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?

As others have said, its not the preppers. My dad has prepped for the last two years and just added a couple of extra tins/packets to his weekly shop. Its the panic buyers who are clearing out absolutely everything. Saw a lady with about twently cartons of uht milk in aldi ealrier - really hope she was made to put some back.

Living more rurally we have independent butchers who are well stocked and who will deliver ( always - not just for CV). They stock fruit, veg, eggs and home made ready meals.

I've never seen anything like it in a large SW London sainsburys tonight. No fruit and veg bar a random crate of bananas. No fresh meat. Most cold cooked meats/chicken etc all gone. No biscuits. No laundry powder/tablets of any sort. No bread. Freezer section empty of everything

A few days ago, I posted on another thread in MNnet, that the hoarders would soon give up when their cupboards were bursting with dried goods and toilet rolls , etc;
I was wrong! Today my local shops had no eggs left. Eggs! You cannot hoard or freeze eggs! You must eat them now or soon, or they will go off, and must be disposed of, surely?
I think the UK has gone a bit mad. I am worried how long this will last.
Any opinions?

You can freeze eggs

I’ve got to the stage where I’m seriously wondering if some people are buying weapons.

I have lived in fear of losing my job for years now, it's always been on the line. I made sure I didn't waste money on things I didn't need, but bought things I would. I don't have a good income, I had to go without things to make sure we would be ok long-term. That was sensible. That was making sure I wouldn't have to depend on others. That was looking after my family.

Then the referendum happened and I realised straight away that prices were going to go up and things were going to get difficult. We were told prices would go up. So I made a plan. I have bought hardly anything in the last two weeks - no loo roll, no hand gel, nothing from the current 'essential items list'.

Blame the virus, the authorities, the media, the supermarkets and the panic buyers. Don't blame the people who organised themselves a long time ago so they wouldn't have to take essentials from supermarkets at a time when demand would be high.

Also a prepper. Haven’t needed to buy loo roll, pasta, rice, tinned food, long life milk - I have it all.
I have done a weekly shop. Less than normal. Fresh stuff but no long life Stuff (tins or packets, or cleaning stuff) except a packet of cup-a-soup and one box of cereal.
I did buy one of the last remaining bags of rice but I put it in the food bank. Our food bank are desperate. I didn’t need it because I prepped.
The only thing I couldn’t get was some of the meat we would normally buy. I’ve got some in the freezer but I don’t like to store too much meat. We’ll just manage without.

But you can't just shop "like you normally do". I normally shop most days or every other day for a baskets worth. I now need to be prepared for lockdown. I have bought a weekly shop whereas I wouldn't normally. I probably have enough now for a fortnight if we eat literally everything in the house

You know the reason I've not had to run around 7 supermarkets when they are empty and full of crazy people fighting over milk, is because I pay attention.

I therefore don't need to add to the current supply chain shock I saw coming nor throw insults.

Maybe you should pay more attention to the news.

It's wrong to keep topping up or panic buying. If you need something, buy it - if you don't, leave it for someone who does
this 1000%

Why would people need weapons?

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

also I rejected the idea I was meant to have planned for mental behaviour. Everything would be fine with the food supplies if people shopped as normal!!!

That’s one of the most frightening things amongst all this - we live alongside people whose behaviour in these situations goes off the scale. If you look at their faces in the pictures of the fighting breaking out in stores, they’re zoned out from anything around them, just eyes focused on that 6 pack toilet roll. They behave like feral animals, and it’s worrying that it could all so easily get out of hand. You can’t reason with stupid I’m afraid.

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

Panic buyers. They are NOT the same thing. FFS!

Panic buyers and people who regularly shop without the prepping part . Not hard to understand.

The people who are panicking?

We have enough food for three weeks because I am very high risk and am in social isolation with my partner. The less interaction we have the safer I am, as are others.

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

Maybe the over-70s who have been told they'll have to stay home for 4 months ?

That's a bloody shock for them, so of course some will panic,
especially if they live alone and have no family to buy stuff for them

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

Panic buyers. Preppers have been ready since forever.

It’s the people who only usually buy a week of food at a time and are now trying to get and extra 14 days worth of food in incase they are quarantined that are causing the problems. Not the preppers.

But even that wouldn't account for the totally empty shelves. Freezers are selling out all over the place, people are buying multiple of items to freeze.

Sainsbury's tonight looked worse than last night, but I guess that was in response to the 14 day isolation advice, even all the frozen spinach had gone.

I went to my local Budgen's this afternoon, it's small but excellent for local produce and I wanted bacon and ham from a specific local farmer.
i thought it would be fairly quiet at 2 pm but the car park was rammed and as i walked to the store a group of 5 or so young guys walked out, each one carrying 2x4 packs of loo roll!
(I think they were rationing customers, don't know for sure as i wasn't after any myself)
I have never seen the store so busy, packed with people who didn't know the layout; I heard someone say Tesco in the next town had been stripped bare.
But Budgens had lots of fresh produce, fruit, veg, meat and dairy. I got everything I needed. Plus some Twix bars to get us through the dark times ahead.
(I too have kept my Brexit stash going over the past year. )

Rows and rows of empty shelves in the supermarket I went to at 1.30pm. Absolutely no fruit and veg apart from peppers, spring onions and herbs, no meat or fish, no bread (although some new stuff had just come out the in store bakery), no cereals or teabags.

I feel really anxious about it now. I have a well stocked store cupboard but didn't think people would be panic buying fresh food.

I popped into our very large Waitrose for a few bits and most shelves were empty or nearly so. All the vegetables had gone, all the meat, eggs, most of the milk and all the usual cleaning stuff.

My veg never last that long, a week at most if I am very lucky, there is going to be so much wastage