Government are handling this as best they can. It’s pretty scary times and the shops and govt are doing their best in fairly unchartered territories. If you have an idea for them then by all means share it!
The just-in-time model doesn't have any built in slack to help when there's a crisis. The government have let supermarkets - or even, encouraged them - put profit over people. In terms of disaster planning, a crisis of some kind was always going to happen at some point.
Just looking at pandemics, for example, it was always a case not of if, but when one happened, and we're lucky it's not a whole lot more deadly, or a virus that targets children. As nightmarishly awful as it is that we're going to be burying thousands of adults in the next few weeks, at least we're not looking over to Italy and seeing them burying their children and knowing that's coming for us next.
So, the idea that there may be stresses on the system in a time of crisis isn't rocket science. It's stating the bleeding obvious. A government that cared about people more than profit would have done something about this in advance. That's what all those civil servants the Tories are so keen on streamlining are there for, to plan for this kind of stuff ahead of time.
Also, beyond shops, the government has had years to get crisis planning right in general terms and months to get it in place for coronavirus. They've let us down, badly, please stop letting them off the hook.
What they should be doing now is giving everyone a basic minimum income for a start. That would prevent people who have little money stockpiling all they have into food as they're worried when they'll next be able to do that.
Then they should force large distribution chains like Amazon to work for the people while the crisis is on. I was on Amazon last night trying to get a thermometer and some food as we're in isolation and running out. I saw thermometers for £60 and single packs of crisps for £17. This should be illegal.
in practical terms, Amazon sellers can install a widget that controls the price of their goods, and when they're scarce it automatically bumps them up to ridiculously expensive. Amazon should be forced to switch this off immediately for a start.
All the supermarkets should take on more staff for online deliveries and find ways to get deliveries to people who don't have internet or can't use online ordering - perhaps telephone orders. Warehouses should be requisitioned for stockpiling goods to allow for a buffer.
Land should be requisitioned for fast growing food and people should be encouraged to grow food at home.
Longer term, the government needs to put a plan in place and legislate the food industry so we're not in such a precarious position.