CostCo (COST): As Inflation Rises, Food Hoarding Begins

Shoppers are raiding CostCo (COST) for rice and wheat. At least the are paying for it, for the time being anyway.

The discount retailers CEO says that "enough is enough". CostCo is prepared to ration the commodities so that the chain does not come up short in a real emergency. James Sinegal, Costco’s chief executive officer, told Reuters, If a customer came in and said, "I want 10 pallets of flour, we’d probably say, ‘No, we can’t give you that. We can give you one pallet’."

With the price of some food up by three times over the last year perhaps customers only want to get a little bit ahead of the curve. Those are the same shoppers who are building bomb shelters.

Douglas A. McIntyre