After church yesterday, we decided to make a quick stop at a grocery store near the church to pick up an item that I had forgotten when shopping earlier in the week. We don’t usually shop on Sundays, but we wanted this item for our salad for our Mother’s Day dinner. It seemed like a simple chore. I had no idea how many people go grocery shopping on Sundays. We drove through the parking lot, aisle by aisle without seeing an available parking space. When we saw someone loading their groceries into their car, there would already be another car waiting for the parking place. Some aisles had two or three extra cars just waiting for a space to park. I left the parking lot and drove around the block, thinking that parking a bit farther away would work. I had no luck finding parking. When I got back to the busy street in front of the store, I gave up and headed for home. It just wasn’t worth wasting gas driving around looking for a parking place. I also knew that with that many cars in the parking lot, the grocery store would be crowded and I just didn’t want to deal with that much hassle on my Sunday.

As it turned out, we had a lovely Mother’s Day dinner. We ate with our son and his family. Our son cooked salmon from the Lummi market, a vegetable dish and made fruit smoothies. We brought a salad and baked potatoes. It was a fine feast and the crowded grocery store and one ingredient were forgotten.

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, we have been hearing of supply chain problems and shortages. Frankly, the shortages never had much of an impact on us. We never had huge supplies of toilet paper on hand, but we never ran out, either. We noticed when some items were not available at our local stores, but we had what we needed for our lifestyle. I’ve heard about car dealers who can’t get inventory to sell, but we are not in the market for a car. I know that some repair shops are having trouble getting parts, but once again, it hasn’t had a direct effect on us.

We talk about the vulnerability of the nation’s supply chain and issues of logistics from time to time. It is clear that the systems of manufacture and transportation that support our lifestyles are fragile and that interruptions and delays and shortages of some items are more frequent with the added problems caused by the pandemic.

I wonder, however, if the supply chain issues are not just a temporary problem, but rather, like some other aspects of the pandemic, a sign of a permanent shift in our culture. The incredible abundance that we had taken for granted is a privilege that is unknown in most of the world. The fact that we have dozens of retail outlets available seven days a week is a luxury unknown to most people.

I know that my reminiscing about days long gone isn’t very helpful, but I have reached the age where I am full of stories. I can remember growing up in a town where most of the businesses weren’t open on Sundays. Our town had a few local shops, but there were plenty of items that weren’t available in town. We had a Montgomery Wards catalogue store where you could browse catalogues for department store items. Most of us had catalogues at home as well. When you wanted an item and had set aside your money, you went to the store and placed an order. It took a couple of weeks, and sometimes more, for your item to arrive. We were used to waiting. We didn’t expect instant gratification. Our local grocery store had some fresh produce most days, but their truck came only once a week, so some items would run out and other items were not as fresh as we have come to expect these days. I do not remember those times as being hard or sad. We were not unhappy.

Having access to almost anything wanted and being able to obtain next day or second day delivery of nearly everything advertised on the internet has not made us happier. It has made us a bit less patient. It has made us a bit less self-sufficient. It has made us a bit less careful. If I forget an item when doing my usual grocery shopping or if I decide I want an ingredient for a change in menu plans, I am used to being able to make a quick stop. But we wouldn’t go hungry if groceries were a bit less convenient. We have a well-stocked pantry. We have a freezer. We have food for many meals on hand at our house at all times. We get eggs from the chickens at our son’s farm and it won’t be long before the garden is producing lots of fresh food. There will be fruit from the bushes and trees soon.

I don’t think that we need to solve all of the supply chain issues. I don’t think that needing to wait for certain items is necessarily a problem. We have been spoiled by the ease of retail shopping.

I understand the power of a shortage or of the fear of a shortage. I have friends who stocked up on toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic. More than one bragged about the huge supply they had amassed. I fell victim to those feelings briefly yesterday when we went to the grocery store. I was tempted to drive around the parking lot again and again. Had I done so, I would have eventually formed a strategy to win a parking place. I don’t know how much gas I would have wasted in the process. I don’t know ho much more stressed it would have made me. My competitive spirit was set off by the shortage. It took me a few minutes to realize that I didn’t need to go to that store. We didn’t need to have the perfect menu. And, by simply going home I gained a bit of time. Since we have a three-month-old grandson and his siblings, I have lots of ways to invest my time that are more fun and more meaningful than looking for a parking space.

An occasional shortage might be good for us all.