If hoarders would stop what local businesss called “war-scare buying” – the Korean War had started the month before – the July 27, 1950 Peterborough Transcript reported that there would be enough for everybody.

The most-popular item for people to stock up on appeared to be sugar, as stores had been out for most of the previous two weeks and new shipments only lasted a few days.

“One woman entered a local market last week, bought a basketful of assorted groceries,- and, at the desk on her way out, asked, ‘by the way, do you have any sugar?’ On being told that the stock was- completely exhausted, she marched out of the store, leaving all her other purchases unpaid-for in the basket.”