Is it only on mn that people are stockpiling?

[ScafellPoke]

Seems to be a lot of pre brexit stockpiling going on here. But none in real life

“Bellinisurge

I agree with your username @JRMisOdious but I have been working on here to get people to do a bit and then see for themselves what suits their circumstances beyond that. 3 days is standard emergency management recommendation - more in many countries. If I said " do three weeks" etc, from zero, that would put people off and exclude people.”

Oh I know - it’s the many who probably can’t even manage 3 days that I’m really scared for. It frightens me that so many people don’t seem to have the faintest idea of what (might) be coming. Do you still wake up, read the latest and can’t believe just what the hell our Government is potentially and knowingly taking us - most of us sleepwalking - into?
There are no words.

OP I don't know anyone in RL who is stockpiling for Brexit and had never even thought about since I saw it suggested on here!

Well there are words but I couldn’t possibly repeat them on here 😬

The benefit of having lots of long life staples available is that it frees up your cash to spend on the more expensive fresh stuff.

I have enough pasta, rice and cous cous to last a good while plus lots of flour, yeast etc. I also have lots of ready made sauces and tins of tomatoes, olives etc. Leaving aside Brexit I bulk buy all household items like cleaning products and washing powder every six months anyway so I don't need to buy those.

I can therefore spend all of my grocery money each week on the much more expensive fresh fruit and veg, meat and cheese.

I know it might sound daft to some people but please look out for a tin opener if you haven't got one. Ring pull tin cans are relatively new ( if you are old like me) and tinned stuff that is cheaper- often in World Food bit of a supermarket- is often only cheaper because it doesn't have a ring pull.

There's stockpiling in case of the apocalypse (who knew Brexit would turn out like this?!).

And then there's a general "keeping the cupboard well stocked" which might mean having slightly more than normal but really only enough to put together a variety of meals without having to shop (or shop for very little) for a couple of weeks. So if there was a short term delivery issue, you are ok because you have things at home.

Just like if it snows, you are ok and don't need to drive/slide/slip/sledge to the shops.

Just like if it gets very stormy and you want to hunker down for a few days.

Just like over Christmas and you want to enjoy time with family and not go shopping.

Or just like when life gets crazy and you know you physically can't get to shops for a proper shop for a couple of weeks so only want to be running for bread and milk in the corner shop next to the train station - or is that just our house?

Sometimes, people who "stockpile" are people who bulk-buy the things they normally use when they are on special offer.

Or they make a concerted effort ahead of some big event to make sure that's one less thing to have to worry or even think about.

It doesn't necessarily mean hoarding cellar loads like you see on (Extreme Coupon programmes and similar) tv - just having cupboards that are reasonably well filled with things that you know your family will eat and that will make life easier for you.

Having grown up in the countryside where occasionally snow did impact us, and where "food shopping" for our large family meant a big trip to the city 25 miles away (main stuff - we used local butcher and milkman and cornershop for bread), so it was a large shop on those trips, I am used to the pantry/cupboards being well stocked.

It means I can go to the cupboards and bake, after dinner on a random Wednesday night, because I have the necessary ingredients. Or change the meal plan because we forgot to defrost the meat planned and need to make a storecupboard meal instead. It doesn't mean eating spam or similar for weeks on end!

I'm stockpiling. There's also a group on Facebook with 10k members called 48% Preppers who are all stockpiling.

I'm not, however, talking about it in real life beyond my immediate family. The neighbours don't have a clue - I don't want them knocking on my door because I don't have enough to feed them too.

If you're in that facebook group does it not show on your profile thus publicising your stockpiling to all of your facebook friends?

I'm not on that group for that reason @redhat

I wonder whether you can change your settings somehow. it says they won't accept people with blank profiles

Bearing in mind the whole millennium bug scaremongering fiasco, I'm a bit meh about all this tbh.

oooo the bingo is starting!

apparently the 48% preppers is a closed group and so only members can see who else is a member.

Bingo?

Millenium bug scaremongering

... because of ourse the reason nothing happened was because it was scaremongering and nothing to do with the years that IT professionals spent making sure that all their systems were Millenium bug proof?

I basically did a double shop this week stocking up on nappies, loo roll and tinned and dry stuff we'd eat anyway - pasta, beans, rice, olive oil, rice, tuna etc. It's only really enough to last a week or two realistically and I feel a bit silly. I also haven't done it properly because the point really is to stock up slowly rather than skint yourself for the week buying a load extra in one go
I will probably add a little extra over the next few weeks.

I'd only heard about it on MN and when I mentioned it to DH he said his parents are stocking up and went off on one about how quickly the supermarket shelves would he empty... why he didn't mention these thoughts before I don't know? Makes me think others are thinking about it but not saying.
If I didn't have DCs I probably wouldn't.

We are, but we're not talking about it. Although I spoke to a couple of people IRL about how it might be a good idea and they agreed. As a PP said - I'm not getting anything in that we won't eat, so it's not like it'll go to waste.

I've stockpiled but wouldn't mention it to anyone except close family. This is basically for selfish reasons. If things really got hairy - and I hope and believe they won't, but you never know - I don't want people knocking on my door asking me to share.

I bet many of my acquaintances are stockpiling, too, though. I was chatting to a couple of the other parents from school yesterday and one of them mentioned how worried they were by Brexit. We all agreed. Then another one said how they weren't sure there would be sufficient food available. We all made "mmmm, me too" noises and there was a little pause. I'm willing to bet everyone in that conversation has a stash of food and doesn't want to mention it directly (but hopes the others are prepared as well).

I don't understand why people are derided for bringing up the scaremongering re. Y2K.
At the time IT people were saying it would be fine, yet newspapers were coming up with apocalyptic scenarios.
Does that not prove the point that a similar thing may be happening with Brexit? ie a huge amount of scaremongering

Y2K - problems were well known beforehand and immense amounts of planning and work undertaken to make sure none of those problems happened.
No deal Brexit - none of the above.

HTH

I don't think the world will end or society will come crashing down. However I think there being supply issues for a couple of weeks isn't beyond the realm of possibility. I can't imagine it but I sometimes wonder if I have a misplaced faith in government/authority. So no harm in buying extra of stuff that we'll eat anyway. At worst we'll end up having a couple of weeks of cheaper food shops.

but it still proves that the media love a bit of scaremongering

I think the media have been very restrained on it actually.

It doesn't "prove the point " at all. Yes there are bylines for journos to grab - had a few journos trying to interview me via MN pm and I have told them no - but Y2K wasn't a problem because of time planning investment and hard work. Some needed to do more. Some needed to do less.
Advanced planning now prevents panic. But we are getting to the point when there isn't time for advanced planning.
If you were buying extra bits of things you eat with your shop over the past few months you wouldn't see as much of a hit.

But the point is qsitr people have every reason to lie to you about this. Especially if they live next to you! The fact that someone tells you they're not stocking up means nothing.