Journal of a Plague Year, Monday, March 30

Amazon is now admitting it is giving priority to its Prime customers. It said the reason is there’s so much demand now that people can’t shop in places that have severe Coronavirus breakouts. They certainly have the statistics to support that policy

However, its been obvious to this non-Prime customer that they have been implementing a program of not competing with themselves. For items that are listed as Prime, but available to others, it seemed to ship them just in time to meet the last promised delivery date. For other items, shipping was sooner.

I ordered two items on March 20, with promised dates of April 1. Amazon shipped the one today, but still hasn’t shipped the other. It always has delays for the second, but usually no more than a week.

Customers soon find ways to work around barriers like this. I eat brown rice and lentils because I’m allergic to penicillin. There’s been so much of the antibiotic in the animal feed supply, that, over time, I became so sensitive I broke out if traces of penicillin remained. I was forced to change from meat to legumes and rice for my protein years ago.

Rice is one of those items that’s been snapped up by panic buyers. Jack Shafer noted the first things people buy are the perishable ones like milk, as well as toilet paper. He suggested they’re provide an "illusion of comfort in an uncertain time."

These, along with water, also are the items that appear in the news during hurricanes. There is no uniform disaster shopping list, and few are like us in northern New Mexico who have had to think about what to do in case a forest fire shuts down everything. People in other parts of the country buy what they’ve always heard is necessary.

Shafer observed that, once people have enough toilet paper, they begin to think more strategically, and buy dry goods like beans and pasta. When I was in the local market on March 13 a man was putting up signs saying it was limiting purchases of things like water, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and lentils.

Few seem to paying attention to the inventories suggested by survivalists. These tend to be canned goods that have no expiration date, and can be eaten without heating them or adding water. They’re better, of course, if cooked and diluted, but in emergencies they serve.

Anyway, because the local stores don’t usually carry organic rice and the ones in Santa Fé were unreliable, I began ordering bulk packages several years ago. I’d learned the shipping times, so I knew when to order.

Today, I decided I should order much earlier. I discovered organic brown rice simply was not available on Amazon. My usual brand essentially had been delisted. One alternative was available, but the vendor would only ship UPS.

I finally found Amazon still offered white rice. It isn’t as nutritious as brown rice, but it will suffice. One consequence of the shortages is peoples’ diets are going to suffer, at least temporarily.

The resupply of milk and eggs shouldn’t be a problem, once middlemen adapt. The hens and cows are not under any shelter-in-place order, and continue to produce.

Paper and chemical goods may have more problems. One ultimately depends on men cutting pulpwood trees, the other on chemical companies. I don’t know much about the restraints on the supply of raw materials for either. Perhaps, lumber companies can divert wood intended for construction, which is now delayed, to the less profitable pulp wood market. Prices, of course, may increase.

Foods that depend on agricultural cycles are a different problem. New supplies become available once a year. We know vegetable producers have found ways to grow produce for gourmet markets all year, but it’s not easy to change the way a field of corn matures.

Except before Easter, people here don’t eat many lentils. Many elsewhere probably don’t know how to cook them or rice. I suspect that some of the packages that were purchased will never be eaten, but will serve as emblems of security on pantry shelves.

As an aside, Amazon seems to have started its non-compete program in January. They seem to have stopped listing books that sell for less than the ones they offer. This was especially true with older books that should be free from on-line archives but, in fact, are limited to institutional members. That privilege is not available to non-students at the local college; if one pays for library rights, that only covers books in the library. At the same time these restrictions by online archives went into place, reprint companies began offering copies of those subsidized digital versions at around $25.00.

There are other book sellers on the internet, and I’ve found that’s where the vendors are going who have original copies of the restricted books, or who offer the reprints for less money. I’d say I used them for most of my purchases this year.

Sources:
Jay Greene. "Prime Members First: Amazon Is Ranking Customers and Ramping up Hiring To Address Coronavirus Demand." Washington Post website. 24 March 2020.

Jack Shafer. "Stop Hating on the Hoarders." Politico website. 26 March 2020.