Vietnam Vet wrote:
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.
Yesterday morning our large upright freezer that i... (
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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.