Bay Area Rice Hoarding
The SF Bay Area is a great place to start a tech company. There is literally no other place on earth that combines the people with the technology knowledge and “far-out” ideas with the more practical people like the hands-on managers, lawyers, accountants, and other support people. Throw in a tremendous amount of money people who are willing to take risks for a high return on their investment, and you get the “Greatest Tech Show on Earth” called Silicon Valley.
This concentration of brain power (or maybe a combo of brain power with a dash of nonreality) may explain the latest fixation by Silicon Valley residents. Costco, a large chain of warehouse stores, is reporting a run on rice and flour in the SF Bay Area. For those of you who have been busy watching the price of gasoline rise, you missed that the cost of rice has doubled in the last few months. There have even been riots overseas such as those in Haiti as the cost of food climbs beyond what the normal person can afford.
Costco has stated that there is no reason to worry about running out of rice; they have plenty. Someone needs to explain to the geniuses hoarding rice that the US is the world’s 4th largest exporter of rice. California is one of the biggest producers of rice in the US.
But maybe these people are simply timing the rice market. Maybe they believe that a big hurricane will hit Louisiana, another large producer of rice, and send the price soaring. Then they will break out their stored Costco rice and sell it on eBay. They could make a killing.
As rice becomes more rare than Internet startups with good business plans, we may be reduced from eating sushi to only being able to afford sashimi. Oh the horror!
Technorati tags: Costco, rice, food riots, Silicon Valley
Tags: Costco, food riots, rice, Silicon Valley