Red Sea attacks - is panic buying looming?

[Hellonewyearnewme]

Do you think all of the attacks and military action in the Red Sea is going to cause panic buying like we saw before the pandemic, the petrol crisis a few years ago etc?

A few CEO’s of some of the big retailers have already come out and said that they are anticipating stock delays. And I can just vision it now - people clearing the shelves again even though there is no need to.

I’ve just been to my local Waitrose to pick up a few bits and it wasn’t very well stocked especially in the fruit and veg aisles. Now it’s not the most stocked store at the best of the times, and it is late Saturday afternoon, but still, it just got me thinking…

The trouble is, even the news suggesting possible shortages will cause people to run to the shops when they might not have done otherwise.
I think it's more likely consumer goods will be rarer, like when the EverGiven got stuck in the Suez and all the garden furniture disappeared.
Feel free to come to the Prepping board where people plan for long term issues so they don't get caught short.

The shops haven't been well stocked since brexit. If they look well stocked it's usually because they've made bigger displays of the things they do have in but we have lost so much variety in our stores.

lol it's always Waitrose

done encourage them!

Let's not, eh?

@decisionssmecisions as @UndergroundPenguin said, as soon as it’s all over the news that’s it, game over

@SnapdragonToadflax completely agree. But I can just see it happening because people never learn

the attacks have been happening since Nov & ships have been diverting for a while.

I guess when you see preppers topic in active then you know it’s coming

Possibly.

The more people ask if it will happen, the more likely it is to happen. People panicking about it possibly happening will ensure it does happen.

We're very very fortunate in this country that we will always have something to buy, even if it's not what we would prefer. People need to remember that instead of acting like idiots. The panic buying during covid for example was fucking nuts.

I wouldn't have thought so.

Shipping has already been going round Africa, rather than through the canal because of this, so the longer transit times have already begun - and it's a phased start, not a cliff edge

It may have an impact on prices though, because the longer journey means higher fuel costs

Posting threads like this is going to incite though, isn't it!?!?

yes far more likely to lead to price hikes as opposed to shortages

I'm at my normal prepper level right now as I think the stuff on the ships right now is for the Easter season. I might buy 2 easter eggs now for the DC but otherwise I'm all stocked with torches, firewood coal, meds, flour, water bottles and many tins as I normally am. I always have enough for a week of no power and no shops.

Absolutely!

I'm at my normal prepper level right now as I think the stuff on the ships right now is for the Easter season. I might buy 2 easter eggs now for the DC

isn't the above what the op is talking about? you read about easter shortages so then buy easter eggs earlier than planned?

Where are Easter Eggs made? I'm pretty sure it's not on the wrong side of the Red Sea ...

Easter island obviously

@Towelrail ah yes, sorry! You're right. Not that I actually know where that is....the Pacific? Can't you use the Panama canal to get back from there?

I expect the same stupid selfish people will behave in the same stupid selfish way. Absolutely NO NEED for any of it.

I don't really see a run on Abercrombie and Fitch shirts, personally. (They were one of the brands mentioned on the radio yesterday who are affected by the route change.)

It's not foodstuffs that are held up, or even toilet roll - it's clothes from Far East sweatshops, electronic goods and the like made in China, etc. Not really the stuff of panic buying, I would have thought.

Well the two eggs are already in the shops, I could buy them now or in a few weeks as I'm going to buy 2 either way. Hardly panic buying and likely to incite riots. We're always well stocked on things like loo roll even before covid. The point of prepping is seeing well ahead what might be needed as opposed to running out the week before the crisis and buying 10 times what you'd normally buy.

Well the two eggs are already in the shops, I could buy them now or in a few weeks as I'm going to buy 2 either way.

but that’s how everyone who does it views it, that’s the point. And the shops won’t be expected peak Easter egg trade next week.

a sparse looking fruit & veg aisle is pretty standard for this time on a Saturday afternoon & doesn’t really have anything to do with Red Sea shipping.

prolonged wet weather has however reduced supplies a little and led to smaller crops of our winter veg.

It hadn’t crossed my mind to be panic buying anything… until this thread.

The point of prepping is seeing well ahead what might be needed as opposed to running out the week before the crisis and buying 10 times what you'd normally buy.

But reacting to this thread isn’t well ahead is it?