“War Profiteering”

~ Elizabeth

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I have baked our bread for many years, using a recipe that makes a very hearty loaf. Mixing whole wheat flour, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, honey, oil, salt and yeast, I produce bread for toast that, when covered with almond butter, makes a very filling breakfast. Because we are both home and had trouble finding any sandwich bread anywhere, we have been using this loaf for all occasions. Of course this meant that I needed to restock my ingredients. Although I had backups for most of them, I could see that I would soon run out of some. I can substitute for many, but yeast is pretty essential to the way I bake.

Some people wake up during this pandemic and wonder how others are doing. Feeling helpless, they try to do what they can in little ways such as calling a shut-in or sharing groceries with a neighbor. Other people apparently wake up during a pandemic and wonder how they can profit from other peoples’ needs. There are a lot more of the second category of people in this country than I would have ever imagined.

I buy the French yeast pictured above that comes in a one pound vacuum sealed bag. I take out a small quantity and store it in the refrigerator. The rest I rewrap and freeze. This one pound bag usually costs around 6 dollars. Usually is the key word. My usual supplier, King Arthur Flour, lacks not only flour but also yeast. Turning to the internet I learned that for 32 dollars I could buy the same package from one of “entrepreneurs” now populating Amazon.

Shame on them. Shame on all of their fellow exploiters now profiting from sales of things others need. And no. I didn’t buy it from Amazon. I found a small business that would mail me some. For 7.98 I will have a new one pound bag. And gratitude galore.

55 thoughts on ““War Profiteering””

  2. I agree. We cannot get yeast or flour. I am on King Arthur’s waiting list for yeast, and I have ordered flour although I know it will be a long ship time. It is the worst of people, those who wish to allow others to suffer for profit.

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    1. I am on their wait list for flour. I did find some great flour from a grist mill in Texas. Twice as expensive, but the regular price for them. I like white whole wheat flour and they ground it there. It worked well in yesterday’s loaf.

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      1. We have a local store here that seems to be stocked on everything. It does require going into the store, which I am not tempted to do at present. I am hoping King Arthur will come through. I did find yeast online. It will arrive Thursday.

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  3. The supermarkets here stopped their weekly specials. My bill was nearly 3 times what I expected. Good thing the Prime Minister told them to reinstate!
    She’s also assured the children that the Easter Bunny & Tooth Fairy are essential services!

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        2. So do I. My best guess is that we’ll get an extra 2 weeks lockdown, and our borders will be closed for months. At least we can feed etc ourselves forever if needed, & exports are already on their way out, like fruit & timber. A good chunk of the economy is toast, but it won’t be completely doom & gloom.

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        4. So Lou asked Bran for a couple of bags of flour, thinking of the usual 2KG bags we’d normally get. The issue here is that the packaging for that size is out – so he picked her up two bags from his work, except they are 5KG!!!

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  4. Good for the small business. We bought the first toilet paper we saw in a month, and it was so thin and the rolls were so pathetically little that WE COULD BEND THE WHOLE ROLL OF TOILET PAPER IN HALF THE LONG WAY, before we even used it. It added up to some tiny amount, all nine or so rolls, and cost something like $8.19 for enough to blow a few noses and have a few little bathroom visits. It was disgraceful. Boo on those who take unfair advantage. It was a recycled paper company, and if they wanted there to be enough for all, they could have wound the paper tighter and made three solid rolls out of the nine, and sold it for four bucks–

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      1. It is a strange thing, and has to be karmically weird. I would feel creepy to say: I know people are more stressed so I will make my tarot readings MORE expensive instead of the same or less, and then to feel smug about making more money off the desperate and worried. YUCK.

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        3. That would be interesting. Do you lay out the cards or does the person participate in some way? I would like to know how you might do it.

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  5. I have a smaller example. I often walk past other stores in my neighborhood to purchase a quart of off-brand coffee creamer because it tastes as good as the name brands but only costs $3.49. The other day I bought some and didn’t realize until I got home that I’d paid [the new price of] $6.49 for it!😳

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  6. This kind of profiteering is so maddening. It goes from Senators trading on insider information to “entrepreneurs” on the Internet. Disgusting.

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  8. Shame indeed. Even my usual supermarket has ‘restored’ their previous bargain proces and special offers to prices from five years ago.
    But there are no shortages locally now, except for proprietary medicines like paracetamol. I went shopping today, and got everything on my list. Enough meals and other essentials for at least seven days. (I didn’t look for yeast though)
    Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. I have heard it reported that suppliers are charging the supermarkets more for all the extra staff and deliveries. Maybe they are just passing on those costs? (I’m cynical, so reckon they are taking advantage)

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  10. I’m trying to make a keen note of all the businesses that price gouge and the platforms that allow it to take place. I can’t believe people they are so many evil people in the world. When this is over, I’m supporting the businesses that helped.

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      1. That’s great! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Kroger. They’ve been putting essentials on sale instead of hiking up the prices and I know there are so many people grateful for that. They’re enforcing the purchasing limits too and have made some interesting hiring decisions. I hear they aren’t giving workers sick leave with pay though. I hope they fix that soon.

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        2. I was wrong. Someone had told me they weren’t paying sick leave, but I looked it up just now and it said they expanded sick leave because of COVID-19 in March. Good on them!

          I’m glad the stores in your neck of the woods are raising pay. I’m not sure if mine is or not.

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  12. You can’t get much lower in my book than by trying to capitalize and overcharge during a crisis.

    By the way, is anybody finding gas for 80-90 cents per gallon that I keep hearing about at the daily press briefing? My region of the country is traditionally high, but I gassed up at $3.20 per gallon today.

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