Inconsequential Signs of an Impending Apocalypse

[farla]

The grocery store has been bothering me recently.

When we go there, one item or another will be missing, sold out. This isn't a problem to us – the shelves are still filled with other products. But still, when there's a sale, that section is picked clean. The only things in it tend to be a few different items from either side, from buyers digging through in the hopes of finding one more, subtle signs of desperation. This is not a normal thing. Normal would be that when ice cream is on sale, the more popular flavors might be scarce.

They've resized the ice cream, speaking of that, and a few other things, shrinking them and then keeping the same price. I think the problem's on both ends. Everyone, you remember the gaudy text proclaiming items to be X percent bigger (20% free, 30% free, remember that?). It's going the other way now.

Also, the lobsters.

Let me tell you a story that was told to me two or so years back.

A woman saw at a store a huge lobster in the tank. No one would buy it, because who would buy a giant lobster? And the store didn't know what to do with it. The employees had duct-taped its claws because they didn't have rubber bands big enough. So the woman, feeling bad for the lobster, bought it and gave it to an aquarium.

Today, at the store, I saw that it's not just that big lobsters are sold, it's that now the stores have big enough rubber bands.

All of this is nothing, though, so why should I care?

And if the weather this summer is unprecedented, it's okay, because it's not unbearable. If stuff is sold out, that's okay, because it'll be there next week. If the fish section at the store keeps shrinking, that's okay, because we don't buy them so much anyway with their prices now. If gas keeps going up, that's okay, because it'll stop soon, really. If we hear about things happening somewhere else, that's okay, because it's somewhere else. And if things get worse, it's okay, because by then, we've had time to get used to what's happening now.

Rome didn't fall in a day, either.

Comments

[niftysgirl.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's what Farla was getting act, exactly. The fact that it's SOLD OUT means something, like... less product or more demand for a product that just isn't growing or something like that. And she also mentioned the fish market thing shrinking, because there are less fish in the sea that are reaching breeding age (as if they don't have *enough* things to dodge, like sharks and whales and dolphins and seals and the like, they also have to deal with humans overfishing and dumping chemicals into the sea!), and the fact that you have to pay more for less... that sort of thing.
Or it could just be a conspiracy, like the length of the lines at the checkout counter. Have you seen them, Farla? They're short when you go into the store, and absurdly long when you move to buy your food.