Devastation After One Little Power Outage

Yesterday the power went out around 10:00 in the morning. While in the library, I heard from a frustrated woman that it would be at least six hours before they’d get it fixed; she was very upset that she couldn’t use her cell phone for the day. Maybe she was a tourist; most of us are used to going with the flow around here.

Apparently someone’s car hit a utility pole on Lopez Island. When this happens, there’s usually a guesstimate of when power will be restored, and it’s often a pretty good one. It’s amazing what the power crews can accomplish, especially knowing that whole islands are relying on them.

We had a great day. It didn’t affect us much. But it’s funny what my first thought was when it went out: ‘I’ve gotta get to the store to rescue some of those packaged salads that just went on sale. They’re never on sale, and they won’t last six hours without power.’

The reason I say they won’t last is because the minute an outage occurs that the store knows will last longer than a few minutes, they go into major lock-down mode. They block off the frozen aisle and tape all the doors so no one can let any cold air out. They cover all the cool produce areas to retain the temperature as long as possible.

But, at a certain dreadful point, a horribly depressing point, they remove every packaged cold item from the produce area’s shelves. They throw it all away. Legally, they have to. If someone happened to buy something that hadn’t been adequately refrigerated and they subsequently got sick, they could sue Island Market.

It’s awful. Salads, hummuses, dressings, specialty cheeses, packaged cut fruit, bottled smoothies, salamis, the list goes on. Then there’s the hot case – they already have to throw away all unpurchased breakfast sandwiches by 11:00 AM and all the chicken strips, Jojos, burritos, and other fast, fried items by the afternoon no matter how full the case is; but when the power goes out, it all goes in the dumpster not long after.

It’s literally sickening. All those chickens; all that cheese; all those vegetables – wasted. It could all be eaten, but because people are litigious in this society, the store must protect themselves.

But as my son pointed out, the store should keep all that food out and have a release form that each buyer signs, releasing the store of any liability in the case that someone should get sick. All that food could feed hundreds of people. All that food could be paid for so that the store doesn’t suffer; or at least it could go half-price. But completely removed and discarded? Uggggh. If I ever wanted to go dumpster diving, it was yesterday. And I would have. I had a fierce drive in me to do so. But they keep their trash inaccessible for that very reason.

Right after the power went out, my husband saw an influx of people ambling around Eastsound. A ferry had apparently just come in and tourists were wandering around town trying to find stores that were open. Since many were dark and closed, and restaurants could only serve room-temperature food, hoards of people gravitated to the store. I never got there until later. I should have gone earlier, because by the time I finally went around 4:00, the cold shelves had been emptied.

It’s a huge blow to feel. The feeling of loss for all the waste. And to know that the store is losing tens of thousands of dollars in one day, after one little random event that happened on another island and happened to affect our connected power, or lack thereof. When you see it, you don’t get over it quickly.

I was in a bad mood for the next hour or so. I snapped at my kids. I snapped at my husband. I went over to my mom’s for our weekly movie date night and the first thing out of her mouth was, “I can’t believe it.” She had been to the store too.

She saw something I didn’t. I’m not often in the meat aisle and she was deeply saddened to see all the beef, expensive crab, and other meat items that were no longer sellable. All those animals died for nothing. All that money the store paid for them is unrecoverable. My mom and I lamented for awhile. Not just for this isolated incident but also for all the food that is thrown away at the end of every day in every market in countries so bound by legalities protecting them from unnecessary lawsuits.

I’ve been in college; I’ve tested the boundaries of food spoilage. I was a river guide; we always had leftover food from river trips that hadn’t been “properly” refrigerated for a few days. We put it in our guide house fridge and feasted on it sometime later. I’ve been a tired mom and left food out overnight or several nights, or forgotten about the chicken broth I’ve been making on the back of the stove for a few days. I’ve forgotten it repeatedly and boiled it several times and eaten it. I’ve pushed the boundaries of just about every food and found that food lasts much longer than any expiration date lets on.

I don’t see how a release form couldn’t do the trick. Just as we sign our names on the credit card machine pad, we could sign again to release any liability.

According to the cashier yesterday, the store doesn’t get a shipment of cold foods until after the weekend, so it will be an enlightening vacation about island life for the many tourists who aren’t able to get all the things they’re used to easily accessing on the mainland.

Peter in Kenya, if you’re reading this, I’ve thought about you a lot regarding all of this. Can you believe this is the norm in countries like the United States? It’s so disheartening, knowing that in so many countries around the world, people are just barely getting by; barely having any food. Yet we have a glut in every food imaginable and our stores throw it all away at the first thought that someone might blame their sickness on the store and take them to court. I feel sad about this every time I pass the hot case at the store in the afternoon and see that it has been emptied and all the food has been thrown away.