A word from BB: Stocking up

Hey everyone, LL here. We all remember the panic which set in back in March, and which lasted until June. Store shelves empty. People unable to buy basic necessities. It was like we were suddenly the Soviet Union circa 1978. BB has a few tips as we gear up for the flu season and possibly another surge in COVID cases.

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It's October. If you haven't been doing it already, it's time to stock up best as you can. If we experience anything anywhere near like last spring, things will get scarce fast. I am already seeing items available "for pickup only" and lots of limits on how many you can buy and "high demand, may be unavailable" warnings in red text. News people are starting to mention stocking up which will trigger people.

Everyone knows Toilet paper and other paper products like paper towels and paper napkins.

Bottled water.

We are entering cold and flu season on top of the virus threat. Other items that were impossible, or near impossible, to get were aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, cold and flu meds, OTC allergy medication. You will want those things if you are stuck at home sick with a cold, the flu or coronavirus (to keep fever down). Especially think of any OTC items or meds your elderly parents need - things like Ensure come to mind.

ANY cleaning product up to and including bleach, liquid dish soap and toilet cleaner. Everything having to do with cleaning will disappear. Liquid and bar soap. Laundry detergent. Disposable and reusable latex gloves. I'm just now able to get disposable gloves again.

Soup, ramen noodles, canned meat (tuna, chicken breast), boxed mac & cheese and less pricey things like that will get scarce. Chicken broth/stock. Think of food you can stock up on now if at some point you won’t want to go into a grocery store. I’m buying quite a few Hormel Compleats meals since it’s just me and my dad.

Load up on any favorite foods of yours and your family members.

Buy and freeze lunch meat, fresh meat, chicken, sausages and so on. Load up on frozen veggies. If you bake bread, you know what to buy.

I'm sure there are more items but this is what I could think of for now. Some of the things that went missing for me may not have been scarce for you - I'm assuming that it was different for different parts of the country. Think back to what you couldn’t get then and buy what you can now. I don’t want to freak anyone out, just something I think we all should be thinking about.