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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be surprised ay how busy the shops are?

123 replies

incognitomum · 14/03/2020 15:28

I had to pop to pick up a package from M&S. It was busy and apparently had been non stop all day. Lots of elderly.

Nandos was packed as I passed. Everywhere looked busy. Asda and Aldi car parks packed.

I thought it would be a ghost town.

OP posts:
purplecorkheart · 14/03/2020 16:23

I did my grocery shopping this morning. I did buy a small bit extra as I work front line and do not expect to get time to shop again till next weekend.No online deliveries available locally. The major supermarket was quite busy but like an average Saturday with people seem to be buying their usual weekly amounts rather than large scale amounts. Most of the shelf seemed full although I did not go down the toilet paper aisle.

flirtygirl · 14/03/2020 16:28

heartaonacaje

Use your brain, stocking up weeks ago means you do not need to panic buy at all. Stocking up on 1 or 2 extra items each week over a period of time or going cash and carry, when there were full stocks is sensible.

It's people who never stock up when they could easily, ie have a car and have enough money, that will cause the problems when things get scarcer, that and the people taking 10 or 20 of an item at a time.

flirtygirl · 14/03/2020 16:29

heartsonacake

polarfrogs · 14/03/2020 16:29

I'm surprised, but then it's months since I did any shopping other than food shopping - everything else is done exclusively online. I live rurally and haven't been to the nearest city for probably 12 months.

LaCherriesJubilee · 14/03/2020 16:35

You are the reason the shelves are bare everywhere. There wouldn’t be a supply issues if you and others like you didn’t put a strain on demand.

Or maybe like me they took notice of the advice to have a buffer in place in case we crashed out of the EU. We just didn't realize it would come in handy for a different crisis...

BlingLoving · 14/03/2020 16:37

I think it's because people know they can't stop their lives indefinitely. We're being told to be careful with hand washing etc but otherwise to try and carry on as normal. DH and DS are in town buying shoes as we speak. I'll make DS wash his hands when he gets back again. But really, we can't all just stop doing things for the next 6 months or more.

slashlover · 14/03/2020 16:40

@heartsonacake

TweetUsOnFacebook You are the reason the shelves are bare everywhere. There wouldn’t be a supply issues if you and others like you didn’t put a strain on demand.

Congratulations. Your irrational anxiety has caused major issues up and down the country.

I have probably a months worth of food, but it was originally stockpiled for a possible no deal Brexit. I bought everything last October-December and have just been rotating and buying what I've used ever since.

MauriceandAlec · 14/03/2020 16:41

Yet you were out yourself Hmm.

Lenny1980 · 14/03/2020 16:42

@ScrimpshawTheSecond how are you voluntarily isolating if your partner popped out to the chemist?

Leflic · 14/03/2020 16:43

There’s just DS and me. So if I buy extra it’s no different to every other family’s weekly shop.
So many MC families round these sorts all with three kids They have both the money and space to stockpile....that’s why there’s nothing. I know this becauseWaitrose was the first of our supermarkets to have no loo roll or pasta.

Michaelbaubles · 14/03/2020 16:44

We went to the pub (fairly empty) last night for food, and the park/shops today (small town, not crowded). Honestly, I foresee things getting shut down sooner rather than later and I thought this might be our last chance for a while. I work in a college which is doing precisely zero to protect teachers and I’m far more likely to get infected at work or from my own children still at school than anywhere else so I feel a bit “fuck it” about going out in public, where I’m rarely within 1m of anyone except the DC and certainly for no more than a few seconds at a time.

vitaminCandzinc · 14/03/2020 16:46

everyone is preparing to be in isolation and want to be out and about as much as possible before we are quarantined

adaline · 14/03/2020 16:48

I think everyone knows that lockdown is coming and they're making the most of it before they're stuck inside for weeks on end.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/03/2020 16:48

You are the reason the shelves are bare everywhere. There wouldn’t be a supply issues if you and others like you didn’t put a strain on demand

Who's putting a strain on demand? We have full cupboards and freezers and have bought hardly anything except fresh fruit, veg, milk, cheese etc for weeks as ironically we've been trying to use stuff up but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I've just got some of the Christmas leftover turkey out of the freezer for dinner and made a cheesecake using a tin of condensed milk that's been in the cupboard for a year or two going by the use by date.

We could probably eat out of the cupboards and freezers for about a month and it would only be towards the end that the combos could get a bit weird. Obviously we wouldn't be getting Mumsnet approved levels of fresh veg, but we wouldn't starve.

Not everyone operates a 'just in time' approach to grocery shopping that requires panic buying at any hint of a crisis. You never know, if we get stuck in the house for the foreseeable, I might finally get the cats to eat the food that they went off and refused to eat about a day after I bought a load of it over a year ago when it was on a good offer.

gingersausage · 14/03/2020 16:50

We went into town for a wander round at lunchtime and it was packed. No one was preparing for the apocalypse, they were just going about their normal business. I think maybe they are made of tougher stuff in the north east though 🤣.

Michaelbaubles · 14/03/2020 16:51

Yes, I did a “stock up” weeks ago - got a Tesco delivery purely of fresh food today and was probably one of the few people not even having to think of buying loo roll, pasta, tinned food etc. Lots of stock of the things I wanted freeing up cupboard things for others.

People laughed at me when I topped up my stash (had some Brexit staples left already). They were asking me last week what I thought they should be buying in, but lots of it wasn’t available...

CallmeAngelina · 14/03/2020 16:54

So, is it the natural world's equivalent to panic-buying when squirrels sock up with nuts for the winter?

amijustparanoidorjuststoned · 14/03/2020 16:55

@ouch321 H&M is Scandinavian.

Runworkeatsleeprepeat · 14/03/2020 16:55

Haven't rtft but I've just spoken to DH who works for a fairly well know clothes home ware retailer and sales are down by 70% on last Saturday. There is talk of people taking voluntary upaid leave and 20% paycuts to stay afloat. So I think food shops supermarkets etc are going to be busy but not so much everywhere else.

Inkpaperstars · 14/03/2020 16:59

I have just returned from a SE London sainsburys. Absolute nightmare, people coughing and sneezing, people grabbing stuff madly, little water, no loo roll, no handwash, no cooking oil, no cotton wool etc etc

Absolute nightmare. Have had to lie down and mumsnet to recover.

Also had to go in Currys to try and get a radio, someone violently sneezing over us. I know sneezing isn't a huge feature of it but not a good sign.

Dollyparton3 · 14/03/2020 16:59

I've got enough food in until Monday. Enough toilet roll until Tuesday at best. Husband is doing the next shop on Tuesday. Business as usual this end. Can't get an online delivery from our usual retailer (Ocado) because all the newbie online shoppers have screwed it up for the regulars. Have offered to go out and shop for any locals who need us to on a Facebook group though.

Went to the shops as usual this morning and it was normally busy.

Chickenitalia · 14/03/2020 17:00

Tesco was heaving, the shelves were utterly ransacked throughout. Anything long life and cleaning products were just gone. I was there for fresh veg and milk, plus extra lunch bits and bobs as dh is working from home now and going through food like it’s out of fashion. Wonder how long this stage will last tbh.

B&Q was also mad, I presume a lot of people are planning diy projects. I got the paint to do the hall and stairs that has been needed for 3 years, so there’s that I guess.

LakieLady · 14/03/2020 17:00

I'm very glad I bought a huge multi-pack of bog rolls about 6 weeks ago (because they were on special offer, not because I was anticipating the country going into lockdown) as my hometown Tesco and Aldi have completely sold out and so have Sainsburys and Lidl 9 miles away.

I managed to get everything we needed, but the only baked beans they had in Sainsburys were kosher ones and hellish expensive. I had no idea that ordinary baked beans weren't kosher! The only thing I needed and couldn't get in Sainsburys was milk, but they had plenty in Tesco when I called in on the way home.

As well as the lack of tinned stuff and the toilet roll famine, I noticed that there was very little tea and coffee, and they were down to about the last 8 bottles of washing up liquid. Bacon and egg stocks appeared very low, too, so I guess all the self-isolaters are planning on having lots of cooked breakfasts.

Wildthyme · 14/03/2020 17:01

H&M is Swedish, not Spanish.

SpokeTooSoon · 14/03/2020 17:01

I have to say I was really surprised how busy our nearest town was today as well. Boots chemist had a Christmas Eve at 4pm kind of vibe - especially the medicines area.