[AnimalMuppet]

Imagine that you're on a date. You've got a nice evening planned, only to run into a state-wide blackout. Now the trick is to get food at all. You see this restaurant with a lot of cars out front. Turns out they have gas grills, so they can cook some kinds of food. (Not french fries, though - that machine's electric). They're working by candlelight, adding up the tab on a hand calculator, pouring pop out of bottles, and they are not taking credit cards.

Been there, done that. Only once, but yeah, it happens.

[chc]

The last time I had to go shopping during a blackout, the few places I went to that were open were still taking credit cards. Maybe it's just a regional thing.

[AnimalMuppet]

Sure - they had standby power, so they were operating normally. The place I went to didn't.

[jonknee]

One big earthquake in SF and the Valley will start to see the value of cash.