To think the recent government advice has resulted in some serious stockpiling rather than for three days?

[Newmeagain]

I was just doing my online shop last night. So many items like bottled water and long life milk were out of stock.

Quite clearly many people are taking the advice seriously. But to be honest, three days’ worth of food is really very little - most people would have that at home, even if it may not be their preferred food. So I think people are responding to this by buying supplies for a lot more than three days.

Full disclosure - I have done this myself. Not buying silly amounts but just a few more cans than usual. I don’t even know why!

Not here it hasn't.

Are you trying to cause panic buying? There's been a steady drip drip drip of threads on here saying similar stuff about people over prepping.

I've not seen anyone in real life panicking like that, just on here

I haven’t bought anything extra yet, although being a mostly veggie house, we have so many tins of various beans, baked beans, rice etc, we would be ok for 3 days on a v basic diet anyway, but I’m seeing it everywhere now. Is it scaremongering? Are we actually at risk of a real attack, or online attacks?

I don’t like the idea of buying loads of bottled water now for something in 6 months, that’s just water sitting in plastic for ages.

I suppose a lot of people like us would never ever buy bottled water or long life milk. Even if not stockpiling, if a lot of people suddenly just add a six pack of water and a couple of litres of long life, that might lead to stock shortages in the short term?

Most people realise that three days is a minimum. Most people realise that going much further than this is unrealistic. Many people are going a bit further than three days as is reasonable for them in their circumstances. The time to start doing this was months ago when you could do it bit by bit but today is as good as anytime to start.
A buffer of three days is perfectly acceptable and stops you being the problem if the authorities need to focus on people who genuinely need help in a tricky situation.

I looked for a radio torch on Amazon last night and they’re also all out of stock.

We always have a fair few tins and jars in and my freezers are usually fairly full and as a family we buy large packets of rice and pasta and keep toiletries and cleaning stuff in stock. I think I’d have enough for about 2 weeks in general as would most of my friends but I went to Tesco last night and there was hardly any bottled water and things like tinned vegetables and beans etc looked a bit depleted on the shelves. I think some people are taking this to the extreme as I saw one woman’s trolley like Covid times, literally full of pasta but the cheaper pasta was nearly all gone and people were getting the Tesco finest stuff!

It’s ridiculous!
We buy long life milk as that’s what we drink normally (we are not from the UK) and of course now it’s out of stock.
Same for a few other things I normally buy and wanted to add to my weekly shop.
I really don’t get why the govt had to do such an announcement instead of softly encouraging people to plan.

No, but I have a little emergency stash anyway because I’ve always been quite an organised person. I’d not appreciated just now just-in-time people have become absolutely EVERYTHING - sounds like loads have needed the reminder that sometimes things don’t run smoothly!

No, not at all! I just find it interesting how we respond to this kind of advice.

in my case, for example, I never buy bottled water, unless I feel like having some sparkling water. But I suddenly thought that maybe it’s not a bad idea to have some in case there is some water outage or something and no bottled water available in shops.

What would you have in mind? The advice to have some supplies in isn't new.

I got some water over the past month or so. One packet a week.

Snowed in with power - no problem

Without power - then we drag camping stove out I guess.

Because without power what good is a freezer full of food? or dried pasta?

(I know some people have solar and wood stoves but even they have limits)

We have a garden fire you could theoretically cook on but not if it’s raining and strong winds would be difficult.

So the only thing that might help for us as far as I can tell is a bit of water in bottles, which we hate because we have filtered tap water to fridge. Which is fine, no plastic.

And if water is contaminated- but functional - you could still use the loo.

I think people think it will be like a mini-winter lockdown, with full power just can’t go out. Or total cut off with wind-up radios because batteries stop working?

Might get a hand grinder for coffee beans unless we can grind in mortar (no power so not much else to do) I will check!

We never buy bottled water but I now have some and then we discovered that our camping torch has gone awol so bought a new one.
Not going crazy just finally checking what we have

You can buy empty containers and fill with tap, just date when you fill.

If I had to make my tea with long life milk I think I'd rather welcome Armageddon.

I don't understand why in this country we love to be so judgy about how other people interpret instructions. Reminds me of lockdown. Or Grenfell. If the government advice is to buy emergency supplies and people are doing that, great. Bloody hell.

Mind you I saw an old couple in Sainsbury's yesterday stocking up on tins and packets etc and it reminded me of When the Wind Blows and did shit me up a bit if I'm honest.

Is there a psychological aspect that people feel things are out of control, climate, AI threats, conflict, and panic buying is the only way some think of as doing something?

Loads of people are doing nothing.

And for most (including us hopefully) it is a waste of time and money. Come April I will be feeding the teenagers tinned vegetable soup and tinned peaches much to their displeasure.

I think it’s inevitable. It will all balance out in a few weeks.

Actually the milk which is not traditional long life just not in the fridge (found by plant milks) is ok nowadays.

Mortar fine for coffee beans!

I recall a thread suggesting this and the op got a lot of mockery but I can’t remember which one.

It's just a ruse to get us spending more in the run-up to Christmas

My village had a burst water main last week.

24 hours no water. Four schools closed (one secondary three primary) gp stayed open until ran out of water.

the water company had a bottled water station available 18 hours into a 24 hour water cut.

yes, I’ve stocked up on bottled water (not least because my neighbours tell me this happens quite a lot).

It doesn’t take much to cause temporary shortages in shops though. It doesn’t mean everyone has gone crazy and stockpiled for an apocalypse, but lots of people adding one carton of uht milk or extra toilet roll adds up to quite a lot more per supermarket than expected. Supermarkets operate with a fairly small amount of stock and rely on frequent deliveries. This was all covered on the news during lockdown. It doesn’t take much to cause empty shelves, but they’ll all be restocked within days.

Noone has mentioned stockpiling fuel. Is that happening?

Relax @RaggedRocks it is just a ruse to get you to spend more money.

Stockpiling fuel is dangerous, unless you have a flam-store near your bunker.