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?

Then I'll buy other things, local meat, local bread, local veg, local milk, eggs, cakes, biscuits, fish etc.

I think most people will be doing that. Hope the supply can keep up with the sudden increased demand. It worked well, earlier on in the year after all.

@9toenailswe enjoy home brewing as a hobby.

Wines, beer and cider. It works out very cheap per bottle. It wasn't started as a prepping thing but I'll admit I've a few more bottles put away than usual. We brew between 6 - 12 bottles a week.

@Janevaljane
It hasn't been a problem - yet.

We now have an online slot for my parents so hopefully it won't be a problem ever, but if for any reason that failed, especially towards the time a next shop was due, they are really short of any fall back position.

The only thing they stockpile is bird food! You can barely get into the garage, and there is a panicky phonecall for an emergency Wilko delivery if the stocks drop below about 50 fat balls...

janevaljane you are aware, I hope, that the UK is not self sufficient in food production? At the exact time when a No Deal Brexit would hit, the UK would be in the situation where it grows very little of its own vegetables. We rely on imports - and those imports will be stuck. I would love to be optimistic, but I'll settle for being prepared - that way my family and I get to eat.

One of the reasons supermarkets coped with lockdown (eventually) was their No Deal Brexit preps. If they hadn't done that it would have been even worse. Luckily, we don't have that to worry about....no, wait.

The supermarkets are massive businesses. They did extremely well out of lockdown. They will ensure they do just as well next year. And as I've said, I can buy most things locally. Might stock up on coffee though!

Tra la local shops. Like everyone has access to. Give me a break

To come back to this thread, another reason we are keeping a little stash here is that when brexit happens it will be in the middle of winter. winter is predicted to have higher levels of covid.

I am channel islands. so we have been made aware that a lot of our supply chains will stop. we have a bad enough time anyway in winter when ferries can't run because of bad weather. if the boats can't get in for a few days then there's chaos at supermarkets. so with supply chains potentially being disrupted because we are still a British Island. and the majority of our food supplies come in from the UK not France (our closest neighbour). so having a bit extra is sensible in my view.

there is talk on our local news of food parcels being air dropped in if brexit, covid and bad weather interrupt supply chains here.

Bellinisurge
I'm sorry? Do you think I am suggesting that everyone lives in the same way as me?

You seem to keep conveniently forgetting that the OP asked why people didn't have a stash of food. People are answering that question. I don't need one for the reasons I have given. You seem completely unable to grasp that people live differently to you.

And fwiw, I live about 6 miles from a shop, but we had local delivery services throughout the lockdown and no doubt will again if we have to (it's a very Brexity area which means most people who voted Brexit will be determined not to let it inconvenience anyone ).

As I've said before, I lived through lockdown with 4 children and a broken ankle, 6 miles from a shop and we didn't go hungry then and we won't next year, despite only having a basic store cupboard and a small freezer.

If people think that buying one or two extra tins of shopping just in case is 'depriving others' then more power to them. You obviously don't understand the basics of the supply chain.

I live in East London, where i've just gotten water back after 14 hours without. Luckily I buy water in my monthly shop, so I was ok. But each of the 15+ grocery stores (including 3 superstores) near me had run out of water 2 hours into the issue. That's all it takes to be buggered, 2 hours. And that's me living alone, I wonder how both my NDN with kids under 2 coped.

@Janevaljane you are lucky that you could get deliveries through lock down as many many people could not.

I too live about 6 miles from any shops. My local town has a Asda, a Morrisons, an Aldi and an Iceland. A bit further afield there is Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl and Waitrose.

It was absolutely impossible to get a delivery or click & collect from any of them. I tried numerous times for days and days as quite a few of my neighbours are elderly and and were shielding.

About 3 weeks into lock down DH went to try and get some items (we had not needed to shop at all before then) we wanted such as eggs, fresh veg, flour and a few other items. He could not eggs or flour at all even though he tried 5 supermarkets and could not get a very small amount of fresh veg. He said the shelves where pasta, loo rolls, soap, tinned veg and bread should have been were completely empty in most of the shops and the ones that did have any of those items only had a very small amount.

It was possible get click & collect from Sainsbury in about June although Tesco, Morrisons and Asda still had no slots.

It cost Tesco half a BILLION due to the pandemic this year and they’ve just issued a warning to the market over their overall losses this year. That’s not ‘doing extremely well out of lockdown’.

@Janevaljane

Bellinisurge I'm sorry? Do you think I am suggesting that everyone lives in the same way as me?

You seem to keep conveniently forgetting that the OP asked why people didn't have a stash of food. People are answering that question. I don't need one for the reasons I have given. You seem completely unable to grasp that people live differently to you.

And fwiw, I live about 6 miles from a shop, but we had local delivery services throughout the lockdown and no doubt will again if we have to (it's a very Brexity area which means most people who voted Brexit will be determined not to let it inconvenience anyone ).

As I've said before, I lived through lockdown with 4 children and a broken ankle, 6 miles from a shop and we didn't go hungry then and we won't next year, despite only having a basic store cupboard and a small freezer.

I’m sure local farm shops will do their best to keep people supplied. But with 45% of all our food being imported it’s clear they will not be able to do so. Why would the fact it’s a ‘Brexity’ make any difference? Believe it or not people who voted remain will also want to do their best to ensure everyone is fed. Basic maths shows that relying on local produce to do so is simply not a viable option.

During Lockdown the supply of food into the country was not significantly disrupted so many local shops were able to provide an outstanding service. Most local shops get a lot of their produce imported from elsewhere anyway. They won’t be immune to the problems caused by leaving the customs union.

The U.K. is not self sufficient and hasn’t been for an extremely long time. They didn’t introduce food rationing for fun during WWII, they did it because there wasn’t enough food getting into the country. And that was during a time when a much greater proportion of the country had the skills and land to grown food for themselves.

@Janevaljane you are lucky that you could get deliveries through lock down as many many people could not

I wasn't talking about supermarket delivery. We had a local baker delivering bread and small bags of flour, greengrocer delivering veg and eggs, local butcher delivered. Some delivered to one key person in the village and we went to pick it up.

The only thing they stockpile is bird food! You can barely get into the garage, and there is a panicky phonecall for an emergency Wilko delivery if the stocks drop below about 50 fat balls Maybe they are planning on surviving on 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie if things get tough. (Maybe sing a song of sixpence has been forgotten - if so apologies.)

@Yoffel I heard on the radio news this morning that Tesco made loads of profit over the first half of this financial year!

[quote Janevaljane]**@Janevaljane you are lucky that you could get deliveries through lock down as many many people could not

I wasn't talking about supermarket delivery. We had a local baker delivering bread and small bags of flour, greengrocer delivering veg and eggs, local butcher delivered. Some delivered to one key person in the village and we went to pick it up.[/quote]
You live in an Aga saga, don’t you?

pretty much, yes

All villages and small towns near me had this kind of thing going on. So did friends in London tbf

We had the same thing here and I'm on the outskirts of a town, which has its own 'village' centre (it used to be a village in its own right, but the town expansion meant that it's now part of the town's housing stock).

The indie shops in the village delivered / deliver. But if they struggle to get stock because of Brexit, that's not going to be able to happen (or not to the extent it does now).

No deal Brexit + hunger gap = hungry people quite soon.

This has been a very good thread - everyone convinced they are the mostly saintly of shoppers and heaping scorn on people who shop differently to them. It does seem to be the non-stashers who have been the most unpleasant to the stashers however, using insults to get their point across

To be fair, the OP set the tone

I can afford to but why would I? I didn't first time round either and guess what, nobody starved and we were all still able to wipe our bums. Basically I'm not hysterical, or selfish and I can't help being judgemental of people who stockpile.

@Janevaljane- I think I live in an Aga saga too (in London though) - a combination of multiple supermarkets, Outdoor food markets, local shops and especially ethnic supermarkets meant everything was available (yeast and garlic presses apart) and without queues (Iceland and post office apart). Plus online delivery slots were shared (ie added to my deliveries for those waiting for slots).

One of the guys from the local food market actually wheeled round produce one Saturday in our residential area to give away to stop it going to waste.

Appreciate though that the lockdown food idyll my local community enjoyed may not be repeated come a crashingky bad Brexit.

But not everyone shared the uniform no pasta and poo roll experience

[quote Janevaljane]**@Janevaljane you are lucky that you could get deliveries through lock down as many many people could not

I wasn't talking about supermarket delivery. We had a local baker delivering bread and small bags of flour, greengrocer delivering veg and eggs, local butcher delivered. Some delivered to one key person in the village and we went to pick it up.[/quote]
That is good. We did have a local butcher delivering but as me and DH are vegetarian that was no good to us.

Our town, although a fair size, does not even have a greengrocer so no veg delivery. There is a couple of bakers but they didn't do any deliveries.

Oh and just remembered there were fish deliveries but, again, no good to us.

There is a village shop but they hardly stock anything any of the time

My kids just ate it all.