So now: no meat, no veg, no fruit, no bread....

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Live in London- must be 7 supermarkets within a 10 minute drive of me, I went to 3 today- no meat, no veg, no fruit, no bread- on top of no cleaning products.
What exactly are we supposed to do? I haven’t seen a restocked supermarket in weeks.
FYI I consider all preppers scum!

If your supermarket has stock, Where are you? What time are you turning up to shop?

I think the smaller places might have more stuff. If there’s no car park and people tend to walk or get the bus to it, they’re not going to get a crazy amount of stuff, because it’s hard to get it home without a car. Corner shops, keystores, Spar. Good luck!

@RedToothBrush I'm stuck in isolation wondering if b and q deliver to isolating families thinking me and kids can decorate the house lovely while stuck in so thinking along same lines. Plus kids can learn educational values of decorating while in isolation.

Forgot to say, Norwich area. Ok Saturday, inpatient tested positive in local hospital, buyers went mad on Sunday.
We won't starve, might eat differently, but so what. Things could be worse.

I’m self isolating for 12 weeks as per the new guidelines.
From early last year I have bought a few extra tins or bags (rice, pasta, lentils, couscous) on each weeks shop. I have looked for BOGOF offers on toiletries and cleaning supplies. Special offers on toilet rolls and nappies and wipes. Pick up one packet of paracetamol a week, a bottle of calpol every few weeks. They go in the meds cabinet in date order.
I bought a good few bottles of hand sanatiser when I first got sick in January for infection control.
Once news started coming out about Coronavirus- at least 7 weeks ago I bought a few bottles of UHT milk and long life juice, each week I bought frozen fruit and veg and meat to stock up the freezer.
If the shelves are bare that’s not the fault of people who are organized.
Unscrupulous people have been buying ridiculous amounts of one product. My friend works at Wilkinson’s and had a man trying to buy 40 bottles of dettol spray. Presumably he with either have the cleanest house for the next few years or he is selling them on in a bid to make money.
Everyone will have seen the news story about the 2 men in America who stockpiled 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer. People like that deserve your fury.
Not the people who are genuinely panicking about how they will feed their children, the elderly that have been told they may be in isolation for months.

There are also reasons people don’t prep that aren’t “their fault” and don’t warrant the sneering remarks of people with a garage full of beans and toilet roll: lack of money or space being two very valid reasons!

Very aware of that. That's why prepped to avoid adding to the issue.

If you go around throwing insults do you expect people to go 'oh yes I'm scum for paying enough attention to try and ensure these people aren't adversely affected by me.

If you are getting snarky responses, there's a very good reason for that. It's to do with your tone.

I think the phrase about dishing it out applies here.

So are prepped actually using their supplies or just keeping them topped up? I think hoarding us a hard habit to break.
If you have 50 cans of soup when do you actually use them all? My bet is people open a few, get twitchy and top up again.
It’s a psychological feeling more than being able to eat your stash.

I spent my money in B&Q this week.

If you think it's selfish to go outside (because you might spread the virus) or selfish to go buy toilet roll (because the supermarkets aren't stocking it very fast) then you are very easy to manipulate. The script is written for you and you are playing your part. Helpful idiots.

Well if all you preppers aren’t shopping who is taking EVERYTHING!l?!

You clearly don’t understand the concept of panic buying V prepping. Sit down and have a listen and actually I take it in. Because preppers and panic buyers are the exact bloody opposite.

I buy one to two extra things per week and have done since 2016. In January I bought a little bit extra. I stopped prepping when people started to notice the situation in the news. I stopped prepping then because I knew other people would need stuff. From that point on I only bought fresh food. I haven’t bought the commonly panic-bought food since Feb when the just in time system (do you know what that is?) was fully functioning and everything could be replaced well in time. In fact my extra items were all accounted for by the just in time system because it wasn’t out of the ordinary.

Now I’ve stopped buying fresh food too.
BECAUSE I PREPPED WELL BEFORE ANY PANIC STARTED.

Getting it now?

What I bought in 2016 doesn’t impact you shopping now.
What I bought in 2017 doesn’t impact you shopping now.
What I bought in 2018 doesn’t impact you shopping now.
What I bought in 2019 doesn’t impact you shopping now.
What I bought up until two weeks ago doesn’t impact you now.

Tesco 24 hour shops closing tonight to restock

I find people flitting from shop to shop or returning the next day, buying the same goods because they believe they aren't the ones at fault also partly culpable. It's definitely not going un-noticed by the shop assistants. I think all supermarkets need to be tighter on their 4-5 unit limitations. Bring it down to two. No one should complain about that - a) we are ALL in the same wobbly boat and b) the ones with plenty have plenty enough.

We are not waiting for a giant meteor to strike. There is plenty to go round. A little more consideration all round is all that's needed.

DH is going to call to the supermarket on his way home fom work at 3am. Hopefully the shelves will have been restocked by then! It's only really for pasta, all other bits we can keep popping out for but pasta is nowhere to be found!

I’m a “prepper” in that I shop monthly due to how far we live from the nearest town (over 20 miles from the nearest shop and 75 miles from a shopping center) and I haven’t had to shop at all in March. My shopping habits haven’t changed at all. If anything, I’m buying less. In the past, if I forgot something I’d go back and get it and probably impulse buy a few other things too but right now the less time I can spend in a crowd, the better so if we have forgotten or run out of something we make do. We have plenty of other things.

If preppers were responsible for shortages there’d have been shortages for years. I’ve shopped like this since I moved here.

Pasta is in short supply because Italy is on lockdown, not because people bought pasta in 2016.

Oh come on! Dried pasta isn’t imported from bloody Italy!

There are also reasons people don’t prep that aren’t “their fault” and don’t warrant the sneering remarks of people with a garage full of beans and toilet roll: lack of money or space being two very valid reasons!

Some weeks my preps have cost no more than 20p and I live in a very small house. Very small.

Why are we getting a battering for being responsible citizens?

I’m not a prepper but to say they are scum is awful and misinformed. I don’t think OP understands the difference between prepping and panic buying!

I think when this is all over we will all probably become preppers as we will remember the horror. Just got back from the supermarket and I’m hoping to not have to go for several weeks now. But meat/fruit/veg etc was nonexistent and I’m hoping and praying my Tesco shop arrives at the weekend with all that stuff...

I must confess that I stocked up a few weeks back when the news was coming out of China: I have plenty of loo roll, pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned tuna, baked beans etc. However I do my weekly shop on a Wednesday and right now I have basically no fruit, veg, potatoes, onions, meat, eggs, bread, fresh milk etc. So tomorrow I will be shopping and buying enough that if we suddenly have to go into household isolation we have enough to do us for two weeks. My plan is to go to Sainsburys first and then possibly the local shops if I can't get eggs, flour etc. It will be a bigger shop than usual as it has to do for two weeks. I don't want to have to rely on neighbours to drop bread and milk at my door. I don't think that counts as panic buying really, just sensible planning. If we don't have to go into isolation in the course of the next week then I will buy another load of stuff next week. And so it goes. My kids' school has gone to packed lunches only (kids eat them in their classrooms), and DH and I are now working from home, so I need extra lunch stuff I don't normally buy. So it all adds up. It is truly scary.

Theodoreb they certainly do home delivery. They aren't always the cheapest though. I think there are plenty of places you can get home delivery from. Just leave instructions to knock and drop. A friend said to me at the weekend that there's a few places who are seeing DIY home delivery as a coronavirus business opportunity.

The only caution I stress is if you decide to do DIY whilst isolating, be careful!

DIY is a major cause of trips to A&E. So worth keeping to simpler tasks rather than ones which involve potential to cut your fingers off by accident!

But yes I figured if I'm not able to go out for weeks I should make use of the time I have and be productive instead. For my own sanity of nothing else.

Oh come on! Dried pasta isn’t imported from bloody Italy!

Some is- depends on the make.

Pasta is in short supply because Italy is on lockdown, not because people bought pasta in 2016.

You do realise that the majority of pasta supplied in this country is made in this country, Italy is no way on earth supplying the world with pasta.

So after 10 pages it appears no one is being greedy and is definitely not their fault.

is that why there are no Cornettos?

@RedToothBrush I was thinking mostly of painting and wallpapering the whole house as it hasn't been done since last year so shouldn't be many injuries and will limit the dc to painting while watching me wallpaper.

Obvs @TeaAndDarkToast. I think we're going to run out of Parma ham next

So after 10 pages it appears no one is being greedy and is definitely not their fault.

I've bought a lot of chocolate. If you can't get hold of chocolate that's my fault. I'd say I was hoarding it, but sadly it seems to be disappearing too quickly.