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

That's grand unless the supermarket is empty.

Someone shared this with me yesterday as I was asking for recommendations as to what to store (I refuse to say stockpile ffs) for a few days for my family familyprep.co.uk/

I like how it covers different age groups and pets because I also have 2 dogs and a cat to think of!

I see a few days of food and water more as a sensible thing to have as opposed to some kind of doomsday prepping.

All of those scenarios would not close the shops immediately. People would still be able to buy food. When the Co-op’s stock control went down it remained open, with some shortages.

Last year there was a power cut when I was shopping in a big store. We were ushered out damn quickly. Didn’t know they had so many staff tbh. We just left the food in trolleys and were escorted out and staff were standing by the door. Having cash certainly didn’t help. 😂 Turned out half our town had a power cut including the hospital.

The food will not magically vanish from the shelves of all shops simultaneously though.

You've made your views abundantly clear. You are welcome to believe what you want to believe and live with the consequences.

The most likely thing to happen will be what happens every year that some areas will be temporarily without power or water due to bad weather. The rest is hysterics. Most reporting can't even decide what emergency we're supposed to prepare for so they just throw in everything from war to climate change and all that's in between. If the apocalypse comes then two weeks worth of beans and toilet roll isn't going to help.

We import nearly 50% of all food and rely heavily on imported oil and gas. It wouldn't take much for politcal instability on a global scale to disruption food supply and after such a dry summer domestic supply will be down too. We've seen how quickly people rush out and panic buy fuel and food / toilet rollsevwn when they don't need it (dm who drives about 1 mile a month and never normally fills her tank up for example). Add to that extreme weather / el nino and there are lots of scenario's where fuel / electricity or supermarket supply chains could easily be disrupted.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

A large scale supply chain disruption.

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

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 wouldn’t remove the existing food.

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.

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

So no, then.

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.

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.

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.

"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