Why bread, eggs, milk, and cheese?

[Allie Kitsune]

Why is it every freaking time it snows, every freaking soccer mom/housewife/whatever has to stock up on bread, eggs, milk, and cheese as if she'll never get a chance to buy them again?

Why specifically those 4 particular items? I can kind of understand bread, but cheese? WTF?

[PaperStreetBrigade]

I've never heard cheese before. Its dumb anyway since everywhere I've lived we've never been snowed in more then a day or two, and who doesn't have two days of food in their house?

I was talking to a friend about it, and the only thing we can think of is that in the old days people must have grabbed flour, milk, eggs. Since you could do a large number of things with a small amount of that combo. But at some point it must have become Bread/Milk/Eggs because the bread is an easier carb, and the other two are for protein and in case you lose water.

Palmyra, your not far from me. I'm saying this is going to be a light dusting for Philly and the surronding area. They've been hyping this far too much.

[crash1984]

I thought that only happened down here in the south but looking at the topic creators location I am wrong. Honestly I have never got the whole "Its going to snow lets stock up on break and milk" mentality. The longest I have ever been snowed in was for about 2 days and that was due to the fact we had a blizzard (people still talk about it frequently) Around here we used to get at least one good snow of a few inches a year. The last few years we have had just dustings and I can not think of when the last time we had accumulation of over an inch. Tonight they are calling for snow and honestly I would bet that there is a lot of people have packed into the grocery stores.

[default]

Where I was from, it made sense. You were talking about a possible ten-twenty mile drive to the store depending what was opening. On roads that may or may not have been plowed well.

My mom's mentality is to stock up on it because she doesn't like driving in that condition. I can understand that. Although where we are now, it's less than one and a half miles round trip for me to walk to a store. Besides, we always keep and go through milk, bread and eggs in our house so if we run low or run out, we need to get them anyway.

In the midwest I guess, it's potatos insead of bread moreso. My uncle moved out there and said a woman knew he wasn't from the area when he had bread in his hand one day.

But again, this is the stuff you need from the old days. My grandmother said if they didn't pick up most of that stuff, there was a chance they wouldn't have it for a while as the egg and milk trucks might not go. (Again, she was from the country and was at least 20-30 miles from somewhere to get food on a bunch of winding roads). Although, she had Amish neighbors who would trek to her house with bread and stews and such if it got bad out. (Her father also died when she was still fairly young and it was her mom, five brothers and a sister.)

My dad cans food like mad. Soups, stews, meats, chili, etc. Plus, he now works at a bread factory so we're pretty set. Especially considering the bread factory supplies bread all across PA and some neighboring states.

[Ben Wyatt]

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

[Sharpy Snow]

Could be that they are the most perishable items? Fruit and veg you can even get frozen and in tins these days. Not so much with tinned eggs and frozen cheese.

Plus most households get through bread and milk quite quickly really, so bread and milk is usually at the top of any normal shopping list anyway.

[The Line]

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

I know. on the news today, they were talking about how "winter weather" would improve online shopping sales, and the reporters were talking as if

a) online shopping was something new
b) snow was something new

[RatedRKoffee]

People act like they have never seen snow before, or had any idea such a thing was possible every winter. Drives me nuts, today there was a light dusting of snow where I live and people kept saying to me "I'm not going out in this". Well have fun not going anywhere for three months.

[default]

Dec 19, 2009 23:17:52 GMT -5 The Line said:

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

I know. on the news today, they were talking about how "winter weather" would improve online shopping sales, and the reporters were talking as if

a) online shopping was something new
b) snow was something new

Who does online Christmas shopping last minute?

[Lick Ness Monster]

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

On that note, there is actually a woman in my town who pretty much does go into six-month hibernation. Ah, the town crazy - seriously, she ventures out to the supermarket EVERY DAY from April-October and trucks food back to her house, disappears into her house when the first snowfall hits, and doesn't re-emerge, answer the door, or answer the phone for the better part of the six-month Minnesota winter.

[Back to being Cenanuff]

It's because they want to make French Toast and cheesy eggs for breakfast when they find out it didn't snow nearly as hard as they thought it would.

[Big L]

Yea never understood this either esp milk & cheese I mean cme on if ur power goes out ur milk & cheese WILL go bad!!! Ya know!!

[Deleted]

Bread and milk are the two staples. Bottled water has replaced eggs as a must-have, also. You can't cook eggs without power or gas.

If a power line snaps because of a tree, expect to be without power for quite a while. The last snowstorm they had in the Chicago area, some parts were waiting up to a week for restoration. Plus, no power means no water treatment plant running, so you might want to go bottled water instead of eggs, cheese and butter.

[General Adam]

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

I swear this happens every single time where I work at. I remember last year we had a nasty rainstrom that lasted for two days, and people thought that our little town was going straight to hell.

It's just rain people....the world isn't going to end today.

[Mac]

Up here they refer to it as "French Toast" shopping.. getting the ingreidents to make that breakfast food.

People still go nuts, we got about a foot of snow here last night and the supermarket was slammed, a lot of people buying chips and bottled water.

Although I cant remember ever in my lifetime in the north east having an extended period of time where we couldnt leave the house, or risked running out of food.

[YellowJacketY2J]

This happened to me as well. I work overnight at my local grocery store as the night cashier. I arrive at 10:30 and leave at 7 a.m. Friday night, a big snowstorm was being announced for Saturday (which it did occur). As usual, people were in there all day as if the world was coming to an end.

What I didn't expect was for them to all still be there, hording the store as if The Mist was coming. The closing checkout coach and good friend of mine, Joe, normally leaves at 11. Due to the mob rush, he didn't get out until 1 a.m. That's right, people continually shopped until 1 freakin' a.m!

What made matters worse was this older gentleman was pissed off that there was only one register open (this was around midnight).

He told the overnight manager (in a snotty fashion) "Why do you only have one register open when there's a major snow disaster coming?!?"

My manager responded "I'm sorry but we only have one overnight cashier, as the all other ones worked all day. We have our closing checkout coach graciously and voluntarily staying late to help out."

Customer "Well you should have more people on. It's an emergency!"

Manager "If it's such an emergency then why did you decide to come so late?"

Customer "Don't give me that attitude!"

Manager "I'm not giving you an attitude, I'm just asking a question. Besides, you've been giving me an attitude."

Customer "I'd like to see your manager!"

Manager "I am the manager!"

The customer then walked away.

[BRV]

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

Where I live, this is the reason why:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States_blizzard_of_1978

In Providence, they were forecasting a snowstorm with the potential for 8-10 inches of snow. They got over 40 inches. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, over 100 people died, over 4,500 were injured and 10,000 people were forced into moving into emergency shelters.

So while I agree that the annual panic over the first big snowfall of the year is a touch exaggerated, people are preparing in case the worst-case scenario were to happen again.

[Ben Wyatt]

Dec 20, 2009 11:04:33 GMT -5 BRV said:

Dec 19, 2009 22:51:28 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Semi related:

Why is it that everyone acts like armageddeon is upon us every time a snowstorm hits?

I mean, the supermarkets are a f***ing mob scene. Some people act like their going into a 6 month hibernation. Chill....it's snow.....youre not gonna die

Where I live, this is the reason why:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States_blizzard_of_1978

In Providence, they were forecasting a snowstorm with the potential for 8-10 inches of snow. They got over 40 inches. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, over 100 people died, over 4,500 were injured and 10,000 people were forced into moving into emergency shelters.

So while I agree that the annual panic over the first big snowfall of the year is a touch exaggerated, people are preparing in case the worst-case scenario were to happen again.

Im well aware of the blizzard of 78, and I knew someone would bring it up.

But I mean, that was a one in a lifetime thing......31 years ago

[Jay Carroll]

All this reminds me of the greatest event of my childhood: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_of_1996