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…

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

😆

Which it will be now that OP has posted it and stirred everyone up.

The fruit and veg in your shops doesn’t generally come via the Red Sea! The rain / flooding is responsible for fresh food shortages at the moment.

Mm. Had to look up what goods, other than fuels, travel via the Suez Canal.

Found this online, a bit dated, but gives you an idea: In 2018, according to the HM Revenues and Customs data, we imported a surprisingly large £302m worth of processed meats from Thailand, £51m of nuts from Vietnam and £37m worth of oil from Papua New Guinea. Less surprising was the £175m and £123m worth of wine from Australia and New Zealand respectively. From Indonesia we import vast amounts of oil (palm, no doubt) and plenty of our spices! Meanwhile, fish comes from the Philippines, rice from Cambodia and plenty of sauces from Hong Kong.Along with coconut milk, syrups and plenty of other things that we rely on in our everyday meals, all of this is travelling exclusively through the Suez Canal.

So I guess if you wanted to prep, you should store lots of Asian foods, nuts and coconut milk?

As I understand it, some boats are now already taking the round South Africa route due to the pirating in the Red Sea, so goods are coming, but they are slower and more expensive due to longer sea faring.

Fgs, some peeps need calm down, the world isn't going to end. We've been through so many things like this before and we are still here as a species.
People will be talking about looting from their neighbours and street riots next. Wait a moment, that was during covid, don't recall any mass civil unrest in the streets though.

How is reacting to a thread when I've already got everything crisis buying?

@Cellotapedispenser this was your post

“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”

thats reacting to the thread is it not? I didn’t mean to trigger you so much though!

Well, I have plenty of loo rolls as I had already bought some on offer and then Tesco gave me a money off or points coupon on some so I bought another lot

Surely it’s electrical goods and clothes? Not food. I’m buying the absolute minimal loathes anyway so need to do a run on Next? How many pairs of jeans do I need to panic buy exactly?

I get my loo roll on bulk from Costco as an aside, I’m all good

I work for a supplier to the manufacturing industry, and we have already started stocking up on certain items. Covid and that issue with the Suez canal being blocked a while ago have both helped us identify what to go for.

I think my bread maker I ordered at the end of November from Lakeland is probably stuck on a boat somewhere, it was on back order for December and hasn't arrived yet, expected sometime this month

But if the OP was going to buy two anyway, how does impact on anyone? I don’t get it. Easter eggs popped up in shops in the new year and no one needs to cry in their car on tic toc in Jan that the Easter egg shelves are empty?

When the Suez Canal was blocked the only supply issue was my garden furniture which ended up delayed by 2 months. I didn't notice a reduction in fruit and veg supplies. Will the Red Sea be much different? Aside from green beans which are often labelled as Kenya. Most of the veg I buy seems to be British or European.

Am I right in thinking it will be electronics and then luxury goods that have issues?

Reading this has just reminded me of those times when people were panic buying, it really felt surreal and like a disaster movie. People grabbing armfuls of loo rolls, empty shelves, the horrid tense atmosphere ☹️

IKEA said they may experience delays, perhaps there will be a run on Pax

Yep it was absolutely vile

Brought out the absolute worst, selfish human behaviour

The major impact will be on oil and LNG gas imports which means higher motoring cost and higher gas and electricity bills which in turn pushes the price of everything else up including food.

So it won't necessarily mean you can't get stuff just that with higher inflation it will be more expensive.

People do it because stupid people start stupid posts like this.
No it's not the apocalypse you can carry on as normal & spare a thought for people who are actually going to be severely affected.

Thanks for the warning OP, thanks to you I've ordered a years worth of toilet roll. Am going to fill the car up tomorrow and drive around til I can source around £500 worth of bread - we eat a lot of bread lol . I've been on marketplace asking if anyone has 4-6 spare chest freezers I can bung in the garage to fill.

Better safe than sorry

I think it’s more like items in shipping containers coming from abroad, clothing, furniture etc. I’ve had an email from Laura James saying the bed frame I’ve ordered might be delayed due to the conflict in the Red Sea / Suez Canal!
no need to panic buy eggs and toilet roll 🙄

mind You I did think this thread was going to be about panic buying loo roll 🤣

But if the OP was going to buy two anyway, how does impact on anyone? I don’t get it. Easter eggs popped up in shops in the new year and no one needs to cry in their car on tic toc in Jan that the Easter egg shelves are empty?

During covid there weren’t many food shortages if any, everyone was buying a little bit more or in advance & it was the distribution that struggled to keep up with the demand, that was the issue. It’s when everyone individually does the same thing that collectively it causes a problem.

Its not peak Easter egg buying time so if everyone goes out tmw & buys the two eggs they planned to buy in March there won’t be enough eggs on the shelves which will cause others to panic & buy the Mars easter egg even though they hate Mars & invariably some will eat some of their eggs (me) & need to buy more later.

during covid one of the major issues was an enforced shift in buying habits though - there was no flour in the shops but restaurants and cafes had bulk bags they couldn't get rid of... i accept some issues were created by people suddenly deciding they had to have spare loo roll but equally lots of people will have mainly pooed at work and huge swathes of the country was ill with a respiratory illness so again - enforced shifts in patterns of purchase.

i've always stocked up (never like to have less than a full cupboard of cans, have UHT milk, bulk buy loo roll, etc) because of things like severe weather - the only panic buying that really annoys me is when people buy fresh stuff and then bin it because they didn't actually need it (e.g. when there were shortages of salad).