Hi papa,
Our ds has been stockpiling the booze today but yes, must confess, I’ve got twelve tins of beans in my cupboard! My only disappointment is that they only had smartprice ones, Heinz had run out...

Are you serious. Do you know healthcare workers and frontline staff are struggling to get provisions?

Do people not use three tins of tomatoes a week on a regular basis? One spaghetti bolognese, one veggy chilli and one cooked breakfast at the weekend will do it.

I am really feeling the tomato shortage, to be honest.

We can’t afford to bulk buy much so we have followed advice to get our normal shop
Except being a large family we can’t even do that as limited on times we usually get more of but needs must we thought
Our online orders were cancelled totally
6/7 of us vulnerable
The shops are empty
There is clearly a supply issue in London at least

The thing about stockpiling is you should do it in times of plenty. It's too late now.

I'm in a profession that is about to be called up to help. I was on courses for a whike prior to last week. Not at home to do shopping. Can't get the basics now. Cheers.

I am really feeling the tomato shortage, to be honest.

Me too. I’m vegan so also the lack of lentils, beans, chick peas etc.

Stockpiling is great if it's done right, i.e. over an extended period of time, sustainably and responsibly. Nothing to do with the panic buying we've been seeing.
I've been stockpiling over the last 15 months, adding little by little to my stash, a couple of tins and loo rolls at a time. I didn't contribute to the empty supermarket shelves in any way.
I know it's too late to be talking about what people should have been doing prior to this mess, but it annoys me that I got ridiculed as "crazy doomsday prepper' each time I mentioned to people that it's s good idea to always have a couple of months worth of food stored away.

Those of us in normal work, trying to help the rest are the ones struggling to buy what we need when we finish work; plus the elderly and those who live hand to mouth so can only afford what they need each week now can't get what they need . So nope, stockpiling is not harmless. It's selfish.

I haven’t stock piled as I was thinking of others and not wanting to take more than I need, and now I’m buggered. So exasperated with this, this whole thing has totally changed my perception of people. I thought in a crisis people would rally round and help each other, but unfortunately it turns out most people are self-serving, and consumed by greed. I think this thread has tipped me over the Coronavirus edge.

Healthcare workers / elderly / vulnerable people; your actions are impacting directly on these people in a massively negative way - do you stockpiling people just not care about anyone else apart from yourselves?

Incredibly selfish

Personally I think stockpiling 'just in case' in times of need such as this is perhaps not the most moral of things to be doing, but hey ho

Stockpiling is not the same as panic buying, please stop calling it stockpiling if all you're doing is clearing store shelves now that shit has hit the fan. It's too late!!
Stockpiling should have been done gradually, over many weeks if not months, in a way that doesn't take away from the vulnerable!

I haven't stock piled... Nor have I panic bought... But its in times like these that you remember really, at the heart of it all we're still just animals. It's basic instinct to look out for ourselves and our offspring in times of crisis. It's sad but true.

Provocative much?

... I am confident in a little while that they will work out the shortages.

The idea that there is only ONE kind of Pasta, ONE kind of Rice and ONE kind of tinned tomatoes - would surely focus the Supermarkets and their buying potential...

Then if all our local Pubs/Restaurants could offer delivery services such as :-

Date Night Delivery
Sunday Surprise
Monday Medley
Tuesday Tortellini
Wednesday .....

We can all help them out... and try to keep some jobs alive...

Let's stop bitching - and thank God that we don't have bombs dropping down on our heads and our neighbours don't have their guns at our throats (yet !!!)......

I typically use 6 cans of chopped tomatoes and 2 packs of pasta a week, we go through 8+ loo rolls (not sure what they do with it) I use 1-2 packs of flour because I bake my own bread. I got stared at for having 3 bags of bread flour, I haven't been able to buy any for 3 weeks

Only item i would feel bad about right now is the dozen Dolmio sauces i bought. all the passata and chopped tin tomatoes are gone but i prefer these jars with herbs/flavouring.
Everything else that i got in large quantities are NOT staple/basic items and there was tons and tons left. But will make the kids a bit happier on day 70 out of school -
Cereals, kids multivitamins, popcorn, crisps, sweets, freezer foods, and a very specific type of biscuit my ASD kid eats, i was allowed to buy 20 of the 40 boxes i took to the till because the till assistant knows my son has autism as he goes to that supermarket store everyday as per his routine after school and buys the same items daily. I dont remotely feel bad about technically hoarding/stock piling his buscuits.
I bought more cheese than maybe i needed, but theyve got july expiry dates. There's no fresh meat in store, so unless i go to the butcher, we can just have pasta, tomato topped with cheese. Cheese sandwhiches for lunch time - good fibre and folic acid in the brown bread, gd source of protein from cheese, bit of fresh salad, job done.
I also bought 5 charger cables, but plenty of those left too. So kids can have their gadgets when allowed, the cables break routinely tho.
Loo roll i ordered from 'who gives a crap', so thats sustainable bamboo and a recycled paper version, but i ordered last week before they sold out - i have 96 rolls worth, but not a single one from a supermarket shelf, so ive not taken away from anyone else.
I'm also very willing to share anything i have with anyone who happens to say theyre struggling on the communitu covid response facebook group for my area or within my residential estate, of 400+ people who have had a fb group for years n years.
Nothing will go to waste, as it has to last a full summer of 3 kids off school.
I feel prepared, unselfish and not guilty. But yes I got alot of stuff.

Right now, yep. I've been buying carefully for a couple of months. Just a few bits here and there. Nothing drastic. Ready weeks ago. Stockpiling now takes away from those in need. Don't be a cunt

No one in my area is going to starve, ues some items are bare, but there's still loys of varieties of 'stuff'. It wont be peoples first choice or their usual food items, but they'd have a full stomach and be fairly well nourished.

Instead of getting angry at other "stockpilers" (which you don't even know for sure as it could have been 10 people buying one extra thing instead of 1 person buying 10), how about getting angry at the system that allows these shortages to happen.

I live in Austria which has been on lockdown for a week. The government repeatedly reassured people that there were no shortages of anything and all empty shelves were the result of supermarket staff not being able to replenish them due to crowding. This was true and every supermarket here is fully stocked every day. Baby formula, toilet paper are everywhere and hospital grade hand sanitizer is being sold again in pharmacies. This is one of the times when I realise that paying 50% tax in a social democracy is actually worth it.

It is for this person