Pantries and Preparedness. I didn't know this...

Last week I covered some information about shortages that are currently on the cards here after my handy chance meeting with the Chinese man in our local grocery store! This brought to life a lot of facts I had discovered and it was really helpful! 
Since then each time I am in the supermarket I have asked various staff questions.  Even though it is a big place I am a regular there and I always talk to people so lots of them know me. (I am a chatter, who would believe that!?)

So last week, when tins of baby formula seemed to be in very low supply on the shelves, I still assumed what I always assume. That is that there are pallets and boxes out the back that just need to be unpacked so that the shelves are replenished. 
My whole life when there is something sold out on the shelf you ask someone if they have any more "out the back" that they could bring out?  In my mind I imagine a giant storage space filled with pallets of supplies waiting on coming into the store.... so that if something sells then they bring it in. Right?

It occurred to me to ask if the four tins of the baby formula in the brand that Lucy has bought (she has had one tin) were about to be added to from "out the back?" And ta da! I discovered no. There is NOT ONE out the back. There are no boxes or pallets of back up stock. None. The four tins were it. 
The other brands were in equally low supply.
mmm really? After the next four people what then?
The answer is that the computer will "know" to re order it.
"Out the back" is in fact a mythical place/concept that no longer even exists. And hasn't for a long time!

I have kept asking questions.
I also had this from Glenda who is in the US as she is aware of this being the case there...


"We’ve known for a long time that stores only stock the items that you see on the shelves and nothing in back or in a warehouse, as they used to do. My grandparents/parents owned a grocery store and we stocked extra food, so when an item got low on the shelves we could restock. Now days, they have an “as needed,” or “on demand” supply system. When the shelf has reached the “reorder level” then the item is ordered. Many stores here, since they are large chain stores, have no idea when their next supply truck will arrive."

and this...

"Conrad, the manager of Natural Grocers where we shop, said they were having so many supply issues they actually switched warehouses from where they order. We asked why the supply issues and he said some of it was drought, but the rest ‘who knows.’ ‘Who knows’ won't work in a shortage situation. People will clear shelves in a matter of hours and no truck will be coming in to replenish anything".

So this week I decided to use my built up friendly relations and ask to speak to Nigel the store stock and orders manager. And he was very helpful and didn't mind my plethora of questions. 

Firstly, in regard to the Baby Formula stocks he said it was a constant battle. He gets numerous phone calls per day from people wanting to buy bulk amounts. He said most are Asian and want to send them overseas. Many are from overseas and some are local. It takes up part of his day everyday. He seemed worn out just talking about it.

We stood in front of the baby section and I asked were there more "out the back" than the half dozen that were there? He confirmed no, there is not one, of any brand, out the back.

He explained as you go out the check out the computer counts the level of each item and the system re orders items. Then trucks turn up with deliveries which go straight to the shelves.

There are no reserves.

Thats all folks.

So... off the top of my head I said... ok, if there is a strike, a power failure, a trucking problem, a fuel shortage, a computer glitch, a computer hack... what would happen? And the answer is that stock would not turn up at all. This half dozen tins of formula would be it for our area aside of one much smaller supermarket near by. I also checked the chemist. They had ONE can. That is not much is it? We could travel further afield in search but everywhere is much the same so it would probably be joining in an army of others doing the exact same thing.

So we discussed other vitals. Like, if there was a power outage for a couple of days or longer... are the six torches, 12 packets of candles and nine packets of tea lights all they have? Yes. I asked Nigel how long did he think they would last on the shelves in a crisis before they ran out? He estimated about 5 minutes. So if you heard a power outage was going to be around for a while by the time you got in the car and made it to the supermarket all the candles etc would have sold out well before you even get there. You would literally need to be standing in the supermarket the moment you found out about a need like this to stand a chance of getting any supplies.

So think of all the things we think are well stocked, surely, and what would happen when there is a sudden extra demand? ie matches and candles in a massive blackout, powdered milk if the milk deliveries didn't arrive, bottled water if the local supply was contaminated... and so on. There is only supply for the first few customers and that is IT! 

Maybe I was really naive to not have realised this. "Out the back" seemed like a back up to me and apparently it is YEARS since things worked that way. 

A few of this or that is not reassuring!  Some things we can manage fine without. But baby formula is not one of them! You expect to go to the store and find more and not worry about it. Or candles or matches or milk or what ever it is you really count on. The things we MUST have varies family to family but most of us have things that are vital in some way.

The other day when working on this I drew a map of our biggest store. I know it isle by isle. Once you take out the plastics isle, the beauty, the cleaning, the pet food, the kitchenware, the soft drinks , the gardening, the Manchester, the stationary isles and the plastics and paper goods (ie paper napkins and so on) the actual food in a supermarket is not as much as you think! Oh, I forgot magazines! When you get down to necessities and emergency supplies there are surprisingly low numbers on the shelves. And that is IT.

It means we all need to know what we need to have spares of at home. Things we know we cannot afford to run out of we must have our own reserves. It means thinking ahead and also getting ahead. And deciding what is a wise and realistic amount of time to allow for? A week? A month? Three months? More? 
I have been working on this and thinking what items MUST we make sure we have in case the shelves are empty due to any kind of hold up?  It takes some thinking!

I told Mum this as she had seen the levels of formula on the shelves. Her response to my story was "WHAT? they have NONE out the back?!!" and I could see her leaping into action. And me too. Going from thinking I must keep an eye on that to I must do something. 

So there is a review here. I feel I must have believed in fairy tales and it was nice too! Quite reassuring. But just not true and the reality of such a vulnerable supply and situation really has rattled me.

This realization has changed my thoughts on my pantry and what I am preparing for. It has doubled my resolve that we need reserves of everything and to be prepared. The number of people caught short in the case of an interruption to fuel supplies or a strike or computer glitch (or whatever!) would be mind boggling. Everyone just assumes there are plenty of supplies, neatly stacked in pallets out the back. 

My first target, and our greatest vulnerability, is baby formula. Next is probably milk. So this is where I will start. 

Another for us is medication but this is another story and that one is still coming... 

Our pantries are so vital. More important than we ever realized. The needs of our family are protected by our preparedness. Over time we have covered a lot of good reasons to build up our pantries and I was convinced anyway. But now I've had a shake up!

What items are absolutely essential in your family, that you cannot afford to run out of? 

What things would just be really unpleasant to run out of?

How can we be ready in case there is a glitch in the system and things don't arrive for the week or are sold out or in shortage?

Every week we have worked on building up our pantries and encouraged each other, shared ideas, learned so many ways to add to our supplies. It has been wonderful! I am almost at the six month point of my challenge too! I have learned so much. And now I have more reasons than ever to do a good job of this!

I hope you are having a great week and your pantry is growing! xxx