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?

The clue's in "imagine"

Preppers are not scum you're just pissed off you haven't bothered and taking it out on other people.
The stock piling is annoying but peepers have been doing it for months so it isn't them.
Tesco's 24hrs are now shutting 10-6 so they can re stock. This will help and shops have now put a lot of limits on food. Slowly but surely the shelves will be full again.

People aren't scum and people aren't panic buying in the main. They are trying to buy enough food for 3 weeks in case they have to self isolate. The supermarkets must be absolutely loving this.

I bought 4 loaves of bread yesterday and the old man next to me tutted.

I have a family of 5, 3 of them teens. 4 loaves of bread will last three days.

Grey err, what?! If you knew anything about preppers you'd know they aren't anxious but sensibly have a long term view to shopping so they can be ready for floods, being snowed in, Noro or the current crisis. And actually as I'm fairly ok it means that instead of shopping for myself I can instead do it for my elderly parents who need stuff and I can do this while being well under and limits imposed by supermarkets. We didn't have a lot growing up so whilst I don't hoard I like to know if the shit hit the fan we'd be ok but probably eat some weird meals for a few weeks. Then we'd cook DH.

I'll admit some tins and freezer foods present a challenge but with some imagination and cooking skills it's not hard. I made walnut pesto last week, bloody lovely.

And to be fair, OP started this thread calling preppers scum so others are just correcting her prep/panic confusion. No one is being smug. But you're having a go. Maybe you should have a cuppa, I can give you a biscuit to dunk if you're short?

@Tonyaster you are part of the problem. You don’t need 4 fucking loaves. Make some, substitute some. You selfish fucking twat.

Maybe if the op wasn't calling people scum it would be a lot less cross MNHQ. Can't you amend the post or ask the op todo it?

@Tonyaster you are part of the problem. You don’t need 4 fucking loaves. Make some, substitute some. You selfish fucking twat.

^^Lord of the Flies^^

This is her normal shop.

We don't want the boards to go all Lord of the Flies just yet if possible.

Yet?

Is it pencilled in for 3 weeks time?

Maybe but these aren’t normal times. We all need to make changes. So instead of buying four loaves buy two and make some/swap for another carb. It is pure greediness, selfishness and narrow mindedness to buy four loaves of bread. We can’t continue to shop and consume the way we were before covid19, we need to adapt and change.

And yes, panic buyers and the “I’m alright jack” are utter scum.

Fresh fruit & veg supply chains will presumably be hit massively by Spain's situation and the fact that the 'sea of plastic' area in southern Spain provides such a high % of Europe's fruit and veg. When I say Europe I am including the UK of course.

I am actually concerned about the food and medicine supply chains (partly because I don't know much about them so can't judge for myself and I don't trust governments to tell the truth right now).

I have been telling a few close friends now for well over a month to start adding little extras to their weekly shops and getting a few bits in. Extra tins/ frozen goods/ few extra bottles of bleach etc.
I always have tins / toilet rolls / basics in reserve as work is busy and I prefer to operate on the view that if a weekly shop doesn’t get done, I can comfortably get by. I’m a definite prepper. I have been doing nothing other than ‘light’ shopping for over a month.

Of my friends, some are single so only have themselves to fend for. Some have up to 4 adult DC so essentially feeding 6 adults. All of them dismissed me as overreacting. That this wouldn’t come to anything and it was scare mongering. And they were happy to continuing to do their daily/ thrice weekly shops to remain stocked up.

They have all now been out this week and done ‘emergency’ shops. The one with 6 adults to feed went to 4 supermarkets to get what they could. So yes, those people are now panic buying. Based on the fact that they may at some point have to self isolate for for 14 days with their families.

My prepping weeks/ months ago did not lead to this situation. Not once did I go into a supermarket after buying an extra pack of loo roll/ can of baked beans and find it empty. Yes I am continuing to shop now. For the fresh things to make fresh vegetable dishes for as long as I can before we strip back and go back to basics. And milk. And yogurt. But my shops are at least 50% to 75% less than they previously would be.

So my prepping is actually alleviating the pressure on the system right now. The fact that I have extra cans of beans that I bought months ago? How is that in anyway wrong?

I will add i have also donated to the food bank and passed a note with my number to the elderly on my road asking me that they call if they need anything. And if that means I give them some baked beans out of my preppers stash, I absolutely in a heartbeat would.

Ok so to clarify my opinions- scum as a blanket term was maybe provoking/ not entirely accurate- apologies. Although still no one has clarified the time difference that separates a prepper from a panic buyer, clearly many people shopping the last two weeks think they are prepping for what’s to come, and it’s a chain reaction stemming from the first person “just adding a bit extra”.
So imo- and it is only my opinion

If you have prepped weeks/ months ago (because you were fortunate enough to be able to)=bravo

If you have prepped weeks/ months ago and continue to shop for such items despite having an ample supply of your own= you are the problem

If you are panic buying this week= you are the problem

I wish people would recognise they will still be able to shop for food. It may not be 100% business as usual but I’ve yet to see evidence that even in the most locked down countries any one has died from starvation as a result of self isolation. We are creating unnecessary additional problems and hysteria, putting the most vulnerable at risk, and most countries are utterly bemused by our behaviour.

Regardless good luck to all!

OP while I don't agree with your second definition (as has been pointed out the extras I blight months ago in no way affect the stock available now and I still need fresh perishable stuff), good luck to you and yours too x

Op props to you for apologising.

The difference is merely in whether you are considering the impact your shop has on others.

If it's not affecting others or positively helping those who might have more problems that's good. It doesn't matter how you came to that position as long as you consider it.

Fresh fruit & veg supply chains will presumably be hit massively by Spain's situation and the fact that the 'sea of plastic' area in southern Spain provides such a high % of Europe's fruit and veg. When I say Europe I am including the UK of course.

This is what I'm expecting in the medium to long term tbh.

China has had farming problems purely because of numbers of sick / lock down affecting what crops have been planted on time.

I do think it will affect availability of some goods come harvest time and certain things may be more expensive. Particularly things we import.

It will also affect home grown produce and food. Possibly more so given many farmers in the UK tend to be on the older side. And we already have a problem with regards to seasonal labour (which we knew about due to Brexit). If we can't get seasonal labour in the fields because there's no international travel then we could have issues. This might be where students and younger people who have lost jobs in leisure might be able to transfer to.

But yes, I think there are some issues with food supply chains that have some impact yet to come.

The other area is in processed food, again if there is a shortage of labour or problems importing certain ingredients due to travel restrictions.

We already buy locally and our local farmer has said just this morning that they've had a massive peak in extra demand.

It will be interesting to see what happens, but this is your heads up to at least consider and think ahead about the knock on effects to our food supply chain and how this might force changes in what's in our basket and how we shop.

The panic buying is just stage one.

Stage two is more complex and difficult to predict. But do think about it.

I work in a school and we had a convo today about childcare for essential workers. I said anybody working in the food chain - farmers, processors, delivery drivers - should be considered an essential worker. Likewise those producing medicines. And I didn't think at the time, but also power station staff, etc.

I'm hoping that the sudden need for people in those areas may mean those who are in danger of being laid off from other jobs may be able to find temporary work there

I think that longer this country has to rethink its food security. We have all become comfortable with importing food at fairly cheap prices.

Although still no one has clarified the time difference that separates a prepper from a panic buyer

You STILL don't get it! It's not about a 'time difference'.

The thing you are continually misunderstanding about prepping is that a lot of it is a way of living/life. A lot of times, it extends out once you get into it into things like preserving and canning, fermenting, food dehydrating, soap making, crafts like spinning and sewing and knitting, bee-keeping, cheese-making, keeping chooks, making do and mend, etc. And yes, plenty of people who live in flats and all sorts of places do it. It's equally about being as creative as possible with food and resources to limit waste, hence, rocket about to go off, you find a way to use it up (or you can compost it if you have a compost heap, which is the one thing I don't have because my wife says it attracts rats and put her foot down, never mind that the wood pile attracts rats, too, at any rate, I trade stuff for compost from others or donate to their heaps). It extends to barter and sharing information with other like minded people. It's not smug at all. Perhaps we will see a resurgence of such mentality after this, as a lot of it is also better for the environment and if anything, this crisis has shown us that our way of life in general is not sustainable.

I highly recommend the 'Self-Sufficiency' series of books if you're interested and of course, the boards here are a real treasure of information. Why not join in?

But I guess it's just easier to label people who don't live as you do as something negative and pejorative.

I hear there's now a run on alcohol so gave some bottles of my homemade blackberry/bramble wine for my wife to take in to the staff at work today.

Prepping often makes it possible to be able to have more to share with others, too.

I hear there's now a run on alcohol

Shit just got real.

Shit just got real

😀