Where's the salt?

China is out of salt. Literally thousands of bags of salt disappeared from store shelves throughout China. Read more from CNN.

Yesterday our teammates experienced the crowds and commotion as they were shopping. Today, we asked our housekeeper about salt:

Me: "Do you have any salt?"
Her: "Don't have it. All the stores are out."
Me: "Were you able to buy some salt?"
Her: "Nope. All the stores were out. Walmart, Carrefour, all sold out. There's salt in some small stores, but it's expensive. Very expensive."
Me: "I'll ask my mom to bring some salt from America and we'll sell it for a lot of money. 'American salt. Very good quality for sale.'"
Her: Laughter. "She could just bring a little for you, 15-20 bags would be good."

Why all the fuss? It's fall out from the disaster in Japan. The salt panic started with a rumor that China's supply of sea salt will be contaminated with nuclear radiation from Japan creating a salt shortage. Plus the salt is iodized which provides added protection from radiation.

I'm glad we bought our salt last week. And momma's coming with more salt next week.