Do we actually need to get two weeks of food in?

I still remain baffled as to why anyone needed beans or pot noodles during Covid.

Did anyone ever exist on them? Or did everyone just continue to go to the shops, order food deliveries etc to eat what they actually like?

My God, there's being obtuse but this is a whole different level.

There are plenty of scenarios described above where panic-buying strips shelves bare in a matter of hours. Most of us witnessed it first hand during Covid-19.

More than that, there are also plenty of scenarios where massive cyberattacks (or hot attacks on physical infrastructure - take your pick) mean that access to the food sitting nicely on supermarket shelves is switched off at a national or regional level immediately: collapse of electronic payment systems, power cuts, electromagentic pulses. All are plausible with the geopolitical situation we have right now.

At a more localised level extreme weather can easily cut off even large towns at the same time as rendering the one supermarket out of action.

I'm surprised you haven't been asked to advise COBR.

People were ridiculous. But the shops never ran out of food. Those of us who neither stockpiled nor panic bought never struggled to buy meat or vegetables. The fresh food, the bakers, butchers etc were always fine. I can’t imagine how much passata went to waste.

You can either stock up or tool up. Do you remember how people were fighting over toilet paper during Covid? This is much worse. I have already boarded up my windows and everything but the front door and armed myself and my family. I have a panic room in the basement and am fully prepared to defend myself and to keep my children safe. I have seen the terrors of the mobs at the Reform conference and during far right. Imagine what will happen when things really happen?

No but if the tills don’t work they won’t sell it to you!

Water companies have back up generation and so loss of mains electricity would not means that the taps don’t work.

Mobile companies too have backup generators and they wouldn’t all go dead the minute the grid goes down.

There are petrol stations with generators. The public may not be able to fuel their cars (and it does make sense for people living rurally to stock up), but emergency vehicles and food distributors would have fuel.

Major supermarkets also have generators.

If somehow the Russians were able to take down water, electricity, gas, the internet, and all generators and resilience, we would be in a national emergency and the shops would not be making the decisions as to when and if they opened.

It’s like worrying about being struck by lightening or being bitten by a shark.

Oh just Google it.

You don't seem to understand the supply chain at all, but all the info is available.

In simple terms: if 50 customers buy 50 packs of biscuits on Monday, and 50 more packets of biscuits arrive on Monday night, the shelves have 50 packs of biscuits on Tuesday for the next 50 customers.

If 75 customers fight each other for 50 packs of biscuits on Monday, and no more are delivered on Monday night, on Tuesday there will be a riot.

"If you knew shortages were coming".
What level of certainty would you require in order to make you act?
This much? www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/25/uk-to-warn-citizens-to-stock-up-on-food-amid-threat-from-climate-crisis-and-hostile-states

Because like in Covid you and millions of others all want that pot noodle and tin of beans. So then it’s all sold out within hours.

I remember Aldi during Covid. Bare shelves.

No tinned toms, no passata, no pasta sauces, no pasta at all, no toilet roll. Lots of empty spaces. Meat was running very low. No flour of any type. Lots of pop however.

Other shops had people trying to get delivery slots like it was Christmas for what food they had available at any given day.

Fortunately I only ever needed to pop in for the odd fresh thing and mostly found it.

I’d of been fucked however If I was a person due to do a big food shop that didn’t have cupboards full and only just got paid that day to buy food.

That’s a real life recently happened situation where lots of shops all sold out of the exact same items pretty much.

Those that had full cupboards then were not joining the hordes clearing the shelves on the announcement.

We stayed home, ate without worry of the empty shelves and wiped our arses. Avoided all the panic.

There would still be panic buying. No one wants to exist on beans and super noodles. Even if you had them in, if you knew shortages were coming you’d try and go and buy meat and vegetables.

So no, then.

But this wouldn’t remove the existing food. Why can’t we just buy a few tins and a pot noodle then?

You're clearly on the windup however..

Russia targets our internet/banking/power/general infrastructure regularly.

Let's say power goes out for large areas of the country. This means we have no power in our homes, it means we have no water coming out of taps, we can't flush the loo, we have no heating, the petrol pumps don't work so you only have what is in your tank, the shops are closed because their doors/security systems/tills/CCTV/Barcode readers dont work. The internet is down, our phones are all down because we no longer have analogue land lines. Transportation of food etc in warehouses etc grinds to a halt because the internet is down and phones are down and people are struggling to communicate with workers even if they can access the warehouses and systems. Any food in these amazing everlasting corner shops is rapidly purchased by those who happen to have a large supply of cash because the ATMs don't work (or the owners say "err no thanks I'll have that for my own family" and keeps the manual doors firmly locked).

This only needs to go on for two weeks and the entire country would be in chaos. It isn't an unimaginable scenario. Multiple cyber attacks on our systems are intercepted every single week. At some point they are going to start getting through.

Would it not be a good idea to have a week's worth of food? Even if it's literally cereal bars, crisps and cans of coke. The government certainly thinks so and is therefore telling us to do this. This isn't just about floods and weather events.

Only extremely foolish people ignore that sort of advice.

That wouldn’t remove the existing food.

If you have a supply issue meaning the shelves don't get restocked it only takes a day or two for things to be completely gone. Especially because people tend to rush to buy at the first news report.

But you don't have to stock up, it's just advice, not a law.

The government want people who are willing to listen and understand to prep to limit the panic buying if anything does go wrong.

That is not the point. It’s not what anyone but you is talking about.

A large scale supply chain disruption.

No one thinks there would be 'no access to food for everyone'

The risk is widespread reductions in availability.

If there was, for example, a major wildfire which cut off the road routes to a region, it could cause serious problems.

Obviously a cyber attack affecting food imports/transportation has potential to cause major problems nationwide.

Can you think of any scenario where all food vanishes from the shelves of all shops simultaneously?

No maybe not if most of us are sensible enough to already have food and water at home so we don’t need to go shopping.

Absolutely. It is as if people want a situation where there is no access to food for everyone but can’t think of a way in which that’s realistic.

Ah! It didn't happen then so can't happen in future under completely different circumstances.

I think you've unlocked the secret of contingency planning there!

I know I am. I do not need your permission.