It's been a boon to my cooking by making me get creative with foods I make infrequently, ingredients I don't often use, and stores I visit rarely. Bread will go stale but you can stock up on flour and yeast! Store running out of rice? How about cornmeal? That too? Buy masa at the bodega. Whole Foods running out of beans? The Indian grocery store is still chock full of daal and gigantic containers of shelf-stable ghee to boot.