Anyone else feel bad just doing their normal shopping?!

[Rosemarysbaby]

My Facebook is full of people sharing memes about not panic buying.

I have a big family, we eat a lot, we get though a lot of loo roll. I normally have a fairly well stocked pantry, beans, tomatoes etc... I feel bad just doing my normal family shop now!

I know I’m being oversensitive but I can’t be the only one.

DH got big loo roll, big milk and kidney beans (3 tins as on offer) on his way home because we needed them and 2 people on the bus felt the need to comment on his “panic buying”.

I usually buy toilet roll and kitchen roll in bulk, when it goes on sale, because it works out much cheaper that way (by bulk I mean a sack with 5x4 roll packs of kitchen roll or 5x8 roll packs of loo roll) and I did the same as usual with the toilet roll yesterday and did have a brief moment of thinking 'hope no one thinks I'm panic buying' but the shelves are still full where I am

Yep, there was a section on the news last night when they zoomed in on people panic buying at the supermarket as they pushed their trolleys outside. In fact if you looked properly there was just one guy with a huge trolley load (who of course they zoomed in on) - everyone else just had a few things!

I felt self-conscious hovering around the medicine aisle earlier - I suffer from bad headaches and I’m worried if this gets worse I won’t be able to get hold of painkillers! (There were no paracetamol but plenty of aspirins so I bought those).

We were buying a lot of tinned food yesterday as we are midway through kitchen renovations (no fridge or cooker for at least 3 weeks...). 2 people felt the need to comment on our stockpiling....nope just a basket of tins because we can’t buy normal fresh food!

You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. Everybody has to shop and people with families have to buy more shopping, that's just a fact. You can, though, have groceries delivered which means you wouldn't feel self conscious (even though you don't need to). I've just received a delivery.

I have a big family too, my two weekly big shop probably looks like a stockpile to your average nosey joe. I've always bought in bulk 🤷🏽‍♀️
So I've got around it by splitting it up a bit, going different places (a necessity now anyway cos everything is bloody sold out!) and going more often.
And I'm not letting anyone IRL know what's what. Posting about your toilet roll mountain on SM seems utterly ridiculous.

My best friend works in tesco and she said there is a strict policy that you dont comment on what people are buying.
Like if the customer says oh you must try this wine its lovely they are allowed to chat but they are certainly told not to pass comment.

I have three sinks and have a bottle of hand wash in each. I always have a spare one to topmup, but I haven't got any spare and I felt a bit self conscious buying three so I just bought one. Havent had any comments yet though.

If it helps anyone I found that going to smaller local shops seemed to have more. Dont think they have been targeted by the bulk buyers as much so if there is something you desperately need you might find it there.

I went round asda last night and throughout the shop I kept bumping to an over excited man shouting quick quick buy the rice, eggs quick quick at what ever he was near. He seemed to be either having the time of his life or having some kind of mental breakdown. He was buying a lot of cat food so no danger of the cats eating the manic bastard if hes stranded at home.

I don't feel guilty or self-conscious about my shopping, but I have noticed stares and people commenting. The only change I've made to my shopping habits is that I now ensure that we never run out of anything - I always replace whatever it is as soon as my stock runs low. I have a large household and I want my family to be able to feed itself should we be stuck at home with some of us too ill to look after the others. We also have allergies, so some of us can't just use whatever is on the shelf if our usual brand is not available. There's a difference between panic buying and being sensible. And if I want to buy more than one of certain items such as Surcare (laundry stuff for people with allergies) I never take more than two and I never take the last item on the shelf, as I know there are others like me who have no choice but can only use that particular product.

My asthmatic cough OTOH...now that I am self-conscious about!

God yes! My youngest has autism and pasta is one if the limited foods he will actually eat, so obviously I usually buy quite a lot, felt very judged buying 1 bag of penne, 1 bag of macaroni and 1 bag of spaghetti!

I have gluten intolerance. It's bad. I am currently being treated for cellulitis as a byproduct of me not checking a label until too late. It's not good.

Once every year, and usually only once, there is a sale of gluten free stuff at Tesco, usually three for the price of two. Every year I buy a year's worth of gluten free pasta plus stuff like gravy granules and similar. I save a fortune.

Gluten free week is coming up soon (I think, usually around Easter/May). I can't see me getting away with my usual purchase.

I also have a few bottles of handwash stashed as there was a sale on a while ago and I got half a dozen - long before I had heard of this coronavirus. In most cases, if I see a good price on something I use a lot, I buy large.

I may step away from that for now.

btw if you are looking for something in particular, try Amazon. The prices aren't necessarily brilliant, but it could be a lifeline for those catering for fussy eaters or food allergies.

My house is out of soap, pasta and almost out of loo roll.....
I'm going to the Asda much much later on this evening.
It's so stupid, I'm not even stocking up.

We specifically haven't stock piled or panic bought because doing so just makes the problem worse but yesterday we had to do our normal weekly shop.

We're down to our last three toilet rolls and I take 8 paracetamol per day due to widespread inflammatory arthritis.

No paracetamol available at all and only one pack of four toilet rolls left. We bought the rest of our shopping and had the woman behind us pass comment on what we were buying. While there they announced over the tannoy that they're limiting certain items to one per customer - not sure how we will get on if we need to shop for ourselves plus two sets of elderly parents.

*Two words: Self checkout.

Best way to avoid the idiots who think they have the right to make personal comments* .

They were closed in my local Tesco this morning so that people had to go to a cashier and they could "police" what was being bought.

FFS

If you are running low on liquid hand soap and can't get any, bubble bath and shower gel should also work (please correct me if I've got my science wrong, but I believe they are all soaps) and I used to regularly keep an old container and refill it with cheapo bubble bath.

I used the self scanner for the first time today, just a normal shop, no pasta or loo roll in my trolley, promise! It means you can put things straight in bags so people can’t really see what you have in your trolley, and no judgey check out person!

I thought exactly the same @Meckity1. I haven’t bought more liquid soap as I have bubble bath/shower gel/bar soaps, most from Christmas or birthday sets from last year ----or even the year before.

My son only eats a certain type of pasta, when I finally found some I felt guilty buying 3 packs. In reality that will last a week and then I will have wished I bought more. Unfortunately by being polite and not bulk buying I think we've shot ourselves in the feet! Also the man at the till commented on my 3 X 500g bags!

It's a similar feeling to when they ask you if you are having a party and you have to admit you just like alcohol

I tend to buy fruit, veg, meat and perishables day to day then stock up on other stuff monthly - tins, drinks, dried foods, rice, pasta, cleaning stuff toilet rolls etc. You should have seen the looks I got when i went through the tills in Lidl the other day. You'd think I'd murdered someone

A man in Tesco Wednesday had a big trolley full of bread,be announced he had bought a new freezer to keep it in!

I got the lovely chatty cashier yesterday. He was chatting with some older ladies on the theme (a bit of "well we survived the war" was mentionned". My small trolley was full, but my shopping patterns are slightly erratic as food intolerances mean I can't buy bread and "milk" in the same local supermarket, so I alternate or double shop. I did joke "I'm not panic buying, I just have ravenous children" and the cashier said, "no you're not panic buying, you haven't got 10 of every thing" Phew!

I did have quite a bit of tinned food as the DCs like it, and it's good against food waste. There was more food as DH is working from home, so not eating out of the house.

A man in Tesco Wednesday had a big trolley full of bread,be announced he had bought a new freezer to keep it in!

Unfortunately by being polite and not bulk buying I think we've shot ourselves in the feet! *

Now there's a nice bit of female socialisation Funny how the women are apologetic, even embarrassed, but the men have no qualms, no shame.

(Yes, yes, I know: sweeping generalisation etc etc)

No I don’t feel bad.

We are a family with multiple different food intolerances. So I shop at different places and stock up on certain things. e.g. I always buy my almond milk at Aldis, and usually buy enough for about 3 weeks. Plus I do bulk buy things on offer to save money. And I have to shop for my disabled daughter at the same time as doing our shopping. My trolley looks like I'm panic buying every week but I'm only buying what we need till my next shop each time. This could get very difficult.