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.

Brexit.

This is not happening anywhere else. It is caused by brexit.
So, everybody and nobody is to blame.

The media

There is plenty of fuel available in the country, there is no shortage. It’s just BP not being able to get it all quickly to 100 of their sites also esso said they had supply chain issues to 200. Both have approx 1209 sits to give some perspective and there are 8500 across the uk

But all others said they have no problems at all, however the media have wiped up a frenzy, and the idiots don’t read the article just see the headlines and off we go

Sorry but the general public are daft. If all the panic buyers just engaged brain for a second to think about how their actions might influence a crisis in supply we wouldn’t be in this mess. The supply chain would continue to operate smoothly if everyone took a measured approach to the situation & just continued their normal purchasing habits.

Panic buying becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s guaranteed to disrupt the supply chain, forcing a deficit of resources. Then there’s not enough to go round & voila, we’ve created the very situation we’re afraid of.

The Govt. are also to blame on a wider scale - it was obvious this was going to happen after Brexit. Now they’re in the rather embarrassing position of having to formalise temporary visas for EU nationals to pick up the work. Oops. But then again the general public did choose Brexit so……..yes the people have chosen this haven’t they. Well done British public. Good move there

@3luckystars

Brexit.

This is not happening anywhere else. It is caused by brexit.
So, everybody and nobody is to blame.

Thanks for the laugh- Brexit!!

There is no fuel shortage, the country has shedloads, it’s coming in as normal

BP and Esso may have issues getting it to 300 forecourts ( out of 8500) but no other companies have issues

However you go ahead and think it’s down to Brexit if it makes you feel better

The media.
Most people who are "panic buying" are doing so because " panic buying " is happening and they're genuinely worried they may not be able to attend to their responsibilities.
I've never bought petrol/ diesel in my life and very rarely actually go in a car, but its not difficult to understand how people's circumstances make them so dependent on car use for their own welfare and others.
Obviously some people are also being arses too.

Everyone! We all play a part in it.
I panicked when I saw other people panic buying and after reading the news, so I'm as bad myself.

Surely it's time to get the army to alleviate the problem in the short term.

@TeenMinusTests

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.

Some people need to commute long distances to work. 1/4 of a tank wouldn't get some people to work and back.

The media, both national and local for using the headlines as click bait. Absolute arseholes. It’s like spreading fake news. Should banned.

I don’t need to have a full tank. Before this all kicked off I had filled my car up earlier in the week. I can afford to do that l. I’m aware that for some people pay day isn’t to the end of the month and they will now struggle. So even if I hadn’t filled my car up (I live dangerous and usually only fill when the car is on the red) I still wouldn’t sit in a queue just in case! I’m aware that there are people that actually need fuel for work etc I actually think of other people.

People who NEED fuel I have no problem with them getting priority and would never use the word selfish for them. The ones doing it just in case grhhh

Sorry but the general public are daft. If all the panic buyers just engaged brain for a second to think about how their actions might influence a crisis in supply we wouldn’t be in this mess. The supply chain would continue to operate smoothly if everyone took a measured approach to the situation & just continued their normal purchasing habits.

Panic buying becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s guaranteed to disrupt the supply chain, forcing a deficit of resources. Then there’s not enough to go round & voila, we’ve created the very situation we’re afraid of.

Yeah, this.

Newspapers and TV report on things that are happening. Your choice how to react.

In any event, all it takes is a few scaremongers on social media to whip up a panic. Who’s generating those messages? Oh yes, the public. I first read about fuel supply problems on here, long before I saw any reports on the BBC news website or in newspaper headlines.

That attitude has come from realising, no other fucker is going to look after you if shit hits the fan. Thats come from the very top in terms of failure to look after the public, not from the public mentality itself.

Absolutely this. And this is why we need to get the current crop of extremists and incompetents out of government as soon as possible. Humans absolutely need to cooperate for survival.

Perfect excuse for behaving selfishly and erratically: “I must look after myself, because nobody else will”.

Were you one of the people cheering and banging pans for the NHS last year? Those warm’n’fuzzy feelings of community were clearly sincere and deeply rooted.

@NantesElephant that's ok if you can afford to. Those financially unable to buy more than one pack of loo rolls or put more than £10 of fuel in their tanks at a time are in a much tougher position than others.

I do resent the implication that anyone that filled up yesterday was an idiot. I did. I less than a quarter left in my tank. I probably would have filled within the next few days but admit that it might not have been yesterday. But I have to get to work on Monday. I have a 45 min commute and work in a hospital. I need to be able to get there and I didn’t want to be one of the people that couldn’t get petrol later in the week.

The fact is was reported on made it a self fulfilling prophecy.

July 2000 the same thing happened. Media kicking everyone up into a frenzy because "all" depots were blocked due to protesters because prices were going up..

Very well known that actually the problem was caused by the media hyping it up at the time causing major issues, in reality I don't think there were that many refineries that were actually blocked; ours only got blocked after the media attention!. I'm very rural people depend on cars. Unless you were an emergency worker you could get nothing, even after it was resolved our area for a few days had nothing at all. It was awful.

@WormYourHonour

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.

^^ this

Media. And the people who are doing it.

I’m in a traffic jam atm (on the bus) because I’ve come up to a roundabout that’s next to the Tesco petrol station. There’s no way all these people desperately need fuel.

All three. It might be cynical of me, but I wouldn't be surprised if the government whipped up this panic alongside the media as they're both backed by wealthy businessmen with investments in oil companies. Fuel prices have gone through the roof and these people are becoming very wealthy off the stupidity of the general public.

@OrangeTortoise

For the people saying they blame the media - what solution do you suggest? Newspapers can write stories about whatever they like. While I definitely agree that media stories have contributed towards the current situation, I would be strongly against any suggestion of media censorship. So how can you avoid this happening?

The government, on the other hand, knew this was coming and could have tried to take steps to avoid it. So I feel that more of the blame must lie there.

The media do have to report but they can report responsibly, so instead of headlines saying "Fuel crisis in the U.K!" they could have accurately represented the situation with "U.K. needs more HGV drivers!"

At the point of printing, one of those would have been true, it wasn't the fuel crisis one, but by using the fuel crisis headline they have created a fuel shortage.

The Media hold a lot of blame, but also people rushing out to fill their tanks.

The logical thing to do would have been for the government to pre empt the situation by limiting fuel transactions to £30 at all petrol stations (unless if is an emergency vehicle, transport, logistics or nhs/care workers) before it got to the media, and then starting a robust public information campaign to encourage people to get as close to empty as possible before refilling., maybe with some union jacks and Blitz spirit shit to appeal to thick people. There would have been plenty of everyone just filled up this amount, instead now we have a situation where people who actually need to drive to keep the country functioning can't get any because its all sitting in peoples cars sitting on driveways.

It isn't surprising though, our government are just incapable of acting in a timely manner.

Also the people filling up Jerry cans are just total cunts.

I just caught a snippet of a speech by Keir Starmer in which he stated there are fuel shortages. Jeez, I despair!

The media!!

The media do have to report but they can report responsibly, so instead of headlines saying "Fuel crisis in the U.K!" they could have accurately represented the situation with "U.K. needs more HGV drivers!"

That’s not the story: ‘more people should drive HGVs!’

The story is, “look at all these suggestible idiots rushing out to buy fuel and joining huge queues. We all know that 50% of them wouldn’t ordinarily have filled up on Friday or Saturday, no matter what they claim”

@sst1234

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.

Said every panic buyer who wanted to justify their actions...