Expats don't stockpile

Expats don't stockpile

I got a call from my wife who was in Makro, saying everybody
was buying up everything -- rice, sugar, cooking oil and milk.
Checkout lines were so long that people were kept waiting one
hour. She asked me what she should do. "Nothing," I said. "What
if we run out of food?" I explained that it was irrational, that
we can't act with foodstuffs the same irrational way the market
reacted to the dollar. "We can eat rambutan from the trees in our
compound," I joked.

Besides, the majority of the population does not have cash
ready to stockpile. Every developing country's emerging middle
class is insecure, I told her. This is only a small fraction of
the population making a run on stores.

We had eight years in Africa and faced monthly inflation of 50
percent, not to mention that in 1989 the government froze all our
money. We can't run just because someone started a rumor. What if
all the newcomers around here see me with a gallon of oil under
my arm? These people, who came from one of those theme parks in
Europe or North America, are going to start. Last Monday shelves
began to be refilled. In Brazil, after the new year, shops have
sales to reduce their inventory. Here, people spread rumors to
empty the warehouses.

OSVALDO COELHO

Jakarta