This is Chapter 28 of The Universal Good Deal, you may want to start at the beginning or go back to Chapter 27.

The crisis came shortly before the solstice holiday known as Christmas. Though she had experienced her epiphany, Jane couldn't escape from the mundane tasks of daily life such as shopping for groceries, which is what she was doing when she got caught up in the panic.

On this topic, I must make a few observations. The most notable thing about the Martian diet was how few insects it contained. The Martians' planet was heavily populated by these high-protein animals, and yet, only in rare instances did the Martians voluntarily consume them. This was in large part due to their concept of the supermarket.

These markets—not really markets at all since there was only one seller—were vast spaces that held thousands upon thousands of products. It seems the Martians enjoyed having the sensation of variety without actually wanting to be confronted by any true choices. The supermarket presented them with an exceedingly small set of the foods agreeable to their species, but pretended it was an excess of diversity. The Martians who frequented these supermarkets were universally convinced that they attained a field of plenty.

It was at such a market as this that Jane found herself when the crisis occurred. She was standing before a refrigerated case containing a dismembered animal—not, of course, an insect—when the man behind the counter—who was supposed to further mutilate the animal upon her request—answered the telephone that hung on the wall. He had barely picked it up when he let it fall, sprinted around the counter and out of Jane's sight. She watched the phone swinging on its cord for a moment, before she uncertainly began to walk back toward the entrance of the market. The front of the building was a scene of chaos. A great crowd of Martians were yelling and shouting in front of the bank that shared space with the market.

Jane was caught up in the middle of what the Martians called a bank run, a tumultuous event—much like a riot—where the population as a whole became frightened that there was not enough money.

That such a thing could happen will no doubt come as a shock to the modern reader, but such were the contortions necessitated by the Martians' arcane concept of money. Certainly the Aliens didn't expect that the Martians would fail to print enough money for their own use, especially when the Aliens themselves presented such a strong demand for the stuff. But, as I have demonstrated, the Martians clearly believed the quantity of money was important, and had not yet been elevated to the enlightened level on which Flinders’ mind ranged.