To think we are being lined up for something?

[BeverForget]

I work in food supply chain.
Four of the 'big' grocery retailers have just asked to renegotiate at least four weeks min supply, as opposed to two.
This happened in Feb 2020 as well.
Lots of rhetoric about being on a war footing, from politicos.
And then Sunak essentially jumping ship yesterday, as though he knows there is a crisis on the horizon that he wants no part of.
There is no way that the Tories have a prayer in a July election.
So what do they know that they aren't telling us?

It's zombies obviously.

To be honest i'd rather have zombies than another stupid bloody lock down.

As long as they're slow ones.

Me and DH have kept a stock of items since we got snowed in for a week just over 40 years ago.

We were living in Kent but not in a remote part but Rainham on a new housing estate.

We have lots of tinned food, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, various beans. We also have plenty of frozen veg, fruit, milk, bread and meals we have made. Also toilet roll, shower gel, shampoo etc.

When we went into lockdown we had no need to go shopping and didn't for over 2 months.

There could be any reason why someone could not get to the shops like floods, snow, illness, broken leg etc. Also with things like flooding they couldn't get food delivered either.

I don't understand either why so many people don't have any stocks whatsoever

Space to store it? Funds to buy it? Really? You can't think of any reason why someone living hand to mouth in a bedsit or small flat wouldn't stockpile? 🙄

Can't people just rinse some squash or Coke bottles and fill them from the tap if they want to store water or get a cheap reusable camping container

I’m actually thinking about WTH are we supposed to do about the vegetable crisis in autumn. No one seems to be talking about it though. The crops have all been fucked and there will be nothing OR what there is will be super expensive

this is exactly my feeling. They will use whatever tactics they want, however unfair or sneaky, to attempt to retain power.
Sunaks speech, and rumblings beforehand, are all about defence and war footing. Its exactly designed to scare people into supporting a party thats concentrating on defence spending

It makes sense for some people in rural areas with a lot of storage space.

But if you live in a small flat in the city it's hard to keep a big stockpile of food that you're unlikely to eat.

We don't really eat tinned food and we wouldn't freeze copious amounts of milk etc because it wouldn't fit in our freezer.

If we'd stocked up for lockdown we'd be chucking it all out now.

We live in an urban area and through lockdown we never struggled to get what we needed. It's just not necessary to panic buy a big stash of stuff where we live.

@MsCheeryble, I very much agree. The pandemic made lots of people feel unimportant in comparison to health workers and scientists, so they are making up lie to slander those people.

Worldwide:
Wars. Ukraine and other hot spots.
Poor weather affecting food supply.
Disease: bird flu jumping across to humans, constant threat of plagues like Ebola (someone told me a rumour it was in Paris)
Volcanic activity in Iceland and Italy with YouTubers talking about supervolcano.

Uk
Re wilding and house building on farmland in the UK putting more pressure on water (supply and sewers), the electric grid and the public services like doctors dentists school roads etc

The electric grid pressure is real. We've had mini power cuts for a year and a half. We have micro generators around the area causing noise nuisance in a serious way. And yet they're building more houses.

1.4m people came over on a visa last year. Any house building labour do won't even touch the sides of this figure. And all the time extra pressure on the systems that keep this a good place to live.

Thursday is payday for a lot of people, and traditionally shopping day. If you normallt do your shop on a different day or even time, you will see a difference. It's also bank holiday weekend, which always makes a difference.

Anything that’s in the news until election needs to be viewed with a very sceptical eye to put it mildly.
It’s going to be pretty much knives out spouting all sorts of crap to get elected.

There seems to be genuine real concern about something, what that is exactly remains to be seen (or hopefully not). The prepare website announcement the other day came out of the blue, was it scaremongering before the election news, is it Russia, Brexit supply chaos, the weird behaviour from the sun?

So many possibilities and yet it could also be nothing more than simply being prepared just in case. But the change in supermarkets procedure the OP talks about suggests it’s more real rather than simply increasing resilience.

My guess is either a potential threat of Russian retaliation on British soil or social unrest over the summer with protests getting out of hand.

Rishi defo wants summer holidays off. No skin off his nose.
Rest of it frankly who cares? There was a well rehearsed for a pandemic that they didn't use.

Everyone has some space somewhere. Top of wardrobe, loft, behind sofa etc etc etc.

Also if you buy 1 extra item when you shop it doesn't cost much. You can get a bag of pasta for under £1.

In fairness it does kind of work that way. Why wouldn't it? If the government knows something big is coming they prepare for it, it would be irresponsible not to.

The problem is when people then start seeing "preparations" everywhere!

I agree with the above poster, they probably want the summer off. But isn't it funny how we all accept that there is a reason, and it's a reason they're not being transparent about, and it's a reason that's self interested? Not one of us think it's in summer for the good of the country, we accept it's tactical in some way.

It’s because people are mind blowingly stupid. The supermarkets have massive amounts of data, they know when problems arise and can trade trends back against elections etc. We also know that around election times people start coming up with stupid conspiracy theories and talking about us being “lined up for something” online, which causes people to go out and stockpile. It’s pretty basic really.

If you had read my post you will have seen that we lived in a built up urban area but got snowed in for a week! Floods, snow etc can happen anywhere not just rural areas.

We live fairly rurally now but previously have always live in urban areas (London for over 20 years) and always had a stock of food and other items.

We probably would not have struggled to get what we needed in lockdown but, as I said, we did not need to go out at all. No queueing for shops, no looking at empty shelves, no joining the panicked buyers.

Also having a decent stock of items is NOT panic buying

I work in retail and there's strikes in distribution that are impacting our deliveries so to bypass this they are sending bigger orders out. I don't know if it will affect all supermarkets though but it's been a nightmare this week for us.

😐I was just explaining why it doesn't work for everyone because you said you don't understand why some people don't do it. It doesn't work for us for the reasons I outlined, so we don't do it.

@spuddy4 so encouraging people to use their homes as warehousing?

I'd also think that a bit of casual stockpiling is good for the economy.

I'm more worried (not very worried really just aware) of med shortages. I was in local pharmacy and both people in front of me couldn't get their prescription med. One was clearly on their second attempt and the pharmacist said they can't even order the item at the moment - no idea what it was. Lots of spaces on the shelves. I was trying to get GSs favourite dandruff shampoo (he gets terrible dandruff and nitrozil is the only thing that seems to work) and the assistant said they haven't been able to get it for a couple of months. We can live without dandruff shampoo but it does upset GS when he looks like he's been in a snow storm but why all the shortages?

I know there has been talk of HRT shortages for ages.

When you put it like this, OP, I start thinking.
😐
I don't think you are paranoid, that's unnecessarily harsh.
Years ago I would move back to Prague, where I was born. However, it now belongs to Ukrainians.
Furthermore, one of my abusive parents is still alive and I simply don't want to spend my time around them.
Grim, I know.
Are we fucked, as a PP said?
Me thinks yes, here or there.
😁

Could well be right although it was 10 in the morning so would these people not mostly still be at work. Someone else suggested the bank holiday weekend which could be having an impact and another suggestion was there are distribution problems with supermarkets at the moment. So lots of reasons why it is probably nothing. Still I can't lie - I did stick a couple of extra tins of tuna in my trolley!

EVERYBODY! GO OUT AND BUY LOO ROLL!!

BOG OFF 😂