Hold off reopenings

I went to several stores the other day and the meat counters were 90 percent empty. What was available had increased in price and had signs reading “Limit One Per Customer.” Now, we have the restaurants that are reopening.

I was wondering where they are going to get their meat from. Are they going to be limited to “One Per Restaurant”? Are the rest of us now in competition with the restaurants to get meat? Are the furloughed/unemployed people waiting in food lines while waiting for their unemployment checks and living on whatever they have now going to have to compete with the restaurants for the limited supply of meat? Those who are trying to just get by and feed their families will be left with near-empty meat counters. Will restaurants that buy meat that is in short supply and that prepare the product to be sold with a markup of more than 10 percent be considered price-gougers?

There are 33 million Americans who are unemployed, and they are looking for meat that they can afford to buy to feed their families. Tyson Board Chairman John Tyson wrote, “The food supply chain is breaking.” Processing plants are closing due to covid-19 outbreaks causing the meat shortage due to lack of processing capacity.

Maybe the smart thing to do is to hold off on opening restaurants until the processing plants are back to 100 percent productivity and the meat counters are full again.

CHARLES DEBES

Prairie Grove