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?

We prepped because our government told us to two years ago.

I'm referring to the preppers who hoard piles of dried good on a garage or under a bed in case of the zombie apocalypse.

What do you mean?!

You don't have a zombie apocalypse plan?!

We had a joke about this the other week in the pub. Turned out everyone but 1 out of 10 of us had thought about it.

We had a really good discussion on how you'd go about surviving and what you would need in your disaster box.

If you have not got a Zombie Apocalypse plan you are a failed human being.

Exactly Kitten and happy to help others who were gracious when we could because we weren't called scum.

But seriously, I personally think the most selfish people on the planet are those that drive around in cars and jump of aeroplanes willy nilly, like they haven't even seen Antarctica, the Amazon and Australia on fire.

People who don't have a zombie apocalypse plan need to get out more

I just think that if there were a time where people in the world need to come together 5o help each other that preppers are the ones who will happily eat their beans whilst they watch the rest of the world struggle. Now, of course they let their anxiety lead to their hoarding and I think that behaviour should not be encouraged but it's quite sad to see humanity would be so selfish

Preppers hoard insane amounts of cans, frozen food and toilet roll.

A month or two is typical British stockpiling and is not "insane". The Govt is talking about telling the over 70s/75s to self-isolate for four months. If you are over 75 and all your kids have moved away or you didn't have kids, who will do your shopping for you? Suddenly those rare people who stockpiled six months stuff don't seem so stupid.

To constantly be worried about

I'm not worried. The point of prepping is to recognise potential disruptions to your daily life, realise that the Govt and the retail industry cannot or will not provide what you need during those disruptions, prepare to meet your needs during those disruptions yourself (hence the word "prep"), and be confident that you can handle whatever life throws at you because of your preparations.

getting a flu,

When you live on your own and work full-time, illness that prevents a shopping trip can have knock-on effects for the whole week. It doesn't have to be a long illness: a weekend migraine means I'm living off my stockpile for the next week because I wasn't able to go shopping.

being snowed in,

My mum lives somewhere where flooding and heavy snow are routine winter events, and yes they do stop her from going shopping. She gets regular power cuts and her preparedness includes fallback lighting, heating, and cooking arrangements. This isn't "insane" or "anxiety", this is anticipating disruptions to her travel abilities and electrical supply.

or any natural disaster is anxiety.

And yet here we are facing a natural disaster called "pandemic SARS-CoV-2 infection", aka "covid-19". It's not "anxiety" when the thing you are preparing for can actually happen.

The prepping for brexit was ridiculous

And yet the Brexit preppers are not the ones emptying the shelves right now...

The elites/leaders/armed forces/celebs have also been prepping for a long time. Many of them have bunkers with enough supplies to last decades. They don't call it prepping though, to them it's 'forward purchasing'.

I intend to help people with my supplies. I've already told my nearest and dearest that I will.

But is it so selfish or crazy to buy two weeks worth of food when governments around the world are telling anyone with even minor symptoms to self isolate for 14 days?

Wouldn't it be more selfish to be unprepared and then find yourself forced to go out when you might have the virus?

I wouldn't consider myself a "prepper" but I live rurally so have fully stocked larder at this time of year to save dragging Tesco order up the drive on a sledge every time it snows. I did pop to the local coop this morning and they have a sign up limiting bread to one loaf per customer so I decided to leave it and just grab a loaf out the freezer. Really must stock up on wine if the schools shut as I suspect a glass of an evening will feel like a necessity.

People who don't have a zombie apocalypse plan need to get out more

About that...

And next week I will do the same

And if you are told to self-isolate, will you go out then? Having two weeks of stuff in so that you could self-isolate tomorrow without any one needing to shop for you is a very wise idea right now.

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.

That was me, with a fishing rod. Sorry. Stress increases my need for chocolate.

Mumsnetters are fantastic. Everyone is only buying what they normally do because only here on mumsnet does a whole chicken feed a family of 6 for a week!

Jeez, one extra bag of rice is also not prepping.

Bloody hell its like pulling teeth!
One or two extra items a week over months and putting it away is prepping

I am prepared for empty shops and possible self isolation. I dont have to fight over pasta or beans

If i needed something out my cupboard i used it and replaced it next shop. Its really Not difficult to have a small store of essentials for any emergency. Its an on going thing. I dont need to.go out and spend £300 next week on bulk buying like many of the people i have served this past week!

Right I only need to buy perishables as and when i need them, snacks for kids and the odd treat.
Therefore i am not contributing to the empty shelves because i am not out grabbing anything i can off the shelves!

I consider a zombie apocalypse plan very sensible it has it's uses - like now. Could have been for anything really - flood, snow, brexit, personal hardship. Anyway, it's come in v handy now - I'm not scrabbling around for loo rolls. And f that sounds smug, I don't mean it to, it's just a response to being called "scum" on this thread. Preppers didn't empty the shelves int he past week... because we'd already prepped.

If anything, preppers have actually made more available to the panic buyers by giving retailers the impression that demand was higher and they needed to buy more stock than they need to, since preppers tend to buy a little each week in the months leading up to an event like this. If preppers didn't do that, then the shelves would have been even more empty.

Have you tried smaller shops?

By the way, calling people scum doesn't get goodwill from other people. It just shows that you were gutted that you didn't see this coming. That's fine, but if you want people to be generous, it might be a good idea to start by not calling them scum. Just a thought...

I just think that if there were a time where people in the world need to come together 5o help each other that preppers are the ones who will happily eat their beans whilst they watch the rest of the world struggle

Where is your evidence for this? I’m pumping extra breast milk for a baby down the road who can’t have access to their specific formula - and adapting my diet too.

Everyone who is involved in setting up our local mutual aid group is a prepper. We are dropping off food, directing where it should go in the safest way, sharing our soap, working on a FSM fund, dishing out dishwasher tablets but you go ahead and rant your absolute bollocks. Did a prepper hurt you? Did my supply of razors from the 2017 special offer some how hurt you!l?

As it goes, someone joked with me earlier that it would be a really good laugh for him and all his mates to dress up as zombies and go for a self isolated walk around town since they were being advised against other forms of entertainment.

I did tell him that it wasn't perhaps his greatest idea.

RTB. I'm surprised it's not been done already tbh...

My son has been really disappointed with the apocalypse so far. He was hoping for more zombies.

BanKitten, for pumping for that baby. And .

I’m pumping extra breast milk for a baby down the road who can’t have access to their specific formula

That seems quite weird and risky of a "favour" at a time like this.... But go ahead and virtue signal so all the Internet strangers can fawn over you.

Nope not been hurt just think the "sneery better than you attitude" is immature and not helpful at a time like this.

SE London here. Lots of choice of supermarkets (local, medium and large formats), lots of independent food shops. I've had no problems at all buying everything we need (we already had hand gel in, but are relying on handwashing as better practice) and we're not stocking up. But we have masses of choice of suppliers and I can drive from place to place if needed. Also, my household doesn't need stuff like nappies, tampons, formula - things get tricky very quickly if you run out of these! So I don't blame people for buying extra, but hope that things settle down.