AIBU to think people will be less tolerant of those who are unprepared next time?

[NoSoapAndGory]

In mid March, as the shop stock plummeted just before lockdown was announced, our local parent FaceBook groups etc were full of "I've tried all shops with no luck - where can I get Calpol / Paracetamol / Nappies / Tampax / pasta / toilet roll' etc.

For every post, there was at least one person offered to help or share - usually more.

Are people now expected to behave differently as supplies are stabilising? Do you think people will be so accommodating the next time we have an emergency, or will you be considered foolish not to have prepared in some way if you were able to?*

*Obviously not including people who can't afford to buy spares or basics.

I had/have my brexit stash and made sure I kept it topped it when it looked like things would get bad here too. A few people have said they can't get hold of certain things like calpol or flour and yeast, pasta. If we run into trouble with supplies in future for whatever reason I now know what I need to stash for my family. Definitely more chocolate! I did/do have UHT milk but have started using the local dairy and having milk delivered three times a week. Eggs once a week from the milkman too. The health shop has flour and yeast. Things were a bit sparse after 3 weeks as I couldn't get an online delivery but I'm now able to get a weekly slot due to being shielded. I appreciate food a lot more now. The brexit stash is considerately depleted but I've still got pasta, purées, tinned fruit and veg, household cleaning things, sanitary towels, soaps, toothpaste and toothbrushes. I made the mistake of running down the shampoo and conditioner supply.
This has changed the way I shop and plan even more than prepping for brexit did and I'll continue to prep if I can. The prepping threads are a great resource and I'm grateful to the posters there who got me and my elderly mum prepping.

This thread is so funny, as in weird. A majority of posters being proud and beating their chests in the name of being “unprepared”. What a weird alternate universe where being prepared for a potential crisis is looked down upon with vitriol and malice. Oh how the world (British culture?) has changed in the last 30 years. I wonder what your grandparents who went through WWI, WWII, and multiple depressions/recessions would think of your attitudes?

@JingsMahBucket I agree.

COVID 19 should make more people realise that the just-in-time way of everything is very precarious.

To boast about not even trying to be prepared for any eventuality is a bit strange

• COVID 19 should make more people realise that the just-in-time way of everything is very precarious.

To boast about not even trying to be prepared for any eventuality is a bit strange *

1. Your last point is impossible.
2. Not everyone can prepare for various reasons, to fret about that is pointless so better to accept it
3. Not everyone was affected by this. The only annoyance was that my delivery pass is wasted as I can't get any slots. Other than that, we haven't starved, we haven't had to replace milk with cheese, we haven't used potatoes instead of bread and haven't wiped our arses with the cat.

@JingsMahBucket I think you’re reading into it a bit too much. Most posters have just said they don’t have the money/storage to store an excess amount of everything you could possibly need in case of a crisis. I’m sure ww2 soldiers aren’t shaking their heads in horror because their great niece Maureen hasn’t got an excess of bog roll stocked up.

I wonder whether larders might become very fashionable.

Modern homes don’t have the kind of storage necessary to be fully stocked. Most people could afford to keep extra stocks of loo rolls, soap, dried pasta, canned foods, painkillers and the kinds of things that used to be called “dry goods”. Not ridiculous amounts, just extra.

I prep without meaning to, it's not a deliberate thought. But I buy stuff on offer. So if I go shopping and the beans I like are on offer, I get them regardless of whether I need them that week or not because they will get eaten
Same with soap or conditioner or cleaning products
I'm glad I did because as it turned out I needed to shield, there was no food box, and I couldn't get a supermarket slot for 24 days so was reliant on what I had in the house

I completely understand that many people can’t afford to prep and are living hand to mouth and obviously they’re not the ones that most people are referring to. It’s those that can afford to, but refuse to accept that anything like this is going to happen again, even as we’re nowhere near out of this disaster, that I don’t understand. Why have you such an issue with being better prepared in future? It’s not just about the foods being in the shops, though the panic buying really affected the poorest amongst us, as many of them had no choice but to either buy the expensive brands as the cheaper stuff was gone or they went without. It’s about staying at home and not mixing with others for as long as possible.

Every time you go to the shops, you risk catching it spreading the virus. Why make that choice if you have the finances and abilities to be more prepared for a second wave, Brexit, Inclement weather affecting local farm foods, etc? I just can’t comprehend the reasoning behind those that are actually proud to take no precautions for any future difficulties. 🤷‍♀️

@totally Because there are a surprising number of people who think negative things will never happen to them. They are the ones that did not want any lock down and to carry on as normal because they assumed everyone in their family including their parents would be fine.

That’s very true, cantory. I suppose it’s a bit of a defense mechanism, because if any of us think to deeply about what could go wrong, it could cause feelings of panic. I feel more in control if I’ve prepped, but I’m actually shocked at how quickly I’ve gone through some of it. Once I get financially secure again, I’ll be building it up again and buying extra on top.

What on earth do people do with toilet roll that they increase during a pandemic?
wobytide

They use it at home, not at work or school or at the gym or the pub.

If five family members who normally take a daily dump at work or in school are suddenly all doing that at home, the result is empty loo roll tubes piling up.

I'll be shopping as I usually do. It's the desperate panic buyers that created this situation in the first place.
Theres no way I would turn into one of those people, depriving others of things they need in the fear I would run out. Its bloody selfish.
If everyone shopped as they usually do, there wouldn't have been a situation where stocks are low in the first place.

Although supermarkets are going to be a lot more savvy this time and know what to order more of.

Everyone knows the situation now and you need to be responsible for yourselves and your families if things go bad again. Jmo.

I honestly despair of this rugged individualism. What exactly do people get from feeling like that and saying things like that? Is it a false sense of control over one's destiny?

I hope and pray that the exact opposite lesson will be the takeaway from all of this - that community spirit is the wave of the future.

Also if everyone had just shopped normally we wouldn’t have run out in the bloody first place!
In normal times, I eat my main meal and most breakfasts at work, and am rarely at home during the weekends. So have needed to buy at least twice as much food and TP as normal.
There are thousands like me who are usually just not home this much.

Hopefully if there is a next time, supply chains can move more quickly from supplying canteens restaurants and hotels to supplying supermarkets, or the shortages will happen again.

I didn’t prep or stockpile but I had just bought a nine pack of loo roll when the panic buying hit. That nine pack saw my house, DS’s and my DP house through until we found some more, which was shared again. I could always get milk and some form of bread, even if it was wraps or crumpets.

Hand gel was found half empty in various drawers and still being used. Pasta down to the coloured stuff we bought in Rome.

I will continue to make sure I have a good supply of loo roll and bar soap. That’s it, nothing else would be missed that much.

Ive been asking myself questions about this and gave come up blank. I have prepped for a 3 week period, includes everything - freezer, dry goods, toiletries, cleaning, essential meds. I’m wondering whether I will now always have this. Not the exact stuff I have now but bringing it all out and replacing it all every 3 months.

It may be one day that I have grandchildren who think I am ‘odd’ for doing this exactly the same as I thought one of my grandmothers (who had lived through the depression) was odd for saving the paper wrappers that used to be around the bottom of each fruit, kept soap nuts to put together and use etc. I used to think, cripes, no depression now who would do that. It’s taken me 50 years but now I get it.

I had stockpiled for Brexit so had plenty of most things. I was caught out by the lack of thermometers though.

I bought an extra 9 pack of loo roll when there were the first murmurings of people panic buying it in other countries, and I bought extra sanitary towels but other than that I didn't buy anything extra.

I think a lot of the shortages were caused by people buying a bit extra (even if everyone buys an extra one of everything, that strips the shelves very quickly,) but there was a video of Costco in Farnborough in Hampshire and the scenes it showed were straight-forward panic buying of loo roll!. That said, given all the misleading videos and photos of people supposedly ignoring social distancing rules in parks etc I am not sure if that video was actually real.

Or perhaps everyone could stop being so selfish and resist stockpiling ‘next time’?

The problem wasn’t stock levels, it was idiots buying five packs of everything.

I was taken aback at how many people weren’t prepared at all given how dramatic the coverage of Italy was

Then you haven't cultivated an awareness of the world around you at all

Some people live paycheque to paycheque. Some rely on benefits payments & shop when that comes in. Some people are mostly reliant on foodbanks. There are lots of people who can't afford to buy 2 weeks or 2 month's shopping in 1 go. Or indeed, don't have huge freezers or a big home with cupboard space.

I'm taken aback that you don't know this

I understand why people who don’t have the means or the capacity are unprepared. What surprised me was that the people who could easily afford to didn’t. That people who watch and discuss the news were taken by surprise. And most importantly, that people responsible for national planning didn’t anticipate extra demand.

Other posters have explained how staying at home increases the demand for items that are normally consumed elsewhere. The food that was eaten in coffee shops, restaurants and takeaways is now being consumed at home. If people didn’t change their shopping habits at this time, there might not be shortages in the shops but there would be shortages in the homes.

I didn’t intend to come across as “smug” for being better prepared; I tried to explain how anxiety and uncertain health has cultivated my outlook. I’ve experienced poverty so I do know, from personal experience, why a considerable swathe of people can’t purchase extra supplies. The same experience tells me why it’s a good idea to.

And if those who could afford to, kept a little extra on hand, built up slowly over months, then those who live hand to mouth would still be able to get what they need even in a crisis.

I’ve learned through this that many people can’t see danger looming. I know I can’t contemplate shtf situations that serious preppers discuss without triggering massive anxiety so I stick my head in the sand for the sake of my mental health. There are any number of things I’m not remotely prepared to face. But this crisis was all over the news for months, creeping closer. I’m surprised at how many people, I personally know, who still buried their heads in the sand. I understand the impulse, and this isn’t about judging them. People can only cope with what they can cope with. But I definitely know better than to depend on them to help me out in a future crisis. Will I help them out, if they repeat the same mistakes? Yes, absolutely.

Unfortunately, among those who couldn’t process the unfolding crisis and act pre-emptively were people in national planning roles. This situation has made me realise that I can’t depend on them either.

I would always help. We were prepared because we had been slowly buying extra with the worry of brexit. I'd never not help someone just because they do things differently to me. I'm glad there are people not as anxious as I am.

Some people can't afford to, exactly.

My sister earns 90k, which is twice my household income. Lives in London and never has food in the house because she's so used to deliveroo, popping to Tesco express every day etc. When this kicked off she was on the phone crying that she was going to starve to death because 'stockpilers' had cleared the shelves. We had to courier food to her.

I hope she has the common sense to buy a few tins of beans before this happens again.

I gave up refined carbs and dairy a good time ago, it came in handy. Lidl and Tesco didn't run out of fresh fruit and veg. There was enough tinned soup/tuna etc. I did worry about my autistic DD's chicken from Iceland that she lives on, but there was no interruption. There was food about and toilet roll in smaller shops. If people didn't have smaller shops etc, it isn't nice but use cut up flannels, soak and launder. There really was no need to panic.

Before we all take on @Tana433, individualism, just remember that there's people not taking that attitude and are keeping the hospitals, care facilities, shops, supply change etc going and are putting themselves at risk to do so. That's aside from those donating blood/plasma/body parts and taking part in drug trials. Have an individualism attitude, but stick by it and don't access help yourself, or for your family, during or after this crisis.

I've always kept in plenty of dried goods. We are lucky we have a secure garage where we can store it, it keeps, and it means if we have a bad couple of weeks where we are ill or a bit busy to shop, we have plenty for the kids.

I don't consider it "stockpiling" to have full cupboards if you can afford it. I also have fruit trees & we pick blackberries so we have plenty on hand in summer.

I typically keep 2 weeks of groceries in and get one main delivery from a supermarket a month and meat once a month. I have lived in developing countries and do not like to rely on supply chains as a result.

I did buy a whole lot extra in January when I saw the news but that would not have affected anyone when the shortages hit. Just as well, as I believe I got a mild case of Covid 19, just as the shut down started and I would have struggled otherwise.

Everyone that can afford to do so, should have a pantry. It is basic household management, which helps you keep to a budget (I'm horrible for impulse buying) and helps smooth over times of financial difficulty.

Now, I am shopping at my local small supermarket, getting a fruit and veg box, a meat delivery and buying bread at the bakery. I am out of the habit of going to the big supermarkets and am really re-assessing my wants and needs. I am not sure I want to go back to what I was doing before.

Re stock levels, they did slow down. My DD's retail chain was spraying down stock and using fogging, as it came in and held it back in the warehouse, so not to put retail assistants at undue risk. So stock was taking at least an extra four days to get to the shops. We also had other supply difficulties for various reasons. As well as Staffing issues because of shielding and people becoming ill/carers/isolating etc. It wasn't all stockpiling.