In what would have been a major violation of the law of supply and demand, Costco and Sam’s Club were reported to be limiting the quantity of rice that customers could buy.

The New York Times puts it dryly via the AP. The Chicago Tribune conjures up a WW2 era ration though the story notes that no store has actually run out of rice. The Wall Street Journal worries about rice hoarding. Reuter's headline is more frightening than the details where Costco's CEO explains that demand at Costco might be driven by the media reports of shortages.

So to clear this up, I made the bold step, apparently unknown to our media incumbents, of actually going to a Costco and observing the “rationing” first hand on Saturday, and buying some groceries in the meantime. Browsing down the bulk rice aisle, there were plenty of pallets of rice, so I was quite relieved that the “rice panic” had subsided. Costco was charging $16.99 for a 50 pound bag of rice. CBOT has 100 pounds of rice for $20.94 so Costco is getting a 77% markup over commodity price, not bad, but they do have to pay for transport and marketing, so it seemed fair to me, though I did not need 50 pounds of rice, nor was I persuaded towards the charming practice of hoarding commodities in my cellar.

I asked the stock person in the rice aisle if there were limits. He told me I could get as much rice as I liked, but my car may not hold it all. I asked the checker, who had heard of the rice limit story via the Tribune, but told me Costco had always had limits on a lot of items, but no one at the store told him to limit rice sales. The bouncer at the exit mentioned that he has never turned anyone back for buying too much of any item, neither rice, nor diapers, nor Kirkland Wine were ever stopped at the gates of Costco.

I will make a bold statement. There is no shortage of rice at Costco. There is no rationing of rice at the Costco I shopped at. Actual observation has not proven to me that “the capitalist system, unable to plan the economy and putting profits before human needs, is the source of this crisis that is now leading to widespread hunger across the globe” as per the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Perhaps Costco could raise the price, if they notice they are running short on rice, much like they raise and lower prices on 10,000 other items as they see fit.