I found out this week that our local grocery story- a small store that serves an area of about 3000 people- only received 40% of their order from the distributor. No toilet paper (I guess to be expected), but also no ground beef among many other items missing (flour, yeast, hamburger buns, etc.).
What happened was a chain store swept in and bought all the pallets of ground beef and other items from the distributor, who they normally don't use, leaving the smaller stores with nothing.
Here is where I think the government should step in during a crisis. Help keep the masses out of the giant stores (who are making a killing anyway) by ordering food distributors to not disrupt service to their normal clients in favor of giant corporations that normally don't use them. The owner has said other grocery owners he knows, especially in quasi-rural areas, have been dealing with the same issue since this started, regardless of their distributor.
What happened was a chain store swept in and bought all the pallets of ground beef and other items from the distributor, who they normally don't use, leaving the smaller stores with nothing.
Here is where I think the government should step in during a crisis. Help keep the masses out of the giant stores (who are making a killing anyway) by ordering food distributors to not disrupt service to their normal clients in favor of giant corporations that normally don't use them. The owner has said other grocery owners he knows, especially in quasi-rural areas, have been dealing with the same issue since this started, regardless of their distributor.
