Where I live the government advice is to have a good supply of food. We live in a high risk tsunami area and also have earthquakes on a regular basis (mostly small but there have been and will be some big ones) and active volcanos that are far enough anyway that our home won’t be damaged but close enough that the supply chain could. And then there are wildfires. We also live 75 miles from the nearest large town and have no neighbors in sight.
Those who say they can’t afford to do this or it deprives people on limited incomes are missing the point. My motto is never to pay full price for anything. I cut coupons. I scan the weekly ads for the supermarkets and only buy the things that are on special offer or that I have coupons for. And I buy the maximum that I can with our weekly budget. So, one week my trolley might have 6 bottles of apple juice, 10 boxes of pasta, 5 gallons of milk and not much else. Then I don’t need to buy those for several weeks until they are on special offer again. I set myself a maximum price for each item and won’t go over it under any circumstances. Over the 4 years I’ve been doing this I have never run out of anything. The next week my trolley might have 10 cans of tuna, 5 bottles of shampoo, 4 jars of pesto and not much else. I still drink apple juice every day but I don’t need to buy it that week (nor do I want to as it is not on any kind of offer). We get fruit and vegetables separately in a farm box once a week. It takes discipline and preparation but it ensures you pay the lowest prices for each item. Over time you build up an excess because something will go back on special offer before you have used up your current supply. When items are on special offer there are always enough to go around. Averaged out over the year we spend less than others. If doing things this way “deprives” others, why have there not been any shortages over the past 4, 10, 15 years?
Panic buying is a knee jerk reaction to a situation. Someone hears that there will be no toilet paper (heck knows who started that rumor) and so they and their mates all leap off their sofas and drive to every supermarket they can think of and wipe out the entire stock. Gradually building up your supply over years does not harm anyone. Or you would have not been able to get pasta at all over the last several years.
We have a vacuum sealer and three freezers. The house came with two freezers and we already had one of our own. The vacuum sealer was my best investment ever. Fresh meat, fish and produce is vacuum sealed into portions and frozen and the date and contents written on the packs. This is then added to the inventory list and when we use something from the supplies we remove it from the list. It may sound like a lot of work but living in such a remote location makes this necessary. We live in an area with no food delivery options at all. We can’t just get Uber eats to deliver something if we run out so running out is not an option.
As I said, it takes discipline and effort but it actually saves money.
And for those who say “but the shops never closed”, if someone had told you last year that this year would see schools closed, companies closed, 80% of the entire world under some form of lockdown order, you’d never have believed it. Just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it never will. I’ve never been burgled but I still have an alarm on the house.