in eastern NC and just got a bit of ice last night. 60 miles away got 5 inches of ice and snow. You can never tell where the snow and ice are going to end up until it happens.
Hurricanes are just as bad though. Bread and milk disappear at an even faster rate. The big thing with hurricanes is that power and water may be both be off for several days and there goes your frozen food stockpile and ability to cook anything, except on the grill.
Fox news showed the people of PA. freaking out before their latest snow. Some of which were on their second trip. Athens, Ga doesn’t have like even five real grocery stores. Plus the parents calling their kids at UGA telling them to stock up. Also all the video of the truck drivers sleeping under overpasses in their trucks….. Get over yourselves with the People of Georgia freak out crap.
I didn’t see anything like this in Raleigh, and I went out before the snow/ice kicked in to pick up some no-heat-required food in case the ice downed power lines again. We have cheese, crackers, chocolate, fruit and beer. We’re good to go, which is nice because at the moment, my car’s doors are iced shut.
I still have some of my Y2K stash left. Yumm!
It would have to be 12+ inches in a few hours to get me to freak out about snow, but that’s because they handle snow pretty quickly up here in IL, and I’ve had quite a bit of practice, including driving in whiteout conditions (Like can’t see past the hood of the car kinda whiteout).
In fact, we had a few inches in the morning today, I went out and did my errands anyway. Just gotta drive REALLY slow and pump the brakes, slamming them will make ya skid.
I lol’d at this. I lived in MS for 12 years and snow always freaks out southerns. Lack of proper road equipment for extreme cold weather and no one having any experience with driving in ice/snow makes for a deadly combination.
The 12 years I was there, it snowed twice. The first time we had about 2 inches and it (already fallen snow) lasted for a day or two. The second time was at night and it melted when it hit the ground.
Interestingly enough, when I moved to places that did snow I had no problem transitioning. Black ice was always iffy, but I drove through a blizzard on a highway with no problem at all (it was like a sea of flat white where ever I looked, kinda cool actually).
We have short attention spans.
EVERY SINGLE American should have a week’s worth of water and food -tuna, peanut butter, crackers, etc- in their home.
Should another coordinated terrorist attack or blackout or weather situation occur, the last thing you want to have to do is fight your way through the hoards for water or baby formula.
Prepare for the Apocalypse NOW!!!!
People must really have wanted to make French toast, with all of the bread, milk and eggs they sold. Yum, I love French toast! Hope you remembered the syrup and powdered sugar!
I live in Mass, and know enough to avoid shopping the eve of a “Nor’easter.” However this evening I had to pick up a prescription, and good lord CVS was a madhouse.
I’d be happier if I had more booze, but I’ve got coffee grounds and milk and eggs and am thinking of making a coffee cake in the morning. (I’ve got toilet paper too. And cat food. Those are the two things I really couldn’t get away with running out of… a day or two without milk in my fridge won’t be the end of the world, but if I can’t feed my cats they’ll probably start plotting against me.)
I don’t mind the laughing at our expense, because as others have mentioned, the freaking out is due to a lack of experience and infrastructure. Also, because the last time we had a serious tornado warning, I had a hotel full of northerners and the time I spent not dragging them in from the parking lot where they’d gathered to “watch the tornado come in” was spent corralling them in the hallway and reassuring them that it would be okay.
I moved to North of Atlanta from NJ about 4 years ago, We got about 7 inches. It is very hilly here, there are no guardrails at all at drop offs, I have NEVER seen a salt truck or plow and the slush just sits and refreezes. School here is closed for the 3rd day in a row. I actually have run out of bread but a neighbor gave me some..I do have a bread machine so I can do that too, I work from home full time, so I don;t need to go anywhere, but my 2 boys are eating me out of food quickly! I wish I stocked up more! I hate being that person who panics and I can drive in snow but ice is another story and those drivers that can’t are evereywhere!
Don’t think I’ve ever done that, no matter how much snow comes. Then again, first snow fell in October here, and the snow we got in early November is still around, albeit hidden by the foot or two we’ve got since then.
Dear South;
Suck it!
Sincerely,
Michigan
Going to go ahead and add to my previous post…
I find it next to impossible to sympathize for anyone regarding snow storms/blizzards. I’ve lived in Michigan all of my life, and we’re guaranteed to get bent over year after year, well into March and in some cases even April. I’m more than happy to share our winter wonderland with the rest of the country, especially those who don’t usually see it.
Here’s the truly remarkable thing about snow, too. You can take other life-long residents of this state, and every year — after the first snowfall — they’ll still act like complete asshats and forget how to drive in the shit like its the first time they’ve ever dealt with it. There’s no happy medium, you’ll either get someone that’s too afraid to drive over 10 mph or some jackoff in a Ford F-150 trying to 50 in a 45 mph.
So yeah, I hope every southern state that typically sees lows of mid to high 30′s in the winter gets buried in it.
I grew up in Indiana and now live near Houston. A few observations:
* Note to Yankees: Quit pretending you don’t engage in panic buying. “Winter Storm Warning” in Indianapolis triggers the same shopping hysteria as “Hurricane Warning” in Houston.
* Yes, people in the South freak out over snow. Not only is it unusual, even an inch or two may result in a free day off from work or school – a fraction of the amount needed for this perk up North.
* Ice (or snow that melts and re-freezes as ice) is impossible to drive on. Period. “Black Ice” (invisible to the naked eye since it blends into the asphalt) is the worst. You only notice it after your car is spinning and sliding out of control.
* As reported on Nightline, TV forecasters are running out of names for these storms (Blizzard of 20xx, Monster Storm, etc.). Please ration the use of such terms accordingly or the National Weather Service may have to resort to a winter storm naming system similar to that used for hurricanes – perhaps one based on TV characters. Do you really want to say you spent $300 on groceries because “Alf” or “Ponch” was coming?
We had 17″ in one 24 hour stretch a few weeks ago and our local Papa John’s and Pizza Hut were still delivering. I live in Minnesota. Southerners wouldn’t last a day here in the winter.
I think you’d be surprised.
I live in Vermont…they don’t make enough snow to get me to make a run on the grocery store.
I live in South Carolina. The county I live in has NO snow removal equipment at all. However, when we do get snow it usually rains first. then the water freezes on the road and the snow accumulates on top of the ice. At the first snowflake – all schools are canceled, government offices closed and many businesses let out early. Because there WILL be accidents that tie up major roads for hours.
I agree that not having enough food for 2 to 3 days is not exceptionally bright. My GF will run to the store to stock up on milk bread and eggs even if she just bought those items the day before.
I once worked for a company that moved 25 engineers to SC from Vermont. The first snowstorm, two of them slid off of the road trying to go in to work. Nearly all of the locals stayed home. Those who did make it in were on the road for about 2 hours due to the accidents, partly caused by ignorant Yankees who thought they knew how to drive in snow or by ignorant Southerners who didn’t, but HAD to get to the store to stock up on what they probably already had. The accumulation was about 2 inches and was gone in about 24 hours.
most of the groceries are going to go bad once they get to the consumers house. Chances are they were so caught up in the panic that they didn’t think about what they have room for!
I’m in Minnesota, so the amount of snow for me to go to the grocery store? Probably 2 feet in the forecast.
Have lived in MS, SC, and TN.
When it snows, might go to grocery store, but never need to go to gun store as always have six month supply of ammunition on hand ( if that runs out, I’ll use the reloader to make some more.)
I live in Northeastern Louisiana, we didn’t even get snow!!! We got like 3mm(that’s millimeters) of Ice particulate(or whateverthehellthatwordwasthattheweathergirlmadeup), and our schools were closed; and most of our grocery stores looked like that walmart. It didn’t even remotely attempt to stick to the road, and there were still a dozen wrecks sunday night-monday morning.
Up to 12″ my panic shopping is mostly lunch for tomorrow and maybe a bottle of wine.
If they have a good likelihood for 2′ or more I’ll get some extra stuff to have on hand to keep the kids from trying to eat us.
As it happened schedule-wise, we wound doing our grocery shopping yesterday, which wasn’t so bad around 5pm.
But later that night we realized we were nearly out of pullups for our oldest, so I volunteered to go out to the 24 hour walmart to get some. They had 3 register lanes open, and no exaggeration, no less than 30 people waiting in each lane.
I left and went out to the grocery store a little more out of the way and got them there.
Oh, and even though we’re here in MA, even walmart shut down that store today because of the weather.
In a rural area, maybe it makes sense to run out and stock up. If you have to drive 60 miles to a store to get food or something.
I have never run out to stock up on anything. Besides the fact that I can pull at least a weeks worth of meals from the pantry and freezer, even in the worst blizzard I can drive two miles to a supermarket or walk 1/4 mile to a convenience store.
See what they don’t realize is that if you have enough snow to warrant a pre-storm food stock pile you probably won’t have electricity to cook said food with. Which will only lead to piles of rotting meet waiting for the trash trucks to finish plowing the snow so they can come pick up trash. Rodents will come out of the country side to eat the meat, they will be followed by foxes and wild dogs which will be followed by larger predators like lions and tigers and bears (oh my). This will result in snow bond residents being eaten by the predators.
The shelves wouldn’t be empty if they were still getting deliveries. Obviously the roads are bad even for truckers.
Most stores use an ordering system based on actual items scanned/sold or scheduled deliveries of pershable items (milk, bread, etc) based on normal sales volume.
For canned goods, toilet paper, etc. a location will have a “min/max” level. If they sell 20 cans of a given soup per day, their “max” stock might be 200 cans (10 days) and their “min” stock to trigger a re-order at 80 cans (4 days). If they sell out of 7-10 days stock in a few hours they’re screwed until either their next scheduled shipment or a special delivery can be scheduled.
Bread (since it has a short shelf like) is usually baked and delivered based on projected volume. When the truck shows up, anything near expiration date is usually pulled and sent to the day-old bread store.
For all of you making light of the situation we’re experiencing in Georgia: This isn’t snow; it’s ice. And I don’t care how much snow you’ve driven in, it’s difficult for almost anyone to drive on ice. I lived in a snowy region for a number of years, and I have not even attempted to drive in this stuff. I’m hearing sirens every hour because idiots are trying to get on the road. I attempted to walk to the grocery store earlier and slipped and fell so I turned back around. Luckily, I stocked up on food before the storm hit.
“People of Georgia Freak Out Over Snow” because we know there are only 10 salt spreaders and dump trucks with blades in the entire state. In my county kids will miss 5 days of school due to ice on roads. No mail or paper delivery for 3 days due to ice on roads. THAT’s why we stock up, people. This week’s experience is being called the “Weather of Northern Aggression” here in the south. Stop acting all superior.
Exactly! Most of the folks commenting on what idiots we Southerners are can’t seem to get it through their thick heads, Yankee or otherwise, that not only do we get snow, we usually get ice to go along with it. I’m in northern Alabama, and we got 8-9 inches in my area, which has melted somewhat and froze again, creating even worse road conditions. We also have a lot of elevated roadways and no snow plows…not that snow plows work well with ice. And, do I really need to put on studded tires for 3-5 days of snow/ice a year? When I can just stock up and stay home?
Just let us clear out our grocery store shelves and refrain from commenting about it, and we’ll refrain from commenting about how people in the North don’t have AC during the summer heatwaves and tend to die off in droves…in houses/apartments where there are no windows that open or fans. Weather cycles change, and we all need to adapt–you get fans, and we get eggs and milk.
This comments wins everything.
I thought I’d comment since I had to talk to Athens Walmart employees about this very issue yesterday. Seems that icy conditions kept people from coming in to work and they only had maybe 50% of their employees. So customers start raiding but there’s no one to restock the shelves. It’s all sitting in the back, waiting.
Just thought I’d let you know.
Alot…like feet to even have us blink. I live in Western New York…the home of lake effect snow…I don’t even bother shoveling if we get 1 to 2 inches….
Actually, where I live (NE), none. I’ve never seen a store with empty, post-apocalyptic shelves like that. I’d like to have been there when this happened.
Living in Wisconsin, I have learned to keep a healthy supply of food, toilet paper and diapers in the house so I do not have to worry about running out if we get snow or freezing rain at any point during the winter.
Monday morning (the day before snowpocalypse began officially) I realize that my house, home to 4 adults, is down to about 6 squares of toilet paper. I decide to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work for that & some soy milk.
When I got there I found 0 parking spaces, 0 empty shopping carts, 0 handheld baskets, stretches of aisles completely bare, and one creative dad had loaded his kids arms full of groceries. The checkout lines wound all around the store & into the aisles.
I resolved that the next time I’m out of toilet paper the night before a snowstorm I’m just going to take the opportunity to liquidate my commemorative tshirt drawer & recycle those as toilet tissue. Easier than dealing with frenzied doom-shoppers.