Vancouver General Discussion Thread

[jollyburger]

I think there should be a clarification between being in the same building vs having different entrances/facilities. The Amsterdam example seemed to have people on different levels based on their needs but no segregated sections for low income.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I think there should be a clarification between being in the same building vs having different entrances/facilities. The Amsterdam example seemed to have people on different levels based on their needs but no segregated sections for low income.

In most parts of Europe, the down-and-out do not look like literal zombies such as what we have here, or in North America. Even though there are many other healthy and socially-responsible folks who need social housing, almost all condo owners here would be afraid of being put into the same buildings as the hardcore addicts/criminals/mentally unstable, whom we have plenty here. The problem is, you never know what you will get until the newer residents move in. To allay the fears, the municipality and developers need to do a better job at explaining what those social/low-income housing are meant for.

[SpongeG]

from talking about restrictions and shortages in the other thread. Went to Superstore and Walmart in Guildford this afternoon.

RCSS had no chicken, very limited beef and some pork, Flour was almost all gone, along with sugar and a few other staples. Fruit and produce were ok, overall it wasn't too bad.

Walmart had much less, no chicken, no beef, only some pork, no bread, no flour and almost no sugar. Most everything else was ok but very many near empty shelves.

I took a few pics at the Walmart

2021-11-21_06-47-27 by snub_you, on Flickr

no bread
2021-11-21_06-47-22 by snub_you, on Flickr

meat was pretty empty
2021-11-21_06-47-16 by snub_you, on Flickr

[Migrant_Coconut]

Don't expect much rice either; any bag lighter than 4kg gets panic-bought almost immediately.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

from talking about restrictions and shortages in the other thread. Went to Superstore and Walmart in Guildford this afternoon.

RCSS had no chicken, very limited beef and some pork, Flour was almost all gone, along with sugar and a few other staples. Fruit and produce were ok, overall it wasn't too bad.

Walmart had much less, no chicken, no beef, only some pork, no bread, no flour and almost no sugar. Most everything else was ok but very many near empty shelves.

I took a few pics at the Walmart

Is this a suburban thing? Granted I haven't set foot in a Walmart in over a decade but I didn't notice anything particularly dire at City Market in Arbutus or Meinhardts.

[jollyburger]

Might just be store specific getting restocked as well.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Is this a suburban thing? Granted I haven't set foot in a Walmart in over a decade but I didn't notice anything particularly dire at City Market in Arbutus or Meinhardts.

I was shopping in No Frills on East Hastings today. No panic buying, seemed to be fully stocked, parking lot only half full at 10.00. Maybe it helped that the store have a policy of 2 items purchase limit for anything except produce. (That doesn't play well with the 'buy three, get a discount' on stir-fry sauces!)

[zahav]

Shoppers Drug Mart in Richmond Centre was pretty empty in a lot of sections (dairy, soups, paper totel/TP). So ridiculous. I tried 3 Esso's today for Gas, all three had none. Feels very odd

[Klazu]

People are idiots. Seems that certain lower tier groceries always see such first. It's all so silly as I saw today both an Esso and a Shell near me get gas delivered. We won't run out of anything except temporarily due to panicking idiots.

[Metro-One]

It is funny how the vast majority of these shortages are self inflicted by morons.

[officedweller]

It depends on where the stores source their inventory.
Stores that source locally are having less issues.

For Walmart, the distribution centre for refrigerated goods may be Balzac, Alberta.
From 2010:

Walmart Canada has invested $115 million to build the 400,000 square foot centre. One of Canada’s largest refrigerated buildings, it serves as a hub for fresh and frozen food destined for 104 of the company’s stores in Western Canada, from Manitoba to British Columbia.

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2...ts-first-sustainable-distribution-centre

[Klazu]

I would think that an American chain like Walmart always has the option of temporarily sourcing from their American distribution centres. Much harder for Canadian groceries, although Darrell Jones said that he would even hire helicopters to supply locations such as Hope.

[WarrenC12]

Friday and Saturday there was a real run on gasoline, many stations were empty. I was out Sunday and only saw 1 station closed, at least a dozen open, and very little in the way of lineups.

It shows what you can hoard (food, tp), and what you can't (gas). Everybody filling their tank will drain gas stations, but after that they can resupply and away we go.

Also interesting that there was no price movement in gas. It was still in the mid 150s. I know the government said "no gouging", but if there was a real supply issue you'd think some stations would be at least testing new highs per liter. The whole situation is a bit opaque though. We know TMX is/was down for a period of time. How much slack is in the system at the various refineries that supply Metro Van and the Island?

Didn't notice any lack of food downtown at Costco and Whole Foods. Business as normal.

[djh]

It's ironic that people are calling other people "idiots" for panic-buying.

Do you realise panic-buying happens because of other people reporting there are shortages of goods on shelves?

If you post photos of empty shelves, people will...panic.

So maybe don't accentuate the 'drama' by posting salacious images of empty shelves.

I literally didn't know there were shortages of goods in (some) supermarkets until I came to this thread and read all of this talk. My instinctive reaction was "ooh, maybe there's something happening here, I should get ahead of this and go buy a bunch of stuff". Then I realised it's only because of what I'm seeing here. My local shops are not out of goods. But seeing people talking about it raises the panic buy instinct.
And if it's doing that to me, you can be sure others here have felt the same thing.

Stop feeding the frenzy. Don't post pictures that will incite panic. Don't talk about "the shortages", it'll incite panic. It's salacious, it's tabloid, it's unproductive. And then you lose the right to complain about people's stupid behaviour if you're part of causing the panic.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by djh

It's ironic that people are calling other people "idiots" for panic-buying.

Do you realise panic-buying happens because of other people reporting there are shortages of goods on shelves?

If you post photos of empty shelves, people will...panic.

So maybe don't accentuate the 'drama' by posting salacious images of empty shelves.

I literally didn't know there were shortages of goods in (some) supermarkets until I came to this thread and read all of this talk. My instinctive reaction was "ooh, maybe there's something happening here, I should get ahead of this and go buy a bunch of stuff". Then I realised it's only because of what I'm seeing here. My local shops are not out of goods. But seeing people talking about it raises the panic buy instinct.
And if it's doing that to me, you can be sure others here have felt the same thing.

Stop feeding the frenzy. Don't post pictures that will incite panic. Don't talk about "the shortages", it'll incite panic. It's salacious, it's tabloid, it's unproductive. And then you lose the right to complain about people's stupid behaviour if you're part of causing the panic.

Rather than your fellow forumers, blame the media. They thrive on showing those images.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by djh

Stop feeding the frenzy. Don't post pictures that will incite panic. Don't talk about "the shortages", it'll incite panic. It's salacious, it's tabloid, it's unproductive. And then you lose the right to complain about people's stupid behaviour if you're part of causing the panic.

No one is inciting panic because they see some empty shelves anymore than when everyone snatched up all the toilet paper last year.



Now everyone is going to be an alcoholic from seeing this graphic image

https://www.pexels.com/search/liquor/

[SpongeG]

I went to the grocery store on North Road, the Independent today, it's a little tough to tell if some things are not stocked due to the fact that the store is closing in about 6 weeks so they are probably not restocking and there is a lot of stuff quite cheap for clearance. But they had loads of bread, milk etc. The only thing that was wiped out was Flour. All the gas stations I passed today looked normal and open. I did pass one Esso in Surrey last night that had run out of gas.

It seems the cheapest stores RCSS and Walmart are experiencing the most shortages, the Safeways and Save-on I went to over the weekend were pretty normal.

Highway 3 has been closed down again due to a washout. There are also another two days of Atmospheric Rivers headed this way starting Thursday. They are saying it won't be as bad for the Fraser Valley, but more for the North Shore where the heaviest rain will be.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Also interesting that there was no price movement in gas. It was still in the mid 150s. I know the government said "no gouging", but if there was a real supply issue you'd think some stations would be at least testing new highs per liter.

I read some comments suggesting that prices did actually peak shortly at $1.99 per litre on Friday night, but I have not seen any photo to confirm that.

With regards to Trans-Mountain pipeline, what is the cause for the closure? Are they checking the entire line for possible ruptures or did the pipeline actually experience confirmed damage from the washouts? Isn't most of it buried fairly deep in the ground, so it is likely fairly resistant to such damage.

Good thing they are twinning it, as all of this just goes to tell how fragile our dependency on energy is and no matter what the green activists say, it is cars and oil that keep the modern society going.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I read some comments suggesting that prices did actually peak shortly at $1.99 per litre on Friday night, but I have not seen any photo to confirm that.

With regards to Trans-Mountain pipeline, what is the cause for the closure? Are they checking the entire line for possible ruptures or did the pipeline actually experience confirmed damage from the washouts? Isn't most of it buried fairly deep in the ground, so it is likely fairly resistant to such damage.

Good thing they are twinning it, as all of this just goes to tell how fragile our dependency on energy is and no matter what the green activists say, it is cars and oil that keep the modern society going.

I assume someone was talking about premium gas. The pipeline is operating at lower capacity until they verify everything on the line is okay. It's not buried as deep as you think. But they're twinning it next to the existing pipeline so I doubt it will remove much if any risk from a catastrophic event.

U.S. gasoline barges head to Vancouver after floods disrupt supply chains
The arriving barges will help alleviate a fuel shortage where some gas stations have been forced to close temporarily due to empty pumps.

U.S. barges carrying gasoline are headed to Canada’s west coast to deliver much-needed fuel to a region cut off from the rest of the country after last week’s rainstorms brought flooding and landslides that damaged transportation links.

Gasoline is in short supply in parts of British Columbia, including in Vancouver, home to the nation’s largest port and the country’s third-largest city. The arriving barges will help alleviate a fuel shortage in a province where some gas stations have been forced to close temporarily due to empty pumps.

The heavy damage from rainstorms washed away parts of major highways and blocked railways leading east, essentially isolating Vancouver from the rest of the country. That is creating problems getting supplies into the area, and panic buying that has emptied some grocery store shelves and added stress on fuel supplies. B.C.’s provincial government has imposed a maximum purchase of 30 liters (7.9 gallons) for drivers.

“We have been sourcing supply from other jurisdictions as you know, from Alberta for example and also from south of the border,” Mike Farnworth, B.C.’s public safety minister, said Monday in a press conference. “There are some barges that are actually on the way to get here with fuel.”

[...]

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news...ouver-after-floods-disrupt-supply-chains

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I read some comments suggesting that prices did actually peak shortly at $1.99 per litre on Friday night, but I have not seen any photo to confirm that.
. . .

The gas station I went to Saturday at ~300AM was sold out of all but the highest premium grade, but was selling that at the regular price of $1.60.