To let you know that panic buying starts next week.

[GladAllOver]

The government is starting an advertising campaign next week telling us all to "Get Ready!".

What else can it mean?

By the way, it's costing £100m.

It is fine to stockpile if you are worried. You will eat that pasta and rice anyway.

Don't hoard chocolate. Leave it all for me. Especially the Swiss stuff.

I've stockpiled to the amount I would normally consider sensible anyway (we get lazy and use things up without restocking sometimes).

• I grew up in the countryside, so it's a habit of insurance against forgetting anything at the shops
• we like to and can afford to take advantage of bulk buys

So I've essentially made sure I have enough food for 2-3 weeks of simple needs:

• 5kg bag of rice and 5kg bag of pasta
• 4l of UHT
• 8-10 tins each of: tuna, baked beans, various legumes, chopped tomatoes
• frozen fruit, cheese, veg
• cat food
• loo roll, toothpaste and soap (normally bulk buy these anyway tbh)

As well as various other food cupboard items.

It isn't absurd amounts, and has been bought progressively in small extra quantities. If supply issues come about for any reason, we've got enough to either top up what's available or subsist entirely from for a few weeks.

I'm concerned about the supply of our cat's meds, but luckily neither of us need medication. The vet has helped with timings for getting as large an amount through as possible near the time.

It's hard to see how those measures can be called 'panicking' though I own up to the 'buying' element.

I rely on my levothyroxine

Yep

Having said that i do have a very small stockpile of a few months

Well my stockpile is all ready well underway. I'm very happy to be proved wrong. I'll give it a month I think the Brexit effect will be gradual then if all shelves are fully stocked I'll donate half to a food bank and use the other half, giving myself a nice low shopping bill in the run up to Christmas.

I see absolutely no downside to doing this.
If you don't want to prepare yourselves then don't, it's up to you!

Jack Monroe said something g very interesting about this a while ago. She said that she thought that people who have the money and space to stockpile should do so- then if there are shortages what is available should go to the people who haven’t. Then if there aren’t shortages people could either live on their stockpiles for a bit or donate it to a food bank.

Stock piling is only an issue if everybody goes and does it at the same time. I stock piled for the last date. I did it over a couple of months, just bought double of bits and bobs. Then I used it up (we actually fell on hard times for a couple of months so I was bloody grateful for it!).

I've started stock piling a little again now. I don't really think I will need it for Brexit but it was bloody handy when we were short of money! It's also generally handy when I forget to buy something for a recipe.

That sounds very sensible bertrand

I’m not sure how it could be enforced though

@1Wildheartsease I've been stockpiling (round my waist) for some years

Me too. Phew.

It’s people stockpiling that’ll cause the shortages. Absolute idiots

While that's the case in many shortages it's not true at all in this situation. It's one of the more utterly bizarre potential shortages because it's a case of the government of an island that doesn't come even remotely close to being able to feed itself choosing to end most of it's ability to import food on a forewarned date. Up until that date all stockpiling will do is ensure that shops supply additional goods. If anything stockpiling now will reduce or at least delay shortages when/if no deal brexit happens.

As for idiots, the only idiots are those who have the capability to plan ahead and don't. In Ireland, where enough food is produced to feed the entire populace multiple times over and very real and substantial plans are in place to bypass the British 'landbridge' the advice is to stock up on certain items. Just let that settle in you brain. Ireland has so very, very much food that there is a strong possibility that in the event of export delays it will be distributed for free rather than allowed to rot. And the major newspapers and national state broadcaster regularly advises citizens on what to stock up on.

Anyone in the UK how isn't putting away what they can right now is foolhardy at best, monumentally stupid at worst. There is literally no downside. All you do is buy longlife foods and goods that you will eat any way. If the stockpile proves unnecessary you just contentedly work your way through it bit by bit. If it there is a need for it, and it's looking like there is, you will be glad.

Stockpiling is great in theory but not if you don't have the space! My kitchen is tiny and I have no spare room so no stockpiling for me!

How can you panic buy prescription medication and fuel though?

You can't, and as ever with this government, it will be the most vulnerable that will suffer.

We're not going to run out of food, but we are going to experience price rises. If you currently have no spare income, you're going to have to buy even less than you currently do.

There will always be ways to get medication, but that might mean getting on a plane to Spain to get it. Many people reliant on medication cannot do that, physically or financially.

Those with adequate means will experience a little disruption and have less disposable income. Those already struggling will be screwed.

I see absolutely no downside to doing this
If you don't want to prepare yourselves then don't, it's up to you!

That's it, there absolutely isn't any downside. It just doesn't matter if things don't go tits up. Who wouldn't want cheap food bills for a few months?

I'd rather have the security of it than not though. Although I've been doing it for years.

If you say you have no room in the kitchen, then stuff it under the bed and pray you have no mice.

pinksparkly people short on space use under the beds and sofa etc

The millennium bug had intelligent people from all over the world to sort out a contingency plan and solutions to the problem. Brexit on the other hand ...

I am watching hurricane Dorian. In Florida people have been told to stockpile a weeks supplies of food and water. Saw the pictures they were buying gas bottles, guess they are organised with a burner ring.

Stockpiling causes shortages. We absolutely should not

PP has stockpiled 'water' . What have I missed please?

It seems the responsible thing to do to look out for yourself and family if some items will be difficult to obtain because they are sourced from eu normally.

Vital.meds for instance, not the stuff we produce here. We can make most of our own meals from our own uk produce, as in we cant produce sugar cane afaik, for instance, but we do have our own milk/butter/cheese etc, and it wont do our uk industries any harm to be used more for other products too.

It will smooth the transition.

All supply chains, afaik, have already vastly increased their storage capacities, or they risk going out of business.

Irish Independent today
Ireland's supermarket shelves could start to run bare within two days of a hard Brexit, the head of the Freight Transport Association of Ireland warned yesterday.

www.independent.ie/business/brexit/absolute-chaos-for-months-shoppers-here-facing-empty-shelves-within-days-of-nodeal-brexit-38450011.html

so guess we’re up shit creek
Should have stockpiled loo roll for that!

tinned corned beef ??

PP has stockpiled 'water' confused. What have I missed please?

The water is water I keep stockpiled for winter anyway, around half a dozen of the big five litre bottles. We live in a semi-rural area and it's not unheard of for our supply to be interrupted now and again if pipes freeze.

JustAsking in Australia all my gas comes from a bottle. We don't have mains gas in our town and I guess it's the same in some parts of the USA. Such large countries you see. If I buy gas, it's for the cooker and the hot water!

When I run out...there's no cooker and no hot water.

@Inebriati

"People are stocking up because there are already shortages caused by Brexit"
What shortages have been caused by Brexit. That news must have passed me by.

@StCharlotte

"My one concession to it will be filling up the car in advance as we've got a long drive on the 1st."
What? What do you think is going to happen to petrol/diesel overnight after we leave?

We will get upon 1st November and it will be the same as getting up on 31st October except you'll need to take Halloween decorations down and if will be my DB's wedding anniversary.

The list of stuff stockpiled by a PP is ridiculous. You do realise we do make some of our own food in this country? Is all our loo roll made abroad? I don't think so.

It's not, is it? Just off up the road to get some if it is.