The Whale at the End of the World

by John Ironmonger

‘How much food is there on supermarket shelves?’ Kaufmann asked. ‘How much fuel is there in petrol station forecourts? A lot less than you’d think. Businesses don’t carry ruinous levels of stock. Not any more. It doesn’t make financial sense. We walk into a supermarket and we see all the aisles groaning with food, and we imagine, somehow, that it could feed a city for a year, but we’re so wrong. They stock much less than most of us care to imagine. Most big petrol forecourts need nightly deliveries. They have twenty-four hours of fuel in their store tanks – not allowing for any panic buying. And most supermarkets operate “just-in-time” ordering. It’s all worked out by computer. The new stock arrives just as the old stock runs out, and every night they have to replenish most of their inventory. How long would it be, do you think, until enough people had missed three square meals?’