AIBU to genuinely not understand why people are stockpiling/ panic buying

[mumof2exhausted]

I am genuinely curious as to why people are doing this. Are people worried that shops are going to run out because of supply issues or is it because people think they may have to self isolate for couple of weeks. I just don’t get the reasoning behind it. Food wise we tend to cook fresh from scratch - a friend who is a consultant at hospital has done some batch cooking and froze for when she does get covid 19 which will happen and she’s feeling unwell and has to self isolate but buying hundreds of toilet rolls. Am genuinely confused.

*now

I have friends who do a monthly online shop, are they stockpiling?

It is sensible to do some prepping for a lock down isolation period. I truly do not get the toilet roll thing though when people filled trollies with nothing else. Pasta well if mum is ill then anyone can boil up pasta, so reasonable. Tins, frozen food, all reasonable they have not run out. At my Asda today the only things missing were pasta and loo roll. One harassed woman was oh no when she saw no pasta she was shopping for an elderly mother I nipped round the corner grabbed a bag of gluten free pasta for her. She was very grateful.

Because Italy has NOT shut all the shops. It has put restrictions in place about how many people can be in a store at the one time & how mug distance to keep between them.

• much, not mug

Italian supermarkets are still open @becausereasons.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/11/coronavirus-update-live-news-uk-health-minister-italy-lockdown-australia-us-china-stock-markets-outbreak-latest-updates?page=with:block-5e6954f48f085f0b8d946c11#block-5e6954f48f085f0b8d946c11

I am going to Tesco tomorrow to see what I can get. Up until today I wasn’t worried but now I am (not literally) shitting myself.
I am potentially imuno-compromised (I say potentially as I am on a immunosuppressant but I haven’t seen an increase in getting general colds so I’m not sure) and 2 EU countries are now on lock down.
The UK is delaying the spread not stopping it which means they think this will continue for a long time.
People are in hospital in serious condition with no pre-existing health conditions because of coronavirus and we have no way of stopping it at the moment. China has seen a reduction of cases (19 new cases today I believe) but they think this is because of the restrictions they have put in place and not because the coronavirus is disappearing.

I’m hoping I am reacting for no reason but as of now, I am scared

Therefore there’s no need to self isolate as you already spread your virus anyway.

You can show symptoms from 2-14 days. That’s why they say to self isolate.

I think that, while there are people buying absurd amounts of particular things, a lot of the shortages are caused by people just buying a little extra. Then, everyone keeps hearing that there are shortages so more people go and buy extra and before you know it there’s nothing left.

@Crabonastick
😂

I’m will not be bulk buying toilet roll anything over than my normal 1 pack when needed. I can wash my arse in the shower if I need

Tesco actually HAVE run out of products here, though.

According to online shopping, there is next to no toilet roll, and scant and obscure brands of pasta/rice. No paracetamol left at all.

So when it does come back in stock, people will feel compelled to buy in case it runs out again

I wasn’t going to until I went shopping and stock was already low. Not sure why some have bought enough pasta for a year though. Got myself plenty of UHT milk as long as I have coffee I’ll be OK. Went out today for elderly neighbours as they are staying behind closed doors as much as possible and the online shopping order had lots of out of stock items.

What about people who cant afford to stockpile? What will they do? People are being selfish. If people hadn't stockpiled there would be enough for everybody. Totally ridiculous. Buy the odd extra here and there yeah but people in my local asda were buying 3 x toilet rolls. One man had 36 tins of soup in his trolley. 36! All the same flavour. He might not even get cv.

I am genuinely at high risk of severe illness or death if I catch COVID19.

I have caring responsibilities to 2 people with disabilities. I also have elderly parents with serious health conditions.

I am more or less shopping as normal now, possibly a bit less. A few weeks ago I made sure I had the basics to cover a period of staying in.

My current prepping is now chiefly learning and updating useful skills like how to do home obs.

Yes

Do people usually have bare cupboards? I think I usually have enough dried, tinned, frozen and batch cooked food to last about a month (without any intent). Meals might not be the greatest by the end, but I only really thought about it when someone made a joke about preppers and DH joked back we're always prepared in case a hoard descends and fancies a three course meal. It's true I'd never be in a situation where a visitor arrived and I couldn't feed them! I'm not a prepper in any way, the hysteria and selfishness irritates me to be honest. I think I might be a feeder though....

I can't understand how you can't understand it!
Have you not seen what's happening in Italy?
Have you not seen the news?
Also as pp said the more empty shelves the more panicked people get.
I've tried to start making sure I get a few things extra and maybe will start being serious about it soon - who wants to go shopping if/when the number of ill people go up?!

Well, if you’re sick or self-isolating for two weeks you can’t go to the shops. Of course you can online shop but there’ll obviously be a hugely increased demand for this as more people self-isolate, so there’ll be more of a wait for a delivery slot- what if you have to start isolating when you have nothing in and then have to wait a few days for a food delivery? Seems crazy not to have enough in to sustain you for a week or so imho.

I can understand why people are doing it. I haven't stockpiled loads of stuff, but I've put a couple of extra things in the trolley when I've been shopping. Aldi today had no pasta, no paracetamol and no baked beans. Loads of toilet roll though.

I was in Tesco yesterday and there's signs on empty shelves "no stock until 30th March".

To be fair, our local Tesco "superstore" is always like this

Because they don't generally have the space for an extra two weeks of provisions at home. Better to get it sorted now in case you need to stay at home.

We’ve bought extra- haven’t gone mad but have bought more than normal. Reasons:

• DS has allergies- I wanted to make sure that we could feed him if we were told to isolate.
• We’ve stocked up on ‘easy’ foods- baked beans, pasta etc- in case DH and I both go down with it and we only have the energy to make quick and easy meals for DS.

Also: I have a friend in Italy. Things are grim there.

I do understand people buying enough food and supplies in case they find themselves having to self isolate. I guess people panic buy when they see empty shelves and slim pickings left so they go on the hunt and over buy.

Stockpiling means you won’t have to go out if there is a lockdown, so you will be spreading/receiving less germs. And getting stuff now means the shops might be back to normal when it really hits, so there will be enough for everyone else. We’ve sent up a What’s App group for our road so we can help each other out ( one family is in isolation though not yet diagnosed, and we have a few housebound people). Communities need to come together to beat this.