Shortages

Back in March, the shortages of toilet paper and paper towels made the news. These shortages have been alleviated, or so it appears, as the shelves in our local Ingles and Wal Mart are once again full of paper products. But I am surprised at the other shortages I have encountered.

A nice, new, white shirt suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune after a spaghetti dinner one night. The stain proved stubborn, and my usual bag of stain-removing tricks appeared not to be working, so I consulted that know-it-all, Mr. Internet. Mr. Internet suggested that I try Dawn Dish-Washing Liquid. Now, I was skeptical that any one brand of cleaner would be significantly better than any other brand, but I was also desperate, so I trudged off to Ingles to discover that, while there were several bottles of dish-washing detergent on the shelves, the Dawn was all gone. I finally found a bottle – one bottle – at Wal Mart. Why the run on Dawn? It didn’t remove the offending stain, so I am a bit surprised that it is in short supply.

Kathy and I spent some time at the shooting range recently, which is another story of shortages. I keep weapons for the purpose of self defense, so it makes sense that I keep several hundred rounds of self defense ammunition, i.e., hollow points, on hand at all times. Hollow points are more expensive than standard bullets, and are wasted on the range, so when we go to practice, I end up buying target rounds for our pistols.

Not this time.

I had enough target rounds in 45 caliber, 38 special, and 25 caliber to get a good workout, but I didn’t have a single target round of 380 caliber. This is a problem, as Kathy and I both own 380s, so we go through a fair number of rounds when we practice. The real problem occurred when we tried to buy some: the range was completely sold out. The recent turmoil has caused demand for ammunition to skyrocket. When the stores ran out of hollow points, they sold target ammo. And now, the target ammo is depleted.

We practiced with our other weapons, and at the end of the day, I made a run to another range in another town. I was able to purchase a box of 250 target rounds in 380 caliber. We went back to the range the next day, and brushed up on our 380s. But it is surprising when you can’t even buy target rounds.

And so it goes. I have a nice matching pen and pencil set, and the pen’s ink cartridge needed replacing. I went to the store to buy a cartridge, and came home empty handed. The store sold the pens still, but there was not a single ink replacement cartridge for my pen, indeed, for ANY new pen the store sold. I had to order it on Amazon.

It continues. I tried to order a set of DVDs for a British television comedy I used to watch in the 1970s. Everybody advertised it, but when I tried to put it in my shopping cart, the vile words “temporarily out of stock” came up, on every website. I finally found a second-hand set of DVDs, and probably paid too much for it.

We have enjoyed cooking during the past few months, but it became painfully obvious that a really nice, really sharp, set of kitchen knives would enhance our cooking experience. A student of mine was selling a very nice set, and we bought it. Apparently the month of June was a good month for this knife manufacturer, as it was two weeks before the knives could be shipped.

There isn’t an N-95 mask for sale in the entire county.

The King Of All Shortages story follows, and it involves a refrigerator. Our refrigerator came with the house that I bought 14 years ago. The ice maker stopped working last year, and it began leaking water periodically. Neither worried me: I don’t need ice very often, and a towel shoved under the front of the fridge took care of the leak. Kathy didn’t quite see it that way, and so I finally relented and said, “Okay, go get a new fridge.” She went everywhere: Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, a local appliance store, and even an appliance store up in Asheville. Just deciding on one model was a royal pain: why are there so bloody many options? Why do refrigerators need computers? Why on earth should I connect a refrigerator, of all things, to WiFi?

At every place, the same thing happened. She decided, finally, on a model, only to be told that it was not in stock. I can’t tell you how many times this happened, but it stopped being funny a long time ago.

At long last, Lowes had a model she wanted, and it was in stock. She paid for it, and it was scheduled to be delivered on Thursday. On Wednesday they called to say that, unfortunately, they sold the refrigerator to someone else, and that it had been delivered already. That didn’t sit very well, given that she had paid for the thing the week before. Kathy grabbed her bag, hopped in her car, and drove to Lowes. She was gone for a couple of hours of quality, bonding time with local Lowes management.

The next day, the refrigerator pictured above was delivered to the house.

I don’t know why everything seems to be in such short supply these days. In some cases, it is probably due to our trade disagreements with China. Even our “Made in America” refrigerators use parts manufactured in China. But in other cases, such as the ammunition shortage, China is not the problem. I am not accustomed to shortages, and do not want to get used to them.