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Costco Sees High Demand for Basics Rice, Flour

CEO attributes run to customer uncertainty over food supplies

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 22, 2008 9:56 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Costco is seeing unusually high demand for basics such as rice and flour, Reuters reports, a development the warehouse giant attributes to customer uncertainty over global food shortages. The company, which sells to individual shoppers as well as restaurants, has put limits in place for those items at some stores. Customers are apparently stocking up amid heavy media coverage of a global food crunch.

"If a customer came in and said, 'I want 10 pallets of flour, we'd probably say, 'No, we can't give you that," said CEO Jim Sinegal. "'We can give you one pallet.' If somebody is buying a reasonable quantity, we let them have it."

There's been an increase in purchasing but we think it's manageable, Costco's CEO says of demand for rice and flour. At the moment, we think we have it relatively under control.
"There's been an increase in purchasing but we think it's manageable," Costco's CEO says of demand for rice and flour. "At the moment, we think we have it relatively under control."   (AP Photo/Color China Photo)
Workers stack imported rice which will be repacked and sold to poor residents at a government warehouse in Manila's Quezon City, Philippines Thursday April 17, 2008.
Workers stack imported rice which will be repacked and sold to poor residents at a government warehouse in Manila's Quezon City, Philippines Thursday April 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Costco's CEO tells Reuters the warehouse giant is seeing rising demand for basics like flour and rice.
Costco's CEO tells Reuters the warehouse giant is seeing rising demand for basics like flour and rice.   (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
There's been an increase in purchasing but we think it's manageable, Costco's CEO says of demand for rice and flour. At the moment, we think we have it relatively under control.
"There's been an increase in purchasing but we think it's manageable," Costco's CEO says of demand for rice and flour. "At the moment, we think we have it relatively under control."   (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
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