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Shopping in a Time of Scarcity
Five places to find food off the beaten path.
Where I live, there has so far been no price gouging. I do expect it will become irresistible at some point. I am reminded of the jerks who load rental trucks with ice in San Antonio and drive it to the coast when there is a power outage behind a hurricane.
That’s a fairly common scam, and it provided a fact scenario for my criminal law exams. The National Guard was deployed to suppress looting and one way that was accomplished was to set up checkpoints that you could not pass without a reason and a log was kept with names and driver license numbers and vehicles.
A unit commander happened upon a nursing home that was supposed to be evacuated but wasn’t. The backup generator was not working and one nurse was left in charge of the whole shebang. She told him that if she could not get the air conditioning going or get ice some elders were going to die from the screw-up.
About that time, one of the San Antonio ice trucks showed up at a checkpoint, claiming they needed to deliver ice. The GI in charge of the log asked the location of the delivery and the reply was that they intended to park in a destroyed neighborhood and sell ice by the bag. That led to a call to the commander to ask whether that scenario qualified as a “delivery.”
