Who’s to blame for panic buying?

[HeechulOppa]

Just wondering that really. Media or the people (or the twats in power)? Personally I think it’s the media (and the government for engineering the situations sometimes). I honestly can’t find it in myself to blame people - let’s face it, no matter how much you may believe in not panic buying, no matter how much you might believe in not contributing to the problem, it’s very very hard to stand back while everyone else buys things that are running out so quickly. So what do you do? If you don’t buy the item you know in your heart it will run out and, as these items are generally high importance (fuel, loo roll) you will probably be stuffed. If you do buy then you’re contributing to the problem. And whilst it’s also largely made worse by people buying more than they need, that level of thinking is usually entirely justifiable when you consider the hassle you go through and, quite frankly, the fear that supplies will take a while to return to normal so ‘best get some more to tide you over’.

Obviously slightly different with people who buy enough to keep them stocked for months.

It’s a pickle. And I don’t drive so don’t have a vested interest in fuel shortages for myself, but completely understand why people might panic there.

I think it's a combination of everyone. But I do despise the media for what it's become, at the start of the first lock down, reporters were positively wanking themselves red raw when they were at Boris' briefings, numerous reporters couldn't wait to bring out mentioning of rationing at the earliest opportunities, then as soon as one reporters asked their question about rationing then ext one would do the same or worded differently. It's a self fulfilling prophecy from that point onward.

This has went from a handful of BP and Esso garages being short on supply due to them trying to maintain the bottom of the barrel wages they pay to their drivers, to; Panic stations! every petrol station in the land will be dry if you don't go out and buy petrol now!!! And the media helped create that, half the people out there panic and surge buying now wouldn't have done so if they weren't egged on by the media, just so they can send a reporter out to stand in a gridlocked petrol station, or hopefully get a video of people fist fighting over a petrol pump.

How did we get here, most people believe that many years ago Women told each other how to care for children each where the best berry crop or dry patch of wood was and the men went off doing their thing. Now people gossip on FB and at the school gates telling each other about loo roll and petrol.

The government are to blame for there being a problem in the first place, the media are to blame for escalating a minor problem into a major one by winding people up in the hope of sales or hits.

I contributed to the problem by buying petrol yesterday when I could have waited until I was on red tomorrow, but that would have meant taking the risk of not being able to get to work on Monday so I think my choice was reasonable in the circumstances, just like the majority of people that will have filled up a little early.

Media

It's the media. It's also people refusing to listen to those in the know. There is plenty of petrol.
There is a shortage of drivers but if people just brought like they normally do there would be no issue at all. I'm afraid I do blame the public too. It's incredibly selfish to fill up and then fill extra cans too.
It's the emergency services I'm worried about. A lot of people are going to be sorry they filled their car up when they desperately need an ambulance and one can't come because they have no fuel.
It's not hard to not be completely selfish. Petrol probably will run out but it wouldn't if people could just be sensible.

Government

Government and the media are far more to blame than individuals. The government policies and Brexit have made the situation worse than it needed to be and the media hyped up the shortage and panic buying so much people really do start to panic.

But most people aren’t buying huge quantities of fuel (or loo roll or pasta etc). But when something so essential is fast becoming scarce, it’s natural to want to make sure you won’t run out so people top up sooner than they would ordinarily have done, or get a little bit extra because they’re worried about not being able to get it again when they need it. Obviously when everyone’s doing that it becomes a problem but it’s entirely rational at an individual level. People aren’t filling huge tanks of fuel, they’re just anxious to make sure they have enough because otherwise they can’t get to work etc.

I added to the problem too, needed to be able to get to work next week (teacher) and I have no doubt 99.9% of customers at garage will have a perfectly good reason, eg. not being paid if they don't turn up to work. Media and government to blame really, in equal measure.

We didn't have a shortage here until local rag published a scare story. I have complained to them, Facebook commented and will be looking at taking it further.

We have blocked main roads this morning, all queuing to get petrol, draining garages of petrol that would have lasted the usual time, been replenished in the usual manner.

I know this because desperate garage owners have been posting about it, calling police to sort out angry customers, repeating that they have confirmation of there being no problems with their supply chain.

Obviously when they are empty on Monday some fuckwit will call them liars!

We are rural, this will cause very real issues and it didn't need to happen. The same supposed journalists could have carried stories about the lack of problems... but that wouldn't be so much fun, would it?

My favourite part of the news yesterday a short video they shared of some women in the queue of a petrol station, filming the queues and saying "look at all the panic buyers, we actually need petrol" I'm sure everyone there needs the petrol, that's why they're buying it! It's like the people who shared pictures they took in crowded parks during covid!

I think in cases like this they shouldn't let anyone who is more than say 1/4 full fill up. So not limit to £30 per customer, but but only let people who are running low fill up.

It is the govt for allowing the allowing the lorry driver shortage and media for reporting it as fuel shortage (or certainly giving that impression). People did what needed to be done. If you don’t join into the panic buying, you simply end up being the ones suffering from inevitable shortage. Being virtuous and smart gets you nowhere in a panic buying situation.

The media certainly have culpability. There were choices available, they chose to report headlines like:

"Fuel Crisis U.K."
"What is causing the fuel crisis"
"Fuel shortages add to winter woes"

In actuality there is no fuel shortage, we have plenty of fuel in the U.K. and more coming into the country and into the forecourts of petrol satiations every day.

SOME suppliers have a reduced number of drivers which meant that a TINY number of stations may not have been able to get supplies delivered as regularly, BP reported that 100 of their 8500 petrol stations may run out of fuel, that's 1.2% of their petrol stations.

As a result of the headlines, thousands of people went and drained their petrol stations yesterday, now there are empty tanks all over the place so more deliveries are needed which is logistically difficult due to the reduced number of delivery drivers.

This is a media issue. There is no shortage of fuel or tanker drivers other than for one company who temporarily closed 5 petrol stations and thus is what had happened. People who do not drive much should content themselves with a third of a tank. Myself and several friends are on the empty section of meter but don't want to sit on a queue all day. Am hoping it will be over by tomorrow.

It’s sensible to keep a reasonable stock if something is that essential to your life. My cupboard has about 3 months worth of loo roll bought online a few weeks ago, and the car has half a tank of petrol. I am going to relax and stay out of the scramble.

There's a chain of blame as far as I can see.

Government is voted in by voters..
So it goes:

Voters

(for voting in the..

Government
(for not having better foresight and control and not putting out the right info through the...

Media
(for sensationalising a small problem for clicks and sales which leads to people becoming...

Panic buyers
(for listening to the media and panicking and buying more than they need.

I know I'm probably wrong somehow... But that's how it looks to me.

You can't blame for media for people's actions.

We will as a country only live forward if we stop biting into click bait headlines, doing our own research and learning by last mistakes (looroll gate!)

If we can come through and I hit the other side of this pandemic having learnt nothing as a society then we are to blame as much as the media.

If the media said the sky was yellow and we must all paint it blue or the world would end there is a scary number of Britons would would rush to B and Q

1. The government, 2) media, 3) oil companies. Not the people who are simply trying to get petrol.

I don't blame people for panic buying if they're genuinely doing it through a feeling of panic.

For example. Say you have a child who only eats a limited diet and you worry it could run out. Or (like myself) you have a family member with medical needs and you worry certain s items they need daily may run out. Or you have a job that you HAVE to drive to and need petrol.

So if you are panicked that these things could be unavailable then it's only natural to want to get as much as you can. And even though that feels immoral the anxiety can override that. So I can appreciate that it's the wrong thing for people to do - but my blame isn't with the panic buyers, it's with the media causing the panic.

Conversely you get people who take everything available just because they can even though they'd be ok without and aren't panicking. Those individuals I feel differently about.

It’s really not hard to not join in the panic buying unless you’re thick as mince.

But I think therein lies the answer.

Media as if it had not been reported that a handful of petrol stations had fuel supply issues re drivers all this panic would not have started.

Sometimes less information is more

TWATTS in power and Brexshit

I believe it was started by the overstocked fuel companies. Who isn't using less fuel with more WFH than 2 years ago prePandemic??

Media & their scare mongering stories!

@Limejuiceandrum

It’s really not hard to not join in the panic buying unless you’re thick as mince.

But I think therein lies the answer.

What’s the point of being clever and having no fuel to run your car for days. A proportion of humanity if thick, like really stupid. If natural selection was real, their gene pool would not exist. Because of these people, the rational ones have to join in, because the smartest rational ones will always suffer from shortages the most because they are restrained. That’s how panic buying works, omit one person has to do it, everyone does.