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.

The media and people panicking, but not wanting to take responsibility for their actions so it's always somebody else's fault.

@sst1234
The point is the majority of the population isn’t particularly clever, rational, articulate.

Even ones who don’t think they’re stupid, become stupid with things like this.

So it’s just a vicious circle of stupidity.

Everyone but me.

It is the fault of the media and anyone witless enough to fall for their horseshit.

According to local FB group its every single person filling up. Except the person posting.

Like in March 2020. Local woman at Sainsbury's at 9.40 on a Sunday 20 minutes before they open posting pics of the queues. "Look at this queue. So selfish. I'm crying here as I have to feed my kids, my gran, my disabled neighbour. I'm a doctor and care worker in a home and I only live from pay check to pay check and I dont drive and I have to do my hgv shift tonight or sainsbury's wont be re stocked. I'm am worthy but everyone else is a selfish selfish fucker as no one else alive is a dr, nurse, carer, supply chain, front line staff, teacher, police etc"

In the queue extra early but the irony is lost on them. They are the special one. The only one there with a valid reason.

Or my neighbour posting how he is enraged as his wife is disabled. Leave the poor woman at home then and go shopping without her!

So I conclude its narcissistic people who post on FB while the rest of the frontline staff, carers etc just silently get on the best they can.

Jokeung aside we need to be less knee jerk as a population and more resilient and forward planning

The media does nothing but scaremonger. Absolutely everything that happens gets blown out of proportion and they are making people so anxious.

It’s fake news. There is no shortage. Therefore media is to blame.

@IncessantNameChanger

According to local FB group its every single person filling up. Except the person posting.

Like in March 2020. Local woman at Sainsbury's at 9.40 on a Sunday 20 minutes before they open posting pics of the queues. "Look at this queue. So selfish. I'm crying here as I have to feed my kids, my gran, my disabled neighbour. I'm a doctor and care worker in a home and I only live from pay check to pay check and I dont drive and I have to do my hgv shift tonight or sainsbury's wont be re stocked. I'm am worthy but everyone else is a selfish selfish fucker as no one else alive is a dr, nurse, carer, supply chain, front line staff, teacher, police etc"

In the queue extra early but the irony is lost on them. They are the special one. The only one there with a valid reason.

Or my neighbour posting how he is enraged as his wife is disabled. Leave the poor woman at home then and go shopping without her!

So I conclude its narcissistic people who post on FB while the rest of the frontline staff, carers etc just silently get on the best they can.

Jokeung aside we need to be less knee jerk as a population and more resilient and forward planning

quite agree!

My DH lives in the Netherlands. He reads the British press and chuckles. He can see it all. Everything is blown up - because it creates clicks and sells papers.

Government. But media are a convenient scapegoat for people who vote Tory

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

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.

I just posted that locally. Immediately I was told that I didn't understand and that the shortages are real!

A very angry man told me I was an idiot, in a very long, angry, rude post. Apparently I don't understand the issues.

Another man, number 2, told angry man number 1 exactly the same as I had posted and angry man number 1 agreed with him, tagging me to show me what the real issues are.

Man number 2 told angry man number 1 just how fucking stupid he was as he had literally just reposted what I had said.

Meanwhile fuel rationing is being discussed in an attempt to keep everyone moving until the next scheduled deliveries are made!

The panic buyers pure and simple. It is ridiculous to try and blame other people for one's own behaviour.

@aquashiv

Everyone but me.

Yes! This 1000%

I must admit that I'm normally bumbling along with just fumes in my car. Live in a rural village. Three kids with disabilities. Not a care in world about my fumes running out. Luckily by pure chance I filled up on Monday as I was into my 30th mile on fumes.

If I hadn't I could have posted on FB

" I only fill my car up when I'm when my petrol light had flashed for two days ( true). Now there is a petrol shortage. I am so angry and fuming and crying as I didnt think until I was on fumes to fill up with my disabled kids living five miles from town. It's all YOUR fault you selfish, selfish people!"

Except I would be thinking what a idiot I am especially as I have broken down with no fuel before. I would also be kicking myself as no one, no one alive can prevent my recklessness except me.

Anyway it's never my fault. I'm worthy and superior and I cant see in my situation where I have gone wrong.

I dont hold any power to control my destiny. It's all your fault.

Ideally they'd set a minimum fill up amount of £25

If your can't fit £25s worth in your tank, you don't need to get petrol today

Thing is no petrol station is going to turn away paying customers who will then just go somewhere else.

I blame this incompetent government

The people who stirred up people to vote for Brexit. And the hard-line Brexit MPs who pushed May into setting out her red lines including no customs union and no single market. And the current appaling government who went and implemented it, knowing it would cause this sort of thing. And the companies who haven't looked after staff properly and given them decent working conditions and the public who want stuff delivered but don't appreciate that it means there need to be decent facilities for the people driving that stuff.

Government

@DrManhattan

Government

As much as I dislike the government and think that this current regime is especially incompetent, I can not see how I is the government's fault that some people are being idiots.

The media. I’ve seen so many fear-mongering irresponsible articles. Even the BBC are at it now.

@MatildaIThink
When this government say not to do something automatically people do it because they don't trust them.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because Boris said it wouldn't

I think largly the media for makong something out of nothing with this story, but people have now made it a self fulfilling prophecy. Media said there was a fuel shortage when there wasn't, people panicked and made a fuel shortage. The public need to stop looking for someone to blame all the time and take some responsibility.

Totally agree it’s the media. Otherwise I’d have had no clue that there were problems.

You should have seen the queue at Sainsbury’s petrol station yesterday, ridiculous. (I was at b and q).

I later went to Asda for my food shopping. Their forecourt was shut as presumably they’d run out or the queue was into the main road and therefore dangerous. I passed shell and it was shut too.

If the media had kept its trap shut this issue would not have arisen.

I have a quarter tank and and am due to top up my usual £20 but I’m not desperate. As pp said if they don’t limit what we are allowed to spen in fuel/number of litres then it will be a few people with all the fuel and rural nurses unable to get to shift work etc, just like when all the food was being massed by fuckwits stocking up a whole lot that subsequently got uneaten and wasted while others went hungry.

We have not learned. Sad that a society who has gone to the moon and so on can’t even learn to share its ‘toys’ like a small child should. Pathetic.

The fuel issues are down to people. There were no fuel shortages. That's a man-made problem.

Def media, even the Language trying to say not to panic is poorly chosen, for example in the bbc news a person talking on the subject who was apparently telling people not to panic could not have said the word panic more times if she tried.

Rather than saying "people need to relax and calm down following the scare stories in the press, the supply chain is fine, the stories relate to isolated issues which are being managed appropriately, if everyone buys normally then we anticipate no disruption.

We had " people should not PANIC, because people PANIC there are queues, blah blah blah PANIC, blah blah blah you should not PANIC, blah blah PANIC" etc

Language can really make a difference to what people hear.

It may be down to people but I would say the majority are not selfish or stupid but rather just trying to be sensible. Examples I know of; one friend who had a 2 hour trip planned for today that was arranged months ago. With less than 1/4 in her tank she attempted to fill up yesterday unsuccessfully. She's now cancelled as there's no guarantee she could fill up alon the route and could end up stranded. People who travel to work Monday and would normally fill up on a Monday will now be scrabbling to fill up over the weekend or risk not getting to work. Each person normally has their own valid reason for wanting petrol. It's too convenient for leaders and large corporations to blame the people.