is panic-buying selfish?

[cherryx30x]

so I'm sure this is going to be a very mixed opinion but hard hat at the ready. I'm not talking adding a few extra tins of soup to your trolley.

but to take packs and packs of nappies. and all the vitamins. all the medication like paracetomal and calpol?

someone on my facebook was unable to get calpol for her toddler who is actually ill because people had bought the lot in a blind panic. like she said her kid now has to suffer with a temperature because people have bought it over a virus they may not even get and that may only cause them a cough on the mildest end.

I think its extremely over the top to be wiping out the alcohol gel sanitizers (again I know someone with a premature baby who always has them on hand as she has to be a lot more careful who has been unable to find any anywhere), nappies, baby wipes, medications and vitamins

sorry but to me this is just selfish and takes away from people who actually need them. educate yourself and follow basic hygiene- dont wipe out the stores of stuff you probably wont even need and take away from those who currently actually need them

• [Please note, thread title edited by MNHQ - was originally 'Is prepping selfish?']

Just to say that if you need stuff to clean, white vinegar is very effective.

Cologne, would you mind explaining how I could clean with vinegar pls? Not a panic buyer, just someone interested in green cleaning products

You too sleeping.

Bus driver and building site workers are allowed to use the toilet and wash their hands. The shop workers I have seen lately are all wearing gloves, which is a much better protection than hand gel.

We are not allowed to wear gloves in my supermarket.

I work in the customer service desk/cigarette kiosk in a supermarket. Today I will be working from 1pm until the store closes at 10pm and will get 45mins break which is when I'm expected to use the loo (and wash my hands). If I am desperate then I can go to the loo during my shift but it requires my till to be closed for the time I'm gone and after 8pm I am the only one at the kiosk and I am not allowed to leave it unattended, so if i needed to wash my hands I would have to call a supervisor to cover me and they are usually doing other important closing activities that they cant just drop.

In the course of an hour I can easily serve over 100 customers and there is no way for me to wash my hands between each customer but I can have a bottle of hand sanitizer on my till that I can use at regular intervals or if a customer hands me money or lottery tickets they have licked/held in their mouths/handed over with the hand they just coughed into etc.

I always have a small bottle with me (as do most of my colleagues) but we are all now struggling to get hold of them and so we have noticed people making loo trips (aka "need to wash my hands") more often, which means tills are frequently being closed, increasing the queue levels and generally making life harder for us to keep things running smoothly.

And nobody usually gives a stuff about shop workers, which is why you all use the self-service tills

This makes no sense and shows you have no idea what you are talking about. We actually want you to use self service because it is quicker and means that the checkout colleagues can be freed up to do other jobs. If there are 5 manned checkouts and 5 self scans with 1/2 attendants then if everyone used the self scans then at least one or two of the checkout operators are freed up to do other jobs (cover breaks/return items left at checkouts to the shop floor/shop floor jobs/restocking checkout areas/clearing hangers and security tags etc) that often have to be squeezed into the schedule or dont get done until after the store is closed meaning I dont get to leave until at least an hour after my shift

Financial Times for a few days has been stating that as the government looks at when they move from containment to delay phase, a key part of it will be possibly closing schools/ asking employers to have employees work remotely (when possible), and as such people should prepare that less day to day travel/ interactions will be minimised.

They’re severely worried about the impact to the NHS. Delay implementation means that the spread slows and as such, possible fatality rates are lower. Especially amongst the groups most vulnerable.

So it is sensible of me to prepare for that and help the government implement delay (if needed)? Or selfish?

And I do remember tv interview of one minister stating that the UK should ‘prepare’.

I can’t decide if it’s selfish or not.

I’m not panic buying but agreed with my DB that he should stock up as he lives in a very big city and things are already selling out.

For every self-service till there is, a cashier will lose their job. This is fairly obvious, but it might not seem that way, because people aren't all asked to leave in one go. People retire and are not replaced by other people. Some people are managed out of their jobs by being told they are not up to scratch etc. The amount of shop workers is falling. In many industries people are being replaced by machines, or being forced to upskill.

I would have thought shop workers at least get first dibs on any hand gel that comes into store?

I would have thought shop workers at least get first dibs on any hand gel that comes into store?

You don’t half seem to assume a lot about things you seem to know little about.
A shop will always put customers before staff. Retail managers don’t care about their staff. Staff are easily replaced, customers less so.

I’m a teacher. I can’t wander off to the toilet when it suits me. Equally I can’t access a sink with hot water and soap without walking half way across the school. If I’m lucky I might get the chance for a wee and to wash my hands at lunch time.
Meanwhile, I’m spending my day with small children who are picking their noses, licking their shoes, sucking their fingers, chewing their clothes and not washing their hands after going to the toilet.

For every self-service till there is, a cashier will lose their job

But there will also be new jobs for the designers and manufacturers of the tills, the people writing and supporting the software, the installers and repairers, etc. You can't look at one thing in isolation. There'll be factories full of people making those self-service tills - they wouldn't have a job without them!

"Panic buying"seems to be a bit of a misnomer considering that most people buying large quantities of anything are probably not panicking. Some may do it because they can see stuff is going to disappear soon. Others may be doing it because they the plan to sell stuff once the shops are out of stock as has happened with antibacterial gel. But yes, buying huge quantities of anything at the moment is definitely selfish stop

stop

There'll be factories full of people making those self-service tills - yes, but not necessarily in the UK.

Agree it is selfish. I had no loo roll last night at all and was lucky to find the last pack in Lidl!

yes, but not necessarily in the UK.

A lot of what shops sell isn't made in the UK either!

The world's gone mad.

twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1236271062159175680

Three women having a scrap over loo roll in a supermarket. It's in Sydney. If this comes here, I'm self isolating in the bedroom and not leaving till all this is over
Having said that... one woman has cleared the shelves and has a trolley piled high with loo roll, the other woman wants one pack. Which just illustrates this thread doesn't it....

And as I said upthread.... selfish bastards...

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-some-traders-selling-hand-gel-for-120-on-amazon-11951613

I think it would be mad to buy from anyone selling it online at inflated prices. If they were that unscrupulous I wouldn't trust them not to fill the bottles with something else.

I've just been to the supermarket and it was ludicrous. There was no hand soap, loo roll and the frozen food shelves were bare. We haven't had a single confirmed case in our city, let alone in our local area. Also, the prices of children's calpol and nurofen have shot up. I usually buy generic, but they didnt have any at our local Tesco Extra so I bought the branded ones - £4.95 each! At least £1 more expensive per item. Dd2 has tonsillitis so needs must. It is bloody ridiculous though.

Yes panic buying is selfish. I went for my weekly shop last night in an Asda superstore and the toilet roll aisle was empty apart from expensive ones which I had no choice to buy. I then could not get things I needed for my baby as people had cleared the shelves in the baby aisles as well. We also noticed paracetamol and ibruprofen has been cleared out. No soaps or antibacterial hand gels or washes. Frozen fruit had been cleared as well. We spoke to two members off staff who found it utterly ridiculous and they said they would struggle to keep up with demand.

If you are going to get Coronavirus you will get it no matter how prepared you are and no matter how many times you antibac your hands and wash them!

Yes, it is selfish. Of course it is.

@FourTeaFallOut
You have not understood the issue. The point is that "just in time supply lines" don't cope with people "prepping" even 2-3 weeks breaks the system. Peppers should (2-3% of the population with money and too much time) cause shortages that they then crow about surviving.

The amount of shop workers is falling. In many industries people are being replaced by machines, or being forced to upskill.

Not in my store, in fact we had to employ more people to cover the self scans, and we are always recruiting. Also, upskilling is not a negative - it makes things fair for everyone so that it's not one person doing three jobs while one person only does one job because "they're not trained".

I used to work with a lady in her 70s who had worked for my store since she was 21 and she loved working on the self scan/hand scanner checkouts because when some 50 or old came through because the checkout queue was long and they didnt want to wait and claimed not to know how to use the machine so she would have to do the work, she would just look at them and say "I'm 73, if I can work out how to follow the instructions on the screen, so can you."

I would have thought shop workers at least get first dibs on any hand gel that comes into store?

Then you'd be thinking wrong. If anything we are the last ones allowed to get things. We are not allowed to reserve items and we are not allowed to buy things on shift so we have to hope that there is still stock left when we finish and can come in as a regular customer to buy them and there never is because managers buy them all when they finish early on their flex hours

Also, the prices of children's calpol and nurofen have shot up. I usually buy generic, but they didnt have any at our local Tesco Extra so I bought the branded ones - £4.95 each! At least £1 more expensive per item. Dd2 has tonsillitis so needs must. It is bloody ridiculous though.

The price increase of some medicines may have more to do with the fact that some cheaper brands come from China.

If you are going to get Coronavirus you will get it no matter how prepared you are and no matter how many times you antibac your hands and wash them!

This is a pretty daft post.

Coronavirus isn't transmitted via predestination. You're thinking of Calvinism. And being prepared means if you or another member of your household are quarantined and/or ill, you're in a better position to manage.

I was in Wilko’s just and they had plenty of paracetamol.