Great piece on panic buying

[paulu197]

Well worth a read. For those aren't inclined to read, the essence ofthe research study is that panic buying isn't the result of a few selfish individuals but rather all of us buying slightly more than usual.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-stockpiling-crazy-selfish-behaviour-seems-chris-morley

[Sue]

Interesting, thanks.

[JohnL]

paulu197 Wrote:

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> Well worth a read. For those aren't inclined to

> read, the essence ofthe research study is that

> panic buying isn't the result of a few selfish

> individuals but rather all of us buying slightly

> more than usual.

>

> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-stockpiling-cra

> zy-selfish-behaviour-seems-chris-morley

If you find you can't trust that deliveries will arrive you order multiple deliveries to ensure one gets through - if they all do you are overstocked.

[richard tudor]

I have just watched a neighbour unload 6 large bags of shopping.

Is this a sign that panic shopping at Sainsbury's has raised its head again.

Is it worth going?

[JohnL]

It is easy to start to panic once deliveries start being missed and you have sour milk/stale bread etc.

I suspect some are storing in large (basement) freezers.

[vicki08]

But how big is there family, there?s six of us so would need six bags of shopping

[richard tudor]

2 young adults

[Earl Aelfheah]

I suspect that everyone is buying a little more (as we're stuck at home, we're all probably eating more at home too) and that this is mixed with a significant minority who are properly panic buying / stockpiling. I have spoken to people I know who have admitted to buying things they don't even need or want, just because they were panicking. I suspect there will be a significant spike in food waste over the coming weeks, which is really depressing.

[Seabag]

Many people are buying a weekend worth of shopping each time they go. Think about it, 3 meals a day x however many people in the house.

It is calming down tho, shops seem less stripped out and if you?re creative there?s something to eat even when it looks sparse. But I suspect we?re also buying ?just in case? food, for when and if the shops close and we?re fearful of starvation (we won?t starve, but they may have run out of our favourite pasta shape).

I must say tho, in my house we?re not wasting anything, which I couldn?t hand on heart say before. Everything gets eaten and I can see familiar patterns coming back that I used to apply when the children were young, a natural thrifty use of produce and ingredients, which i had let slip a bit with the ?super busy? life I?d been living.

It?s a reflective time as much as a challenging one.

[Sue]

Seabag Wrote:

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>

> It?s a reflective time as much as a challenging

> one.

Yes. Time to take stock, in many different ways.

[malumbu]

We've been buying less and simply running down some of the stuff in the back of the cupboard. We've had to switch to some alternatives, which is fine. Some of the luxuries/treats including biscuits and chocolate don't seem to be in short supply so it is nice to buy without feeling we are depriving anyone. I worked on fuel emergencies during the 00s and whatever message you tried to get across it would still have the same effect - "I need to fill my car up now" - even if I rarely use it. We always joked that the first thing that runs out is toiler roll. Not really a joke.

I feel that social media including community sites such as this, and Whatsapp groups, make things worse as they contribute to the mass hysteria. It is right to discuss and reflect, but posting on this site about panic buying doesn't help one bit. Please rise above it.

Please see this as a constructive post. I've been biting my tongue for the last few days as there is as much bad feeling on this site, as positive posts offering help and support. I'll quietly disappear.

[JohnL]

malumbu Wrote:

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> I feel that social media including community sites

> such as this, and Whatsapp groups, make things

> worse as they contribute to the mass hysteria. It

> is right to discuss and reflect, but posting on

> this site about panic buying doesn't help one bit.

> Please rise above it.

It isn't this site that gives me rising panic (nor twitter which just moans and moans and always has although it's worth it to see Edwina Curry reaction to Stone Cold Steve Austin) it's the supermarket sites that I'd hope would do better - something seems to be failing and it doesn't matter to me what is failing just that it's failed.

I keep an eye on all of them and others and they can't cope - Morrison's has opened a new site with food boxes (below) using DFD as a delivery and that is snarled up immediately on being launched.

https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/box/Meat-Food-Box

The whatsapp groups are great but the three I follow seem a bit introspective (talking a lot about getting their message out - maybe the requests for help don't come from the groups so I'm seeing just a part of it). Can't criticise them though - they're a sign that some people still care :)

A few people might even feel they should have stocked up more a few weeks back unfortunately - not all people keep food cupboards and freezers fully stocked (I do as my mother did and it became habit). if you live "week to week" with food I guess the panic would be justified in some ways.

[Seabag]

I?m currently hunkered down in Seven Oaks in Kent, as I?ve given my flat over to my eldest son who?s asthmatic. And me and my girlfriend are expecting a baby in a couple of weeks, and we?re settled here instead of London for the foreseeable future.

There is a correlation between toilet paper and the pandemic. Sainsbury?s here seems to have located a strong supply of cauliflowers, broccoli and courgettes here in Kent, there?s whole isles of them. I like them all, but I?ve never eaten them 2-3 times a day for so long. I?ve also never used so much loo roll either 😅

On a positive note, I?m watching what I eat, not as a conscious weight loss diet, but as healthy choices by default. I?ve always done this at home, but my job is associated strongly with the restaurant trade and I?ve eaten out (at lunchtime mostly) for a long time, and whilst I?m conscious of not over indulging, it is easy to over eat or eat something less healthy on the menu.

I?m sure the feeling I have of an overly extended weekend will pass. Getting up, fixing breakfast, thinking about lunch and dinner. It does remind me of a friend who when pressed about living with his elderly parents, he commented ? at breakfast they talk about lunch, at lunch they talk about dinner? which I?m starting to get a sense of.

But all of this is an chance to review and change some of the things I?d personally taken for granted. I?m not sure what will be left of the restaurant industry when we return to whatever ?normal? is. But I know like many of us, this period will have a lasting effect, and I hope to take some good out of an otherwise difficult and challenging situation.

I?ve said this to my children and friends ?at least we?re not being bombed? and we will get through this. And with a greater knowledge of just how much bog roll one person really needs.

As a measure, I think piled up we could fill 1/3rd of a doorway with ours, that?s more than plenty and I?ll keep that picture in my mind before I (as I did last week) literally dive into the pallet of toilet roll in a deserted isle at Sainsbury?s, walking away with two multi packs, feeling slightly bonkers and mentally asking myself ?WTF are you thinking?!?

[malumbu]

Thanks, a good thread, and a bit of humour too which I always appreciate. A self-inflicted crisis, but interesting to hear as we are now supposed to shop less frequently that this will encourage bulk purchases. I've enjoyed switching to a more frequent shop started well before this situation, trying out new places, and using less of the main supermarket chains. But I've had more time on my hands in recent months. Will our shopping habits change once this is all over?