"Milk Sandwiches"

Whenever there is any kind of major snow storm, people act like it is the apocalypse and buy-out all the food in the grocery stores. Well, not really all the food; it seems like the only isles which look Cuban or Venezuelan are the milk and bread areas.

Hence the joke about people making milk sandwiches.

But really, what is happening? My theory is not that people are going for the bread and milk as their prime items. Neither keep for very long and so are not best for an emergency. I think it is the deliveries: Stores can keep a long supply of dry goods since they essentially never go bad, so even if the deliveries are delayed, there is plenty in the back. Bread and milk need to be fresh, so there are daily deliveries.

A bit of delay in delivery and empty shelves.