My friend and I went to Walmart (in Exton, PA) on Sunday evening (4/27/08) looking for a Nintendo Wii because neither of us owned the system and have been looking for it for quite some time.

To our surprise, there were around 7-8 Wii's in stock. The problem? The Walmart employee working in the Electronics department (older man with glasses) refused to sell a Wii to both me and my friend. He would only sell a Wii to one of us because we were shopping "together." Mind you, we're not dating or married. Just two guys each looking for a Wii.

He said that because we were in the store together, we could only buy 1. It's as if we were the same person or something. He told my friend to come back the following day if he wanted one. We argued with him to no end...but he refused to sell my friend a Wii. I never heard of something like that before. It's not like I was trying to buy 5 Wii's..we each wanted one. Someone please tell me how Walmart can DENY a customer a product under these circumstances? I can understand if they have a policy stating one Wii per Customer per day. But, we were two separate people trying to each buy a Wii and pay with our own credit cards.

The man was rude to us, and he even had cocky remarks stating that my signature was only somewhat close to matching the signature on the back of my credit card. Mind you, I had to sign my name electronically, which is awkward to begin with.

Are Wiis really still this scarce? Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else?

(Photo:u2acro)

The week of rationing was caused by demographics ganging up with bad public policy. China and India, with their billion-strong populations, want to eat real food, boosting demand just as supplies are diminishing. Tack on the price of oil, rising like a lost balloon, coupled with the government-induced ethanol high our farmers are enjoying, and you have yourself a mess.

The market processed all this data last week and had itself a conniption. Not "the market" as comprised of Lamborghini-driving Wall Street types, but the purer market made up of individuals acting to protect their economic interests.

Commercial bakers say they are stocking up on specialty rye and gluten flour because of fear that supplies are dwindling. And Costco's chief executive said the big-box retailer is thinking twice about letting customers buy multiple pallets of flour to preserve supplies.

Restaurants and other large-scale customers appear to be buying so much rice that Costco, Sam's Club and other wholesalers have put limits on the amounts they sell, leading some consumers to stock up. This has resulted in some individual stores in places like California reportedly running out of rice.

So what should you do? The New York Times offers anecdotal proof that you already know how to react:

Burt Flickinger, a longtime retail consultant, said the last time he saw such significant changes in consumer buying patterns was the late 1970s, when runaway inflation prompted Americans to "switch from red meat to pork to poultry to pasta — then to peanut butter and jelly."

"It hasn't gotten to human food mixed with pet food yet," he said, "but it is certainly headed in that direction."

[...]

Wal-Mart Stores reports stronger-than-usual sales of peanut butter and spaghetti, while restaurants like Domino's Pizza and Ruby Tuesday have suffered a falloff in orders, suggesting that many Americans are sticking to low-cost home-cooked meals.

Over the last year, purchases of brand name cookies and crackers have fallen, according to Information Resources, which tracks retail sales.

You can't easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.

What's going on with rice and flour? [Chicago Tribune]
Load Up the Pantry [WSJ]
Recession Diet Just One Way to Tighten Belt [NYT]
(AP Photo Antonio Romero)

Wal-Mart Rations Rice, Warns of "Supply and Demand" Concerns [Fox Business News]
PREVIOUSLY: Costco: One Bag Of Rice Per Customer, Please

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man said.

The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

"Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.

Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

International demand is greater than the supply of available rice. That's led several key rice-growing countries to impose export restrictions — resulting in even tighter supplies. Prices are also being driven by some of the same forces boosting all commodities — a weak dollar and high fuel prices.

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World [NY Sun] (Thanks, Ryan!)
(Photo:greenwenvy08)