If you don’t live here, you probably heard that the East Coast was hit with a huge blizzard last week. Luckily the wind gusts that made it a “blizzard” didn’t cause the widespread power outages they warned about, but we did get 2 feet of snow that kept us at home for a few days.
I thought we were ahead of the game since my husband stocked up on all the paper products at BJ’s on Tuesday and I sent my son to the grocery store with a long list on Wednesday, but on Thursday night at 11 pm I realized that we were completely out of milk. Crap.
Empty Shelves At The Grocery Store
When I made a mad dash to the grocery store on Friday morning, I was amused to see which shelves were empty. Here are five things I noticed were nearly gone:
This whole section should be full of eggs.
That whipped cream doesn’t even belong there.
1. Milk. I felt lucky to get one of the last few gallons of 1% milk.
2. Eggs. Luckily my son picked up a dozen eggs on Wednesday, because there were NO eggs left. I grabbed a carton of EggBeaters to use in recipes.
3. Frozen Waffles.
4. Frozen Pizza.
5. Ice Cream.
I guess people were counting on the power staying on to toast their waffles, cook their pizza, and keep their ice cream cold! I didn’t even look down the bread aisle!
Empty Shelves At Home
My son went back to college on Friday, leaving early to beat the storm. Usually I send him off with teenage boy junk food, but this time he took some surprising things, leaving me with more empty shelves in my own pantry:
1. Kale. I couldn’t believe it when he asked me to buy kale at the grocery store. I guess the kale chip trend has made it to college campuses. I was planning to use some of the kale instead of spinach in this Curried Chickpea Stew recipe, so I had to use frozen spinach instead.
2. Pasta. He’s cooking in his apartment, and pasta is a quick and easy meal.
3. Onions. We had two onions in the pantry. He took one. That meant I had to ration my onions until I could re-stock after the storm!
4. Garlic. We had one clove of garlic. He took it. Luckily the Chickpea Stew had enough flavor without it (and with only 1/2 an onion!).
5. Cereal. Thank goodness he took the Honey Bunches of Oats. That stuff is like crack to me.
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Aside from the basics, what would you stock up on at the grocery store?
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Wow kale among the college set. That’s very encouraging! I’m pretty sure I barely knew what kale was let alone ate it in my college years.
I was shocked! I don’t think I ever tried it until a few years ago.
We thought we had stocked up and realized on Thursday that we were out of milk too. Mike went to the grocery store, so all the empty shelves and crowds, and went to the CVS next door. No crowds and plenty of milk! So that’s our new plan for last minute blizzard stocking up 🙂
Brilliant idea!
Haha, that picture of empty shelves looks familiar to me too! My husband went on Wednesday morning to grab bread only to discover that out of 3, 2 stores were sold out. It was madness! Glad we are now seeing some higher temperatures and the snow is melting. Have a nice weekend!
That is madness, but I didn’t even peak down the bread aisle. I figured if the frozen waffles were gone that wasn’t a good sign!
Well you can’t get through a storm without hot chocolate and maybe some home made cookies. WE made them twice and handed them out to the neighbors while shoveling
Oh, I did not want to have fresh-baked cookies in the house since my son left just before the storm. We didn’t see ANY neighbors out shoveling until Tuesday. Maybe they decided not to both until the plow came?
A college guy asked for kale?! My how things have changed haha. I think it’s funny that so many people stocked up on food that requires refrigeration. You’re supposed to go for the non-perishables, people! Though I suppose if the power went out, you could just store the food outside haha.
We were counting on the power staying on for sure!
lol, hot cocoa packets and tuna – I was like, really? I eat tuna a few times a week so when I strolled down the aisle I was stunned. Though not sure why I should be. I’m glad the power stayed on and I didn’t need to hoard canned goods or live on bread and water 😉
Oh my goodness just look at those empty shelves. I laughed at our local radio announcer when we said “why does everyone need to stock up on bread and milk? Are they gonna eat French Toast all weekend?”. So true!
Hah! But French Toast would be so good after a few hours of shoveling ….
Honey Bunches of Oats….I’ve never done crack, but I can only imagine the cereal would come extremely close LOL It’s also my favorite 😉 And, when our son is home (freshman in college), the milk is NEVER fully-stocked in our fridge…it disappears within hours of his arrival.
Wow kale, huh? I can’t believe people were socking up on frozen items – blizzard rookies 😉
OMG, you must be laughing at us with some schools closed all week. But they still haven’t plowed ALL the lanes of the major roads. #smh
I love that your son took the kale. That’s awesome. Here in DC we VERY RARELY lose power because our lines are underground so no worries with frozen foods!
So impressed that your son would take Kale back to college. Good for him for working on healthy eating while at school. I laughed about the grocery stores shelves being so empty. People seem to think they need food for weeks when a storm is coming.
I had planned to get to the store Wednesday night, but those”flurries” derailed my plan… what a mess the roads were! I made it to the store Thursday afternoon, and the shelves weren’t too bad… register lines were terrible and they were running out of grocery bags, but I clearly managed to miss the mad rush in the egg aisle!
Oh, I got stuck in that Wednesday traffic too. I had to work late and didn’t even notice the snow or think to check the traffic report at 9 pm. It was wretched.
Luckily I went to the grocery store on Thursday at lunch and I must have gotten there when they just restocked. Everything I needed was there. Interestingly there was very little meat though.
We got 3 feet in my part of MD.
I would stock up on fruits and veggies and anything chocolate and caramel 😉
I don’t want to see snow until next year!
Attention: this is not pioneer days. The roads will be clear in a few days! No need to hoard!!!
Sigh.
Well, it did take 4 full days for my road to be plowed …. But I usually only go to the store once a week anyway.
Coco this made me think of a few weeks ago Greg and I were on one of our RV trips. We stopped at a Walmart to stay the night and went in for some things, of which Milk was on the list. In fact he decided he wanted a bowl of cereal before bed. I’m not sure if it was weather coming in or what but the regular milk shelves were as bare as could be. He ended up finding some organic milk. He complained and complained about having to get this dang milk! You know it just might be good for him. He tried it and to this day, he looks for the organic milk! True story! 🙂
That’s funny. I was surprised that the almond milk was gone – I guess it is a staple now for a lot of people.
You had quite the empty shelf experience! I got home late last night after a networking event (which I arrived late TO, and all the food was gone). I wanted sushi so I stopped at the shop across the street. They had run out of RICE. So I just came home and ate instant noodles. Felt like college all over again!
Glad you survived the blizzard! Thanks for dropping by my blog earlier this week!
We had the blizzard that never happened. Not a single flake.
That usually happens here, but this time we got hit full-on.
I have never understood why people buy milk and eggs because as soon as the power goes out you are screwed. I would be thinking beef jerky, fresh fruits, and veggies.
It always amazes me to see which shelves at the grocery store are the first to be emptied before a major storm. What continues to amaze me is how some shelves at the store are still empty and that stores are still trying to recover from being emptied out.