The economic crisis has hit many families and individuals in different ways. This anecdote really hit me hard. Perhaps you will feel the same way.
We all know that money is tight for Americans all across the country. Los Angeles is no exception and even in the middle to upper class neighborhood where we live there are some disturbing signs of desperation. Sure, there are for rent signs all over the place and people are conscious about saving and reducing their expenses, but the most painful demonstration of the economic crisis that I have heard is so much worse.
Around the corner from our home is a Ralph’s Supermarket. (That’s like Pathmark and Shoprite for the east coasters, Publix for you southerners and Schnucks for you midwesterners.) We go there for many basic grocery items, but in the past they have been notoriously over priced so we would go to Trader Joe’s for anything that we could find there as the prices were much better.
Recently, Ralph’s has had some great sales and overall their prices have come down. Even their coupons have been more generous. One glaring example of an overly generous coupon is the buy one baby formula get another baby formula free coupon. Free! That’s a big coupon. The only problem with using that coupon is that the formula section is often bare.
Even early in the day, Ralph’s is often sold out of all the baby formula that they stock.
My wife decided to ask a Ralph’s stock person about the low stock of baby formula. The stock person said “yeah, it’s always like this now, the thing is that people aren’t even buying it, we will sometimes go through our entire stock of baby formula without making one sale. People have crying babies at home that need to eat, but they can’t afford the baby formula, so they’ve been stealing it. Kids and adults can get by on other stuff, even cheap stuff, but babies need formula…” (Now the 5$ coupons make sense, Ralph’s would prefer that they buy the formula for a deeply discounted price rather than steal it.)
(Ralph’s now has the formula behind lock and key to prevent theft.)
When I heard that, it brought me to tears. As I type it right now, tears form in the corners of my eyes. I cannot imagine how disheartening it must be to a parent who cannot afford to feed one’s family.
For those of us who have what we need, it is a call to reach out and help our friends and neighbors who are going through difficult financial times. It is heartbreaking to hear about these stories, but it is reality.
We all know people who need help. Let us all try and share what we have with those who don’t.
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I don’t know personally, but isn’t there WIC for formula? I don’t know if I would draw conclusions about society and poverty from the Ralph’s stockperson (although I’m sure he’s a lovely individual).
Middle class people cannot qualify for WIC.
In LA you need way more than the maximum WIC requirements to live.
And we can learn something from everyone, this person has actual information that I accept as fact, the conclusions are obvious.
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I sure hope it doesn’t turn out that infant formula is an ideal cutting agent for illicit drugs that need to be water soluble! [not saying this is so!]
I worked in a grocery store (Publix) for many years and sadly, formula is always stolen. It is also an ideal cutting agent for drugs as it is harmless and already the correct consistency. It’s usually not the people who need it stealing it. It’s people who either use it for drugs, or resell it at a lesser price than the grocery store. The thieves work stores and patterns and generally know when it is delivered and stocked. Then they clean it out.
You may be right.
But the situations has deteriorated in our middle – upper class neighborhood and it directly correlates to the financial pinch.