Is it actually selfish to stock pile?

[Orange89]

Now I haven’t gone crazy with the whole loo roll situation (I currently only have 2 rolls left) and have been doing my usual shops (average of 3 small shops a week) but it’s safe to say I’m focusing my food on long life semi-healthy foods I can store in the cupboard space we have. It’s a little more than usual but nothing crazy. All I’m hearing is stockpiling is a stupid move but surely and obviously more people are doing this than letting on as the shops are emptying. But surely this is purely practical move? I know this could face backlash from people saying some people can’t afford to stockpile (I can’t really either) but I’m talking high calorie, cheap alternatives instead of the fresh foods they’d normally buy. Or that demand can’t be met but I bet there’s another baked beans / rice / powdered custard etc to last a couple months... Just in case

I agree it has bought out the worst in people but at the end of the day people are scared and want to look after their own.
Also as regarding bulk purchases you might find people are shopping for isolated people so maybe that person you are judging is actually doing something good .

There's no meat and not veges in a major supermarket this evening. Luckily the fruit shop around the corner had plenty of stock. Wouldn't mind a little more meat though. Trip to butcher on the weekend I think.

The irony is that with all this food and people indoor and bored, the temptation will be for people to cook and eat more so what should last 2 weeks will probably last no more than one, so people will be in the same boat at the end just very stuffed!

@dontdisturbmenow I know! Imagine the weight gain from all the pasta :)

I think it would ease people's anxieties over this if the government would give some kind of sign that they are on it. The lack of reassurance that the government acknowledge that there is a problem in some parts of the country has caused me to feel a concern that I have not previously had.

"tellmetruth4*

You don't know they were profiteering. They may have been reselling them at cost price.

@BiarritzCrackers What do you want them to do? I think we just need to crack on and deal with it. So many people will get the virus, a lot will have mild symptoms and most people will recover. Try not to read too much if it's making you anxious.

@userxx I'm not anxious about it; I am acknowledging other people's anxieties. I hope those anxieties are misplaced, and I feel it would give some encouragement if there was reassurance that the food chains are robust. When there is silence, people fill that silence with perception, and what they see every day is the situation worsening - fresh food only became a problem in the last couple of days. And, as someone referred to in the thread, store management saying they are only anticipating skeleton deliveries.

I am concerned for people who are going to the shops day in day out after work, finding nothing left to buy. It must feel awful

We've been told it's not a supply issue, rather a people issue. Once the morons who are panic buying finally stop then normality will resume.

The supermarkets in Italy are stocked and people are able to buy what they need. I will be going to the shop's tomorrow night and I'm doubting there will be much, I'm down to my last potato waffle and fish fingers :)

Worse case I will be living on takaway food and end up very fat and skint.

I got some pasta in Aldi today!
They were very sensibly restricting people to only 4 of everything.

Making sure you've got sufficient supplies in to last two weeks in case of quarantine is not selfish and is sensible.

Going into a shop every morning when it opens and buying a 24 pack of loo rolls every single day to stockpile is very selfish! The cashier in a supermarket was telling me today that some customers are doing this!

Thanks to my Brexit prepping throughout 2019, all those weeks of buying an extra tin of tomatoes here, an extra bag of, yes, pasta there, I haven't had to shop for anything other than a little fresh fruit and veg since the beginning of the month. Just about getting to the point where I need to start doing a normal weekly shop again.

However from Monday I will have two households in self-isolation - my elderly parents and another relative (who doesn't have the internet) - to look out for and shop for, plus myself and DH, so I will no doubt look like I'm stockpiling on some items when I'll actually be shopping for five people spread over three homes and have probably done less shopping than most over the last few weeks.