Has anyone figured out why folks MUST buy bread and milk if a snowstorm is coming?

[CTyankee]

Is this an urban myth?

I could understand it if it's rural folks stocking up. They might be stranded but I was only stranded a couple of times in the 'burbs way back in the day.

Maybe it's just me, but here in CT I haven't been all that inconvenienced. It snows. The snowplows come. I get out. A few bad spots here and there but nothing to get all bent about.

[prole_for_peace]

1. My parents did that a few weeks ago when we were expecting

flurries. Not even "real" snow. I am in SE Texas about 70 miles east of Houston and we seldom get snow or sleet.

The forecast was for snow and my parents came by my house and told me they were on their way to the store for milk and bread in case it was too bad to get out later.

People around here see one flake falling through the air and lose their minds

[CTyankee]

2. SE Texas?!! If I lived there, I'd prolly do what your folks did...but this is Connecticut!

Here in New Haven we have snow plows! City snow plows! Yay!!!

Folks here have been dealing with snow forever. One winter I was in despair that the ice crust on my front curb would EVER melt...

I now have a covenant with snow. I know that it provides a nice, white blankie for my landscaped, tiny area in front of my house. It ain't much but it's pretty and the snow actually nourishes the roots below. I can sleep at night with that knowledge...

[Dulcinea]

31. Same thing in Atlanta.

If there's even a threat of flurries, people immediately rush out to get milk & bread. I grew up in Western PA & it still makes me laugh even though I've lived here 20 years. What people here call "snow" doesn't even count as a "dusting" to me!

[GoCubsGo]

3. I don't understand that one, either.

They do that here in South Carolina, too. I don't believe many of them are rural folk, as they tend to stay well-stocked on most things as it is. Anyone who lives out in the country knows what a pain in the ass it is to drive miles and miles to go grocery shopping.

I grew up in Chicago. I don't remember my parents running of to the store for milk and bread with every threat of snow.

[rug]

4. I still run out to get coal.

[mzteris]

5. that's what they SAY they're going to get

but it's really to get more beer.

Oh- and coffee.

[CTyankee]

7. No, I've seen totally bare bread aisles...nt

[mzteris]

11. well yeah -

That's just a cover. They get "bread & milk" - and oh - since they're there, they pick up the beer, too! :)

[rurallib]

17. just a few cases or 10.

[LoveMyCali]

22. coffee and toilet paper

I wouldn't want to get snowed in without either.

[surrealAmerican]

6. I guess it's in case the stores all close.

That said I grew up in New York, and live in Chicago now, and I've never been a storm so bad that you couldn't go buy food within two days.

[tigereye]

8. if you have kids who drink milk like there's no tomorrow...

As for bread, many people have bread in the freezer, or bake it, right? During the blizzard of 93, I actually walked to the grocery store and it was closed. I ended up going to a mom and pop store than was open, since we were out of a few things...

[CTyankee]

9. Kids...that's a different story. I remember when my kids were little.

I had three, not too far apart, and we had powdered milk for just this type of situation. They drank it and they're sure fine today. As a matter of fact, they're very healthy. It's doable.

[tigereye]

14. sure, my mom did it too and I have in a pinch. But god it's so awful!

yuk.

[Raven]

10. Forget milk! It's scotch for this old fart! And I've got mine and chili

and dogfood. Must have dogfood! So it's rice and chili for me tonight and ...well the dogs are covered but it's so cold that they won't go out!

[HopeHoops]

12. To make french toast.

Or is it still "freedom toast"? :shrug:

[tigereye]

15. haha !

good one! :rofl:

[Jkid]

13. It's routine

It may not be bread and milk but it could be any food or drink.

[david13]

16. Dude. They buy bread and milk all the time. If you check, it may

be that the stores biggest sellers, number 1 and 2 are ... bread and milk?
dc

[Pool Hall Ace]

18. When I went to pick up a few things the other day, I noticed

people stocking up on water. We don't get two feet of snow very often here; does that kind of accumulation muck up the water supply?

[TreasonousBastard]

19. Dunno about you, but around here most people have wells, so...

some stock up on water in case the electricity goes out and they have no pump.

Other than that, I've NEVER seen any place I've lived, rural or urban, that didn't have stores restocked within two days so I can't understand locust-plagued look of the empty store shelves the day before the storm.

[likesmountains 52]

20. Where I live (Colorado mountains) we can be closed off from truck

delivery for days at a time if there is a lot of snow or avalanche danger on the mountain passes. No mail, no groceries, no beer. We tend to stock up if there is a big storm coming.

[noamnety]

21. Not sure about the milk but the bread is to keep our feet warm.

[Kat45]

23. Yeah. I always say that people are doing their bunker shopping.

Here in the Boston area, I tend to trace it back to the Blizzard of '78, when the whole metro area, if not the whole state, was shut down for a number of days. State of emergency; no cars allowed on the roads; nothing open. I guess people are afraid any snow storm will become that. But that was almost 30 years ago and there are plenty of people who weren't even born then. But of course if you watch the weather, they scare the shit out of you about it starting a day or two before it will arrive.

[u4ic]

24. Not in Alberta

blizzards, extreme cold weather...don't faze anybody here. People even cycle through snowstorms. Malls/grocery stores are packed when it's -30.

[necso]

25. When I was living in Allston,

it snowed so much once that they plowed my street in; at the intersection, there was a big bank of snow and ice that you had to climb up and over to get to your house. And it was there until they brought in front-loaders.

And I think it was around this time that, one night when I came home, there was a stream of dirty water running down the front stairs of the house. Avoiding it, and curious as to its source, I followed the stream to our door (the inside door of our floor), and then into our bathroom -- where a stream of sewage and kitty-litter was erupting out of the toilet. Apparently one of the roommates had been dumping used-litter down the toilet!

(In the event, I just went to my room to sleep.)

This was the same place where the local lads set the burned-out-shell of the house-next-door on fire twice more while I was there -- at Thanksgiving and Christmas! (The first time I was unsure what to make of it; the second time it was old hat; I left before the third.)

[RoyGBiv]

26. They wanna make ice cream sandwiches?

HellifIknow ...

:shrug:

I saw people in Houston stocking up like a Cat 5 hurricane was bearing down on us *as we were getting snow that wasn't sticking to the ground*.

"We're having a blizzard!!!! OMG!!PONIES!!1"

More seriously, when I lived in OKC and we had a storm coming, I'd stock up on groceries so I'd be able to stay inside for a few days if it came to that. It wasn't the snow that bothered me, rather the ice. Oklahoma gets ice storms. I've lived through more than one of those critters that resulted in the stores that sold this stuff not even being open for days at a time.

[Tobin S.]

27. French toast is one of the basic food groups.

If you didn't know that you are probably extremely carb and lactose deficient and I'd recommend getting to your local IHOP right now.

[elleng]

29. Right-O Tobin S!

AND REAL MAPLE SYRUP!!!

[elleng]

28. FRENCH TOES!!!!!

[dugaresa]

30. i witnessed it friday

i had been out of town on a business trip so my household was short of goods as my husband had been taking the kids out to dine.

it was hard to find a parking spot.

most shoppers were elderly folks who probably don't want to risk going out for fear of breaking a hip
and people with toddlers.

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. The answer to most questions about behavior is "Because the majority of people are fucking dumb"

[hobbit709]

33. That's like people who buy plywood and bottled water

when they live 300 miles from the coast and a hurricane is coming.

[Gormy Cuss]

34. Surrounding yourself with white food is a good defense against snow.

When the snow comes to attack your house it sees the whiteout conditions in your kitchen and moves on.

[KG]

35. it was funny, a few years ago with hurricane appraoching my part of FL

the senior citizens totally emptied the cookie aisle.