Looking at the 'stockpiling' threads..

[EinsteinaGogo]

Is there genuinely ANYONE who could afford to get a couple of weeks shopping into the house, who hasn't?

And if so, WHY?

@toilet

I've just had another look at the prepping board.

There is a thread from 3 wks ago where a poster has said flour is hard to get but they are still managing to slow build up supplies & another one saying there was limit about number of items they could order so they are prioritising food over household goods. Is that really good practice & not going to contribute to panic buying?

Agree, I would say that's exactly the kind of thing that gives preppers a bad name. Like the person I saw on one of the panic buying/shortages threads a few weeks back explaining that she had to go to five different shops to stock up, 'because I'm a prepper' .

"We organised a village veg delivery and bread delivery during lockdown."

[whispers] some people don't live in a village.

Some of us live in communities where it's totally normal to ask and give help

Some.

Can you read?

I'm surprised that the situation in March didn't encourage people to at least keep a few spares of the important things in. There were umpteen posts on my fb page at the time from parents who couldn't get what they needed for their babies (milk, nappies, calpol) for example, and it made me think at the time that it would be sensible at least to have one spare of the important things. If every home that had the space had an extra packet of bog roll and pasta there would have been way less pandemonium.
People went buying extra because they didn't have enough. Maybe a few people went mad and cleared the shelves single handed, and some took advantage to buy stuff to sell on I think. But most normal people just needed to cope with lockdown/isolation/illness/potential job losses, and because there was such a number, it had a big knock on effect
But once everyone had what they needed, because the supply chain was intact, things settled quickly.
I'm with @BlackeyedSusan... if the end of transition period causes the disruption that many experts predict, I want to be prepared for that. So, like her, I am hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.
I really hope that many people do now have a few weeks' worth of necessities, and imagine that they probably do, and that is why despite the possibility of another lockdown, there aren't shortages at min.

I totally agree with posters who pointed out that asking others to shop for them during lockdown was putting those people at risk. It also caused those people to be buying extra ( I did wonder how many of those people being accused of 'selfishly panic buying' were in fact buying for 2 or 3 households at once, given that nobody wanted to be queuing for multiple shopping trips)

@bellinisurge

"We organised a village veg delivery and bread delivery during lockdown."

[whispers] some people don't live in a village.

I live in central London and we did this. Not just villages that organise in this way.

I totally agree with posters who pointed out that asking others to shop for them during lockdown was putting those people at risk. It also caused those people to be buying extra

Crazy logic. They weren't "buying extra", they were buying food for 2 sets of people rather than one.

All our shops and supermarkets were totally aware and ok with this.

Thank god I don't live in a strange solitary bubble where people can't even seem to get their head round the concept of community.

I've just come out of 4 weeks of isolation and did my first big shop for ages.

As my cupboards were low on everything I did buy twice as much as I usually do just to replenish what we'd used. Couldn't get coconut milk though which seemed a bit bizarre. The shelves were stripped bare

Yes but when supermarkets had limits that meant that instead of being able to buy everything they needed they had to then get what they could then try ajd go back another time ir go somewhere else to get the rest if it. Supermarkets didn't give a shit how many people you were buying for a 2 bags of pasta limit was a 2 bags if pasta limit.

It's lovely that people pulled together for mutual support, but I still believe that thinking ahead and preparing for the unexpected is sensible. The two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.
I was very happy not to have to go shopping for 3 weeks in March.
I was working throughout, so didn't have time or energy to queue for hours and luckily didn't have to, but I was able to drop off a few bits to my mum and a couple of friends, because I had a bit spare.
I had to isolate with Dh for 14 days too, but we would not have been eligible for food delivery at the time.

I’ve got an understairs cupboard that I’ve kept stocked since way before the pandemic. It was my Brexit cupboard first, then the Corona cupboard and now we jokingly refer to it as the zombie apocalypse cupboard.

Everything in it is stuff we’ll eat, and household products we’ll use (bleach, wipes, loo roll, kitchen roll, toiletries etc) I also keep the spare freezer in the garage stocked.

I’ve never panic bought, and all of this has been built up by buying a bit extra on our weekly shop for the last year or 18 months and keeping it all rotated so as we use something up, it gets replaced, and nothing goes out of date. Call it prepping, call it being a pessimist, all good, just don’t call it panic buying as that’s definitely not what it is! There was zero panic buying involved and was done very calmly way before the empty shelves hit the headlines in March

Oh, and I’m glad we were prepared, as we had to self isolate, couldn’t get a delivery slot for love nor money, and had to rely on very kind friends dropping bread/milk/fruit for us, and I was glad not to have to add all the other bits we might have needed in to their shopping trips.

@MahaliaJ yeah but fb and mn threads were full of complaints about dreadful stockpilers being so terribly selfish, often backed up by pics of said 'panic buyers' 🙄 People would see a full trolley and not think to wonder why

Supermarkets didn't give a shit how many people you were buying for a 2 bags of pasta limit was a 2 bags if pasta limit

Actually that's not true. If you had a community group you could buy for others. Sainsbury's did this for us quite happily as it limited the amount of people in the shop.

People would see a full trolley and not think to wonder why

Yes seems its perfectly OK for other people to get the glares amd the public shaming cos their trolly is full. As long as everyone else can polish their halos..

Not everyone has a community group. If it was just daisy from next door buying fir her neighbour they didbt care

@Ski4130 so people who are doing it now in Sept what category do they come under?

As my cupboards were low on everything I did buy twice as much as I usually do just to replenish what we'd used.

The shelves were stripped bare

🤣

Not everyone has a community group

No, but everyone is free to set one up if they wish.

Organised prepared people (call them preppers if you like) in our community were often the ones providing the support to others, being surrounded by peppers means that many people are able to help you.

I could shop for another family during lockdown when goods were rationed to 3 of each because I was generally well stocked at home and could fit my shopping needs around theirs.

I cannot believe that a population who have seen once-in-a-generation impacts on their lives (a year ago who would have believed schools would close for months) seems to imagine that there's a magical force surrounding supermarkets meaning they'll always be open and well stocked, that theyll always be able to go to one, and that there'll always be someone else able to go for you.

Only on MN is a bit of self-reliance scorned, in favour of relying entirely on others.

I live in a lovely community where people happily helped each other out. However, I live in a household of 9 so asking someone to do a shop if we’re isolated for two weeks would be taking the piss.

Only on MN is a bit of self-reliance scorned, in favour of relying entirely on others

I think you must be deliberately misunderstanding what I'm saying. A lot of people in my community would have suffered during lockdown if it wasn't for those who helped them by getting their shopping. I'm not sure why, just because you have a full cupboard, you would be so scornful of those people helping each other.

Some people don't have the money or room for 3 weeks of food. But I assume you know that.

Also, one person shopping for 4 people means 3 less people in the shop

Thank you Jesus! @JesusInTheCabbageVan. It's very disingenuous to claim their is no correlation between some preppers & panic buyers.

@Aridane

How said, *@bellinisurge*, you don’t understand living in a community. Where I live, we offer help - people don’t have to ask. I am glad I opened this thread as I now realise how lucky I am to live where I do and not be surrounded by ‘preppers’

I live in a really helpful community of people who banded together to assist people in isolation. But the reality is, those people were risking their own health, and the health of their families, to do so.

Is that ok to do, do you think?

And when they were getting to shops to buy items, the stock wasn't available because people who hadn't thought ahead had stripped the shelves bare.

As a member of a community I want to protect the health of everyone in it. So if that means keeping a little bit by, then I'm happy to do that.

seems to imagine that there's a magical force surrounding supermarkets meaning they'll always be open and well stocked, that theyll always be able to go to one, and that there'll always be someone else able to go for you.

Well if food becomes unobtainable, I'm not planning to board up my windows & hide my food & family in my basement. The magical force of prepping won't protect us from civil unrest & looters.

@DontBeShelfish how much stock did you have?