How long will the food madness go on for?

[DoubleAction]

I completely understand that once it became clear that restrictions and isolation are going to be necessary, people felt the need to stock up with enough food for a few weeks. I'm not going to criticise people for that, it's a normal survival instinct.

I did though, think that after the initial "panic", things would return to normal quite quickly.

I usually have a fairly well stocked store cupboard and was ill last week so I haven't been to a supermarket for two weeks. Just picked up a few fresh bits at the convienice store. I was rather optimistically hoping to do my usual weekly shop this week!

I think it's location dependent. My local Waitrose was a picure of calm and had nearly full stock. No loo roll or flour and tins and pasta were a bit depleted but everything else was available.

I thought the elderly weren't meant to be going out, so shouldn't be doing early morning shops after the weekend. Nice of the shops to try and support them - it does only help those that can still drive though
Eh? Supermarkets are giving designated slots to the elderly. Many have to go out. Or how are they going to eat? Why does it only help those who drive? Most people walk to the supermarket or go on the bus.

I was reading the other day that there’s going to be a major shortage of people to pick fruit this summer (the stuff we grow in the UK- eg berries and apples) as 98% of the workers come from outside the UK and most countries are on lockdown. They’re going to go on a recruitment drive for British people that have lost their jobs, but if it doesn’t get picked as usual I guess there will be a shortage. I would be surprised if there weren’t problems with the supply chain elsewhere if more people start to get sick.

I just tried to access my online shopping order, to remind myself what I ordered however long ago it was. Ocado online has closed for the time being.
I don’t even know when my slot time is, as I booked this so long ago now.

This is why they issued ration books overnight in WW2. So they didn't have stockpiling. To make it fair.

People bought double a normal week's groceries last week. This isn't a supply problem, purely demand.

It’s such stupid behaviour!

I don’t think I know anyone in real life who is actually stockpiling.

I am disappointed in Mumsnet and their lack of social responsibility to remove the countless threads about panic buying for a pandemic.

Any thread that causes hysteria should be monitored or removed

Also, a lot of MNers will have started with a well-stocked larder of essentials for cooking from scratch. So they had a lot in to start with. But many people who have been clearing the shelves this week due to forced working from home and the threat of lockdown might not have cooked from scratch much in the past, or they bought small and often on their way home from work.
To survive 2 weeks of self-isolation or lockdown, they now realise they need 8 tins of chopped tomatoes, 4 x bags of pasta, tinned veg, frozen veg, cheeses etc., just to get through 2 weeks.

My Tesco click and collect yesterday was reduced by more than half, and some of the products that had been subbed weren't suitable sadly. I had asked for chicken breasts, beef mince and bacon, didn't get any. I'm also lactose intolerant and they are all out of the alternatives for milk/cheese/butter/yoghurt. No tins of stuff like chickpeas or lentils either. I tried to get normal cheese for DH but none available. No potatoes or carrots or bread. I did get some short dated apples and blueberries and some frozen fruit, some cereal, potato croquets and a couple of fresh pizzas that DH can eat.

We live rurally and I always have flour etc in a jar on the shelf and a spare packet in the cupboard. As a result we do have flour/sugar/pasta, just no meat or dairy. We've got chickens, so we have eggs for now which will help.

I'm 22 weeks pregnant and admittedly likely to be hormonal. I went into Tesco and to another shop after collecting my order and then had a little cry when I got back in the car. How on earth are the elderly going to cope, and people who work unsocial hours and can't get to the shops until they are bare?

I haven't been able to buy toilet paper, pasta, rice, flour or hand sanitiser for about 2 weeks now. I didn't buy any in the 2 weeks before that because there seemed to be a rush, and I just thought I would wait it out and it would get back to normal soon.

I am starting to get worried.

I wondered this yesterday. Managed to get quite a lot of our usual stuff from Aldi yesterday so we won't starve but couldn't get even basics like bread, eggs and chicken. It's getting beyond ridiculous now.

I think most of us are more worried about going to the supermarket than getting the bloody virus at this stage I know I am.

The worst part is this was all completely avoidable. The toilet roll / pasta / baked beans shortage has been entirely created by this selfish behaviour. Madness.

By the end of next week most people will have ran out of money and space to hoard any more loo roll and pasta, so we will be back to almost normal. I think in the weeks to come the shops will be so over loaded with produce(because everyone will be having to use what the stockpiled) they will have some great deals on

The guy from the supermarkets on the PM programme was quite gung ho. He said that they normally held 1 weeks’ supply on the shelves. If everybody suddenly realises they need to hold 2 weeks’ worth at home (and as pp said, that’ll be more than usual because almost no-one will be having lunch from school meals/work canteen/Boots meal deal) then the shelves will empty overnight and then they’ll empty again until, in theory, everyone has a full 2-ish weeks in their cupboards. He thought it would take one more week to get up to quasi-normal levels.

It's those who bought the extra freezers and have months worth of food. Fucking ridiculous. The panic buying and crowded supermarkets will be spreading the virus quicker.

We should've been on lockdown last week. We were 2 weeks behind Italy so why the fuck not close everything earlier to stop that happening.

I was at Curry’s buying a computer monitor to wfh and the guy said that they’d sold out of stand alone freezers

people are very very selfish with an I am alright Jack attitude

So many selfish fuckers sitting in pubs in the evenings and will no doubt be out on Sunday for lunch

I cant believe the stupidity of people

People have actually gone so far as to buy another freezer? I wondered how people had the space...the sneaky snakes

If no one knows any of these "selfish people" in real life, are we sure they exist in the sort of numbers people are assuming? And that that are actually the problem? Maybe it's just the understandable increased demand and the fact that supermarkets only have about a week's worth of stock usually (and that would be at the old levels of demand, not this increased level where lots of people are having every meal at home).

Berating these mythical selfish people might make you feel better than coming to the realisation that actually most people are struggling to get enough food to cover the recommended 2 weeks, and that's what's causing the shortages.

There are plenty of selfish people, I've seen photos of online food deliveries with obscene amounts of food and toilet rolls, and when I was in the supermarket I talked to the cashier who said it's hard not to comment sometimes amount the huge amounts people are buying. There was a guy in front of me in the queue who had a full trolley and was quite apologetic but she said it was nowhere near as much as others had bought.

I thought it would have calmed down by now, how much stuff can you keep in your house? But it shows no signs of stopping.

I've got two teens at home all day from tomorrow, I need more than usual, in the summer holidays I'm usually buying 3 times a week. At Christmas I buy extra stuff in the weeks running up to it. I don't want to fuel the mania, but I need to but more than normal.

I'm going out today, hopefully I can get everything I need.

I’m in central London & it’s getting a bit desperate. In walking distance we have a Waitrose, Morrison, Aldi & M&S food hall as well as a 2 co ops, tesco metro, tesco Express, little Waitrose, a Chinese supermarket & very good independent mini markets. All are empty & all have queues from about 7am. Both of the McDonald’s are take away only as are the costas, but independent cafes remain open & busy as do the local Nando’s & other restaurants. Aldi seems better at getting stock out & the independents are keeping to a strict 2 of anything rule.

I’m in Ireland and the “madness” here lasted 3days!!! 3!! Our shelves are now stocked as per normal!!WTAF is going on in the UK??!!

If no one knows any of these "selfish people" in real life, are we sure they exist in the sort of numbers people are assuming? And that that are actually the problem? Maybe it's just the understandable increased demand and the fact that supermarkets only have about a week's worth of stock usually (and that would be at the old levels of demand, not this increased level where lots of people are having every meal at home).

Berating these mythical selfish people might make you feel better than coming to the realisation that actually most people are struggling to get enough food to cover the recommended 2 weeks, and that's what's causing the shortages.

Thank god for someone with common sense! Sick of moaning minnies blaming people who don't exist because they can't get toilet roll.

The fact is that self isolation is having a huge impact - which is GOOD in the long term - but means things are happening more slowly because less people are at work to create/deliver/distribute etc and supermarket stock will be impacted. Restrictions on essential items have been in force on most shops for almost a week now and the shelves are still bear - yet people still blame "panic buying"?

No, all it means is someone has grabbed the last six-pack of beans or 16 pack of toilet roll. And So what - you don't know their circumstances. Do people actually expect say, a mother of six, to say "actually I'll have my children starve in case an elderly person may or may not need these beans". People are getting what they can, in the time they have spare to shop, to feed their family.

If you have a local facebook, check for ads of wholesalers offering fruit and veg delivery, local shops doing ordets etc. You could keep a local business alive and take pressure off the supermarket.

I've just ordered from one that has 20 pound min order, included some bits for older neighbour, it's being delivered on sunday.

I’m in central London & it’s getting a bit desperate.
Me too. I agree.