Shopping Spree

Three days ago people cheered because the government instituted prize freezes and ordered businesses to lower their prices. People rushed to the shops to buy whatever they could. Some businesses, recognizing that they were going to lose money, pulled items off their shelves. Many of them have since been arrested. Yesterday, people began to see the ramifications of the price freezes as most commodities were nowhere to be found. Today, shelves are empty, and it is nearly impossible to find meat, poultry, eggs, flour or oil. I’m told that things will get worse.

I was in one of the largest grocery stores in the country today and it was eerie to walk around and see the empty areas of the shop and to see that they had taken off the price indicators on most shelves. You have to wait until you get to the register to find out the price of some items. But still, people were lined up at the registers to purchase what they could (vaseline, soap, porridge) but many found that they were limited in how much they could buy as the government had ordered businesses to stop selling in bulk. I’m sure that by tomorrow, the shops will be nearly empty of any price-controlled items.

I picked up three 500ml bags of full-cream, and three bags of detergent. I couldn’t find milk yesterday, so was pleased with the cream purchase (not sure when I’ll find more), and the three bags of detergent were the last ones in the store. I waited around for 30 minutes in the hope of finding bread, but I was out of luck. I still have some flour at home so I will try to make some bread this evening if there is any electricity. Last night we had no power until nearly bedtime.

I’m not sure what life will be like here in the next couple of months. Inflation and the economy are spiraling out of control and many areas of the country are expected to face serious food shortages in the coming months. This has been a drought year, which means that many people have run out their locally grown food. We brought back rice and pasta from South Africa last month, so we are in good shape for the next while.

The big concern, however, is how I'm going to get a copy of the new Harry Potter book.