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?

mahalia but equally you must see that if those who can show a bit of self reliance actually do so, this allows those who can't to be supported. I have never been scornful of people helping each other. If I am scornful it is directed at those who 'could have prepared, haven't, but will rely on someone else'.

I know that my neighbours would be the first to offer help if I was stuck. However I would be embarrassed to ask for help if I needed to do so because I couldn't be bothered to be better organised myself.

I've never asked why people needed help but even the best prepared can be caught out occasionally.

I have been buying Christmas themed bits, just to eat them now haha....
That's a whole other thread though p

@toilet

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.

You're confusing supply chain problems with the zombie apocalypse.

No I'm not at all.

@MahaliaJ

I've never asked why people needed help but even the best prepared can be caught out occasionally.

I agree - but there is a world of difference between caught out, and didn't bother in the first place.

Surely even you might get frustrated if you were being asked to inconvenience yourself to shop for someone who was on here saying 'nah, I haven't bothered getting more food in as someone else can go for me ' ?

It really is like 2020 never happened for some on here.

[quote toilet]@DontBeShelfish how much stock did you have? [/quote]
Probably a month's worth, that I've accumulated since I started back in January 2019. I'm not well-off, so I buy extra bits when there are BOGOF deals or offers on toiletries, etc. It's meant that during bad weather we don't have to leave the house. I was also quite poorly after having DD and as live far away from my family, I like to be prepared.

During lockdown this meant I didn't have to rely on DPs family members (who are largely useless) and I could leave the supermarkets for people who weren't as prepared. It also meant I wasn't in the position of relying on community groups and could help others out when they were short.

Surely even you might get frustrated if you were being asked to inconvenience yourself to shop for someone who was on here saying 'nah, I haven't bothered getting more food in as someone else can go for me ' ?

Yes, I would, but that's never happened and is unlikely to ever happen. I am shopping for an elederly couple on a Wednesday now and most others are either driving in themselves or managing to get online deliveries. Someone's just dropped some eggs, milk and bread off to me so I don't have to go out today

@DontBeShelfish but lockdown went on longer than a month so where did you get more food from? And have you replenished your stocks for the Winter?

Not everyone has a community group

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

But that requires a certain mindset and community spirit which doesn’t fit with me me me

@Whatwouldscullydo

Why would you if you didnt have to though?

What if your friends get sick or have to go out of town to help family.

What if their dog has puppies and they are all busy with that?

What if their car breaks down ?

Its not something you can one hundred percent rely on one hundred percent of the time is it?

Its a big risk to take when you absolutely can't go out at all.

On behalf of all British people I will say.

"You're starving, if there is nothing at all left to eat in your home, if no family, no neighbour, no authority or service can bring sustenance to your door, you may pop to the shop"

We won't lynch you.

It really is like 2020 never happened for some on here

It’s really like you don’t understand that some people’s experience of 2020:is somewhat different to yours

Elsewyre 🤣🤣

@FreeGlib

I do love your name *@ChavvySexPond*, gives me a giggle every time.

There's people admitting to being able to stock up ahead who will "just" get a priority delivery instead. There's no personal responsibility.

Here's hoping it's never like March again where people were waiting weeks for priority delivery when there's people who could have avoided needing one without hardship.

Which country is it where it's considered civic duty to look after yourself if you can so that those who can't can be given state help? I like that country.

I'm no Mother Theresa, I'm a bit of a bastard if I'm honest bit I don't expect others to sort out my shit if I'm given fair whack at doing it myself.

I nicked my name off here, from someone else's eloquent turn of phrase.

I agree with you, It's a civic duty to prepare for self-isolation or having Covid. We all know it's likely to happen to us.

If anything I go further and think it's a dereliction of civic duty and parental duty not to take care of your own if you can.

It'll never be me out there panic-buying. Or breaking self-isolation and possibly infecting people. I'll never be the reason old folk can't get their shopping.

People blithely saying "Oh I'll just get an online delivery" are the reason my regular Ocado slot was cancelled and my mum and dad couldn't get one and the government had to send out those Boris Boxes. (Which my mum and auntie both found shaming)

I'm a bit blunt. On a scale of Do-Gooder to Priti Patel I'm probably slap bang in the middle. But taking care of your own children and not making things worse for others during a national crisis are bare minimum adulting aren't they?

@Aridane

It really is like 2020 never happened for some on here

It’s really like you don’t understand that some people’s experience of 2020:is somewhat different to yours

Even if you didn't have a problem doing your shopping, getting what you needed - surely 2020 has shown you that we can't take things for granted (like shops being open, schools being open, not having to queue, rationing in shops?). Surely anyone who has experienced 2020 understands that the old rules of life can stop applying very quickly?

Yes - but it doesn’t mean I have to go full on bunker prepper mode

@bellinisurge

It really is like 2020 never happened for some on here.

I guess if you've got a community group you can abdicate responsibility to, then maybe you don't have to think any further than that?

OP no I won't be stockpiling!

If we have to self-isolate I'll get a delivery, and I'm confident that the slots will be available because various families isolating across the UK at any one time is VERY different to the lockdown we had earlier in the year, at the peak of infections.

I don't think that's going to happen again and yes you're overreacting.

I can more than afford too, but haven't. As far as I'm aware, the shops aren't all being closed down are they?

Even when things were at there worst last time, there was still plenty of food in the supermarkets.

were at the* worst.

It'll never be me out there panic-buying. Or breaking self-isolation and possibly infecting people. I'll never be the reason old folk can't get their shopping

Only on MN is it a cardinal sin to not have freezer drawer of emergency orange food or selections of pizzas in order to have the "right one" for the possibility of a visiting fussy child for tea and to not have a subscription to the book people so every party bag and birthday/Xmas present for the entire primary school duration is covered but making sure you have enough food to self isolate the biggest faux pas known to man. Even more so than those who went out fir more than one walk despite being the only house for miles cos there might be a gate .

@toilet

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.

Very few people can prepare for the sort of scenario you describe.

Many people, due to financial hardship, cannot prepare at all, or can prepare only minimally for any sort of shortages.

However, as many posters have tried to explain over and over again, there are many, many, many more people who, during times when the JIT delivery system has been working efficiently, have had the wherewithal to prepare in a sensible, gradual and calm way for times when that delivery system will not be working efficiently. Some of those people have taken the opportunity to do so and, when those delivery systems fall down, those people will be the ones reducing the demand on a limited supply of goods - to the benefit of the people who did not have the means to buy anything in advance.

Many people had the means to prepare but didn’t. Fine. Your choice. Except actually not fine if you’re in the shops during the shortages taking a bag of pasta or flour that could have gone to someone who had no choice but to wait to buy it.

People keep banging on about community spirit and helping each other out and ‘my neighbours will happily pick up shopping for me’. Great, that’s wonderful. So nice that people help each other out. You can do both you know? You could have built up an essentials cupboard and still ask for help if needed. You just wouldn’t have to ask for quite as much help, which will reduce the stress on your neighbours and enable them to spend more time and energy helping people who simply couldn’t do anything in advance.

The idea that there’s no point in taking sensible, gradual measures to ensure you have an extra few weeks worth of essentials is pointless because it won’t help you if society breaks down to such an extent that there’s looting of private homes is just ridiculous. It’s like saying ‘it looks like rain but I won’t bother to take an umbrella because if we end up with a force ten storm that umbrella won’t do me any good.’

Even if you didn't have a problem doing your shopping, getting what you needed - surely 2020 has shown you that we can't take things for granted (like shops being open, schools being open, not having to queue, rationing in shops?). Surely anyone who has experienced 2020 understands that the old rules of life can stop applying very quickly?

But you're talking in the context of shopping. Yes 2020 taught me lots of things but no-one I knew had an issue obtaining food.

So many posts on this thread contradict each other, on the one hand you should get 2 wks of food reserves in case you need to self isolate as to do otherwise is selfish & endangering others. But what after the 2 wks is up? How do you replenish without endangering others because last time I checked the virus is still here?

Just to point out unless you started this 2019 or ealier you are not preparing you are panic buying.

If you've always done it like many do and many have mentioned they're not putting any extra pressure on they are just continuing as normal.

But if you're starting your two weeks now you are not prepping you are panic buying