Early signs of a recession 😞

Yes, food deserts are a serious issue. I don’t live in a food desert though. I live in a reasonably sized city that ironically has a farming town next door. Those farms are doing pretty good maintaining their co-ops. It’s the corporate grocery stores that are visibly different than even during the pandemic when people went nuts for pasta and toilet paper lol @DearAmbellina2113

That’s an interesting point. Could be. This post is only a momentary contemplation/ inference . I can’t speak for other areas, but I know in my area food prices have gone up yet this issue of staying stocked persists. There’s also been an issue of paying the truck drivers to bring the food and an issue with increase gas prices. @Nanori

@WhateverWorks oh wow there are so many things going on there....we've had similar issues but people here kept emptying the shelves and as a result our gov saw that as a green light to keep increasing the prices on everything and now we can barely afford the necessities.

Here it seems so random. The other night when I popped in they were out of regular granny Smith apples for example. There’s also a nationwide I believe formula shortage. It’s not as if everything is completely barren À la’ zombie apocalypse, but there were so many things missing that it was impossible not to notice, which seems to be getting worse where I live.

This post is just a small passing thought though, not an economic report. There are many more important things going on that suggest we’re in trouble. For me, I felt more like… an awareness of what we in the United States take for granted.

@SomeMichGuy

@WhateverWorks I think you hit the nail on the head.

We are pretty used to a very efficient international distribution system providing us with all manner of food, following harvests as that season marches around the world, through varying latitudes.

However, just like the US auto execs never looked at the sandbox im which they were playing--how cheap gas gave rise to the notion that "Americans will never buy a small car"--we have not stopped to consider the assumptions which have made the global distribution system work.

And American businesses actually moved to make this worse by, e.g., getting rid of storage capacity/warehousing in favor of "just-in-time" production. This makes variations in production very visible to the consumer, along with greater price volatility and little/no ability to deal with even short-term shortages.

And still being as reliant as we are on fossil fuels...

It’s all very interesting to me. I can’t drive nor will I ever be able to, so I don’t keep up with gas prices unless someone vents to me about it. I intentionally live my life in such a way where I can access most things I need and enjoy either by walking or bus. Even though I am usually oblivious to the actual cost of gas happening, what I end up observing all around me is when the fossil fuel dependent infrastructure starts to struggle. @SomeMichGuy