Apocalyptic Shopping

With a 2nd confirmed case of a diagnosed CV with unknown origin... it sent the Bay Area into a frenzy (sorta, kinda).  We go to any dense Asian locales (like Meet Fresh or Ranch 99) and no one wears a mask.  Last night... after dropping the kids off at Awana... I thought we can beat the crowd and head to Costco to stock up on water and staples. (Not staples for a stapler silly!! Staples - like eggs, eat, bread, water).  To my surprise, the parking lot was packed.  We walk into and the lines were huge!!  Slowly navigating to the water and toilet paper section... and we find... this.

EMPTY!!  Wow....

Now that game begins!! Gotta hurry and beat the other nonsensical, hysterical people!!  We race through the maze of shopping carts, which are largely packed with "staples" and pushed by a particular demographic (which shall go unnamed).  We walk past the drinks aisle.  Gatorade - only a few packs left.  GRAB IT!!!  Walk by the rice aisle.  GONE!!  Walk past the pasta aisle.  EMPTY!!  Try to find Spam - all that's left are canned tuna.  Uhmm... we'll pass.  Juice boxes? We stand there and think... Nah.  Soda's... it's funny.  At times like this, you really see which soda people prefer.  There was one and only one brand that was emptied out.

Not panicking yet... but we're feeling the adrenaline.  What next?!?!?  Joyce is on her phone trying to find stuff on Costco.com.  And I'm thinking that...while the world is shopping at Costco (in bulk), people wouldn't have thought of Smart and Final.  We race to our local S&F and voila.... sitting out front... pallets and pallets of Crystal Geyser.  Pssssh......  I almost wanted to head back in the car and go home.  It's just not fun when there's no challenge.

But we needed to get rice anyways so we grabbed two packs of water and head to the rice aisle. It was half empty.  (Or was it half full? Hmm...)  Kicked into high gear again.  Let's go check out the other staples.  Ohhhhh baby.... the toilet paper aisle was flowing in abundance!! Charmin Extra Soft on sale!! And cheaper than Costco!!  As we were loading up and blocking the aisle... we see a man pushing a cart full of diapers.  He sees our cart.... smiles.... and said, "Apocalyptic shopping."  I give him a gentle head nod and we part ways.

Turn a corner and Joyce says... "Let's see if they have clorox wipes."  "No way!!" I thought. Guess what... they had 1 pack left.  Had there been an entire shelf of them... I woulda said screw it.  Then we had over to canned food.  Two packs of Spam left.  And we see another man standing there eyeing the same thing.  I bust out my Timmy Hardaway and make a quick, killer crossover... and snatch one of the two packs, freezing the dude in his shoelaces and breaking his ankles!!  You snooze you lose bro!!!  As we were paying and about to leave... we turn around and see that man with a cart full of diapers and now toilet paper.  We exchange smiles... perhaps for the final time.  And I let out, "We will survive!"  "Yes we will."  "And if we don't... we'll have toilet paper!"

But we weren't done yet.  No no.... we still needed rice.  Headed over to Lucky's.  And like S&F, they were pretty well stocked.  People haven't ransacked them (yet).  We paced over to the rice aisle... which... as I recall... we did this about 15 years ago when Thailand, the major manufacturer of rice for the world was shutting down.  And it set us on a panic.  We bought two 25 pounds of AA rice back then - which resulted in a mockery from my parents.  15 years later... we amble down that same aisle, the same store, the same shelf, the same two people.  But what's different... we're no longer looking for Jasmine or Long Grain.  We're looking for brown rice.  (Cuz we're snobby, health conscious, middle class Americans).  They had four 5-lb bags left.  And now... those 4 bags are in our possession.

Rolling out of the Lucky's parking lot and heading home... you can easily feel the weight of the car.  Need to go home... rest up.  Tomorrow, is another apocalyptic shopping day!