We now have panic, panic, I say, in the stores as people grab up rice and other staples because of fears of scarcity. See this LA Times story (also mentioned in Post and NYTimes today)--Costco and Sam's Club are putting limits on the amounts that can be bought. (Apparently restaurants go there for supplies.)
It reminds me of the gas lines in the 70's--no one wanted to run the risk of running out, so we all filled our tanks up whenever they hit the half-full mark, creating long gas lines. The available inventory moved from station tanks to car tanks, just as rice is moving from warehouses to pantries.
It's an interesting exercise--the economists would say that Costco should just double its price on rice again in order to ration supplies. But the reality is that food is an essential, particularly rice for a Chinese restaurant, so raising prices only slowly decreases demand; it's one of the reasons agriculture goes through booms and busts.
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