Vietnam Vet

Yesterday morning our large upright freezer that is full of meat and ice cream quit working. We called every place within an hour that sells appliances and heard the same story. We don't have any. One place said it would be January before they had one. Other places offered to put us on a waiting list. Salesman at one place said that due to Covid freezers have sold out. One guy told me they sell every freezer the day they get them in stock.

Called Lowes and they had one in stock, it had just come in that morning. So we paid for it over the phone. It was over-priced at $899.00. But it was on sale, and with our military discount the final price was under $700.

When we picked it up the guy who loaded it on our trailer said the freezers have been sold out since Covid began.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Makes sense. Like generators after a big storm.

Julian Loc: Sarasota, FL

What a story...

LCD

Saved by the bell! COVID-19 has screwed up delivery on lots of stuff lately.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

Glad you got one before all was lost. Speaking of Lowe's: My brother needed a new riding mower and bought one from a local store. One day at Lowe's I saw they sold exactly what he had purchased at the same price he had paid. When I informed him of this he was not happy with himself that he did not check Lowe's and missed out on his veteran's discount.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

We recently had to replace both our air conditioner and refrigerator/freezer in our RV. Same thing, had to wait three weeks for the A/C in this brutal Florida heat and humidity. Had to wait almost a month for the fridge and found out that the door panels do not come with. So we have the bare insulating panels and have been waiting for door panels for 2 months. Not really a big deal, the fridge is working great but it is kinda ugly. The RV is our full time home by the way we don't just use it for camping.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Last month I was looking for a small freezer and found the same thing. Estimated delivery dates of late Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec or Jan. A couple of big dealers had a few models for pickup only at stores in small towns and cities that were several hours drive away. And the prices were way up. When things settle down I will get one and install it in the garage. And it will be a chest type because when you open it to take things out the cold air tends to stay inside. The uprights (what my wife wanted) you open the door and the cold air spills out the bottom and warm air goes in to replace it. That is why upright, though easier to access things get very poor rating for keeping things frozen if you lose power for a few hours or days.

But most of what my wife and I are stocking is canned, boxed, dried foods to avoid frequent shopping trips, and to finally get a stock of food for 3 months or more like the emergency planning types teach. Hey, I like Spam, tuna and canned beef or chicken, for that matter toss in some small canned hams that you can eat in one or two meals.. The freezer was for the TV dinners etc on days we don't feel up to cooking and the dry/canned stuff for the long term.

What many of those people don't think of is that refrigerated and frozen stuff is only good so long as the power is still on. Hopefully Covid or another illness won't stop the power. But we live in So Calif and a major earthquake or fires burning the transmission lines etc could leave us out of power for days, weeks, a month or so if things got really bad. No electricity, all that frozen stuff will go bad. I wanted a small one for enough TV dinners, breakfast bowls etc for us to only have to shop a couple of times a month.

If the power fails eat that frozen and refrigerated stuff first three meals a day until it is gone or goes bad, even if you want to puke at the thought of another frozen breakfast bowl.

I also have a case of tanks for the gas camp stove and even an old oil burning camp stove. And a couple of oil lamps and low power battery powered lamps plus a whole shelf of various size batteries. All the good brands that have a shelf life of up to 10 years.
I plan to add a solar charger with a couple of extra car/truck batteries and of course all my rechargeable batteries for flash lights, cameras etc that I have anyway.
Plus a filter and water purification tablets and chlorine neutralizer - we have a whole pool full of water. The wife looks a bit green at that thought so we have accumulated about half a pallet of bottled water and adding a case or so a week.
Last but not least, our doctors have been convinced to write our Rx for 90 days worth at a time. It just so happens my school district retirees health plan has a deal with Kaiser that if we order 90 days at a time by mail we get 1/3 off.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That must be where people are keeping their toilet paper.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Just try to locate canning lids. We had to travel almost 100 miles to get regular size lids. Large lids might take a trip to Europe to locate.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

It's astonishing to see how people have reacted due to their fear of a COVID-induced collapse of western civilization. Toilet paper, canned goods, rice & beans, hair scissors and now freezers. As if these things would allow them to survive when the apocalypse ends the flow of electricity and water.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

And another kudo for Lowes -- they have preferred parking for Vets as well as handicap!

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

Same problem with refrigerators, nobody has any. Even Lowes.
I've been looking for a reefer. So far mine has been maintaining the correct temps but seems to run a lot. Repair guy said the compressor is getting weak. Hopefully it will last for the next two years until they are available again.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

You actually hit a double whammy -- Covid is one element and the other is this is the beginning of hunting season. Every year at Sam's club where I work part-time we bring in extra 5 and 7 cubic foot chest freezers because hunters new to the sport always buy freezers to keep their kill in.

fantom Loc: Colorado

Where are you located?

dave_roe Loc: Rome Italy

When it was time to retire we did a major move from NY and relocated to Rome, Italy. When we hear the stories out of the US on stuff like freezers, shortages on staples etc we are amazed.

Last week we decided on getting a small chest freezer. We went on line, found what we wanted, called the local store near us and picked it up the next day.

Even during the lock down we had here that lasted almost 90 days we never found any item we needed out of stock at the store. We are lucky as most are all within a couple of block of where we live. We often order on line and it is normally next day delivery. With the lock down delivery times could very well be two to three weeks out.

The good side of it is being a senior citizen here got us priority. We never had to worry about getting what we needed. All it took was a phone call or email.