People panicking because of snow

[Cuffi]

When snow is forecasted in the weather, people go mad, panic buy.

If you are planning to stay at home regardless of the weather, you are not going to eat more as it’s snowing! Maybe 2-4 extra cups of tea or coffee? It doesn’t warrant the need to clear the shelves of tinned soups and UHT milk!

Besides where I live the snow would be melted by mid Sunday and temps are going up to 9c.

These people need to look at themselves as they look soft

I do have to go to work actually. Please don't make silly assumptions about choice. Sometimes, however, there is no choice as there is no way to travel.

So if you do have to go to work whatever the weather you understand it is possible

This gives me flashbacks to when we had that really bad winter, I think it was 2010.

I was about 23. I slipped in the icy car park behind my work’s office wearing a skirt suit, bare legs and high heels (it was a different era 😂) and could not get back up. Every time I tried to stand, I fell back down hard. I eventually had to crawl across the ice in the most undignified manner to the feet of a bloke I really fancied (and had kissed at the previous work night out) to be dragged back up. 😳

Oh dear.

.

We need to start to clear a relatives house today, it's an hour and a half away.
Coordinating with other people who need to be there has been a pain. And we also need to leave someone at the house to keep it heated to prevent pipes freezing (there is no central heating).

Snow is forecast from 7pm there and 9pm back home. We're definitely going and will aim to be back home by 6.

It depends what your normal habits are, surely? We're usually out the house all day at the weekend so have lunch and sometimes dinner while we're out. So staying home for the weekend does mean we'd need to get extra food in.

And we live semi-rural and get our online shop on a Sunday, so it's logical to pick up a few essentials in case the delivery gets held up.

We had heavy snow in December '23 and neither DH or get our cars off the road for three days. There were certainly no food deliveries and getting to the supermarket was pretty challenging as the pavements were like ice.

I'm not sure it counts as "panic buying" to make sure you have food in the house.

I should hope you are it would be ridiculous to cancel plans on the off chance there might be a little bit of snow in 12 hours time

I’m not sure anyone’s panicking. They’re simply stocking up to avoid unnecessary travel.

It depends where people live and on their situation.

I live in a city and independent shops are open and well stocked every day of the year, even in lockdowns. I’m also fit and have good boots to walk in snow and ice.

But lots of people live in areas where the pavements and roads can become treacherous. Or they’re at greater risk of a fall or traffic accident. For example, my mum would be very stressed driving in snow/ice and she wouldn’t be able to walk in it.

In more remote areas, local shops run out of certain items as supply chain/deliveries are affected. Not everyone has a freezer (my current rental doesn’t have one) or the space/money to have a large stock of food in the cupboard. Many people live hand to mouth.

The news provides information. How people choose to interpret that information is their own personal choice. I have watched the BBC news, I am neither anxious about it, nor have I suddenly morphed into a panic buyer.

People are responsible for their own actions, behaviour and beliefs. Facts are facts - how someone chooses to respond to them is their own choice.

Milk is 100% an essential. Can't drink tea without it unless you are some kind of heathen

Unless you drink Earl Grey tea.

It's not necessarily panic-buying.

Normally you will have people buying bread and milk from the shops every day. Different people on different days.

If snow is forecast for Saturday and Sunday, and the advice is to avoid travel, then the people who would be buying bread and milk on Saturday and Sunday, because that's when they'd run out, will instead sensibly bring forward their purchase to Friday. That roughly triples sales of bread and milk on Friday.

That can easily look like panic-buying, but it's not. It's just people sensibly making a minor adjustment to the timing of their food purchases to avoid unnecessary travel when there is snow. Exactly as advised.

People should stop being daft and not throw around accusations of panic-buying. Most people are taking sensible, modest precautions.

Re the roads. I live in a rural areal, they only grit main A roads so there is a mile of ungritted single track road with a very steep hill before I could get there.
The nearest town where my family member lives is 8 miles away and they don't grit any payments, side streets ir residential areas. So if it is icey it is far safer to not go out unless you need to.
And of course grit doenst work on snow anyway!

Well of course. But if the news didn’t make such a massive fuss of it- “threat to life” was mentioned on the report, then people would be less likely to panic.

Likewise! I only have one left from last year and I was about to eat it but now I think I will hold onto it as for emergency use.

In other news, I will not be going to farm foods as the roads started to thaw a bit. Then the water refroze. Now it's a total sheet of ice from the door right down the street and pavements. No a single person is out in door and only two cars drove by. I think everyone is staying in safe. Quite right. I don't want a broken hip at my age.

Yes, everyone should have long life milk in their cupboards and you can freeze bread.

Elderly people should not go out in the snow but they always do and end up breaking bones.

Creme eggs aren’t what they used to be 😩

All the information I’ve gathered from this thread is that the shops are already selling creme eggs.

@IMustDoMoreExercise I probably couldn't fit much bread in my freezer.
What I meant (and no one seems to get) is bread and milk are items I really could survive without if I didn't have any.
I barely drink milk. My husband puts it in coffee but he also uses those sachets that don't need milk. Same with hot chocolate.
Bread - as much as I like sandwiches and eating things on toast - if I didn't have any bread I would survive. I would just eat something else.
To me priorities should be tinned foods and things like pasta, noodles, rice etc.

I asked DH to grab bread and milk today because we've just come back from holiday and have no bread and only a pint of milk which was in the freezer. It means I can have tea and toast for breakfast. They may not be essentials in your house but they're staples in our house (no DC and no snow forecast here).

@CharlotteStreetW1 but if you couldn't have tea and toast you'd survive wouldn't you?
I was trying to be tongue in cheek with my original comment and making a joke about people who go to the supermarket and start wailing because there's "no milk and bread.... what am I going to doooooo" like their lives actually depends on it.
(medical reasons like Arfid obviously would be different)

True. Even milk can't make Earl Grey palatable 🤣

Exciting update! Got to Aldi at 9.30, shelves full to bursting, milk and bread as far as the eye can see and barely anyone there! Result.