Has anyone actually witnessed anyone stockpiling/panic buying?

[sunfloweryy]

I’ve seen a few extreme photos on twitter but nothing in my local shops. However everyone I speak to is saying ‘Oh I’ve just picked up a couple of extra bits just in case I can’t get them when I need’ etc.

Is it not more that millions of people are picking up slightly more than what they usually would rather than a few selfish people are sweeping entire displays into their trolley?

Or am I being naive

Facebook is going nuts but tbh people are at home with their families so requiring more food than they usually would do as nobody is having lunch at work or eating out and we are being told to go out as little as possible, so popping to the shop every day is probably also not advisable therefore weekly / monthly shops make more sense.

There are even people on my local hub slating people for buying things they don’t need but then themselves buying toilet rolls they don’t need and taking photos and offering them to emergency services over Facebook in order to virtue signal. I think the whole village has lost their minds and it hasn’t even been a week yet!

I've seen that too @Ronnie27. A Facebook friend of mine bought the last Calpol and was selling it on Facebook (for less than they paid, not that it makes it much better) but people were saying how kind she was
Also saw another post about someone buying formula in case anyone else needs it. They were rightly pulled up on it and had it explained to them that parents shouldn't have to hunt down formula on Facebook and they should leave it on the supermarket shelf for people who actually need it.

@Ronnie27 I saw similar on mine. Someone bought extra packet of loo roll for the 'elderly'. Not anyone in particular, just in case. The comments were 50/50 'you're an angel/you're an idiot'.

I’ve been lucky enough to have deliveries so far, but my daughter was in Sainsburys last week and said it was apocalyptic. People were stripping the shelves bare and the queues were massive.

My friend was in Tesco this weekend and got literally physically shoved out the way by an old dear, so she could go ahead in the queue and who had a trolley full of nothing but booze. 😱

Woman in Tesco with 20 tubs of butter in her trolley at the checkout
Raised merry hell with the shop assistant who told her the limit was 2
He got another trolley and took 18 from her and put them back in the fridge
The brass neck of some people never ceases to amaze me.
She had not an ounce of shame
Harboured a lot of entitlement though
Selfish

I watched a woman on the phone in the queue next to mine on Friday complaining how the shop had nothing whilst loading over 20 packets of rice onto the belt. The lad on the till took 16 off her.

Unfortunately I've witnessed it too many times to count. I work at Tesco and I'm constantly being called because the checkout staff have taken things from people and they are getting abuse. What I can't get over is the let's grab anything we can get our hands on mentality, deliveries are coming in as normal so there's no reason for this. The problem is the public grabbing anything and everything in sight.

I haven’t - things have been selling out but they’re back in stock next day 🤷‍♀️

Stores are stocked throughout the day - I think the issues are first thing in the morning
Dh went yesterday at 4pm and got everything from our local Tesco and it wasn’t even busy

Don’t forget with kids off and adults working from home etc most peoples weekly shop will have likely gone up 50% straight away I know mine has as we usually eat out in work or have school dinners etc

Sometimes you stockpile by accident....
Someone posted on local Facebook group that Morrisons had sent her 14 bags of potatoes at 2.5kg each,,so she was offering them to other people locally saying " I do like a spud or two but...."

East Midlands / Staffordshire.

I haven't been out today but I'm a key worker - healthcare industry - so will be going into work tomorrow.

The local barbers were open yesterday, alongside the nail salon. People were carrying on as normal here. I wish they would take it seriously. As far as I'm aware we've had 3 confirmed cases in my town and if people continue like this it will be rise rapidly.

My local ALDI was stripped bare by the time I got there at 7 on Friday. They had just taken a delivery but, understandably, they were slow to unpack it )I don't blame them after the horrendous day they probably all had).

Also, contrary to some media reports, supermarkets across Italy and Spain WERE stripped bare. We are a couple or so weeks behind them and before they both shut down their citizens were panicking too.

To be fair, other Countries have shut up shop and gone on lockdown for what could be months on end. I dont really blame people for buying extra. Especially now schools are shut and people are feeding extra mouths. Seems a bit silly to be calling them for all sorts.

No I haven’t

With the exception of a friend who told me that a woman in the village had taken 6/7 handwash and cleared the shelf, then stood in the queue telling everyone she wasn’t panic buying

When someone in the queue said they were going to try the chemist she said don’t bother because she had just taken the last one 😳

And someone in makro with a trolley full of bog roll...but to be fair makro is a wholesaler so maybe they owned a car home or something (I doubt it)

I've not seen anyone stockpiling in the supermarket and don't know anyone who has. Apart from asda the other shops I've been in didn't seem particularly busy so I'm surprised by all the photos on here and SM. Scaremongering is going to lead to panic buying resulting in empty shelves and photos being posted. It's a vicious circle

Just over a week ago I went to sainsburys, passed a guy coming out whose trolley was heaped with pack after pack of loo roll. I thought great, they have loo roll in stock! Well, no they didn't, and I think we can see why. Since then they have apparently started limiting it but still one person can get 2 x16 roll packs which seems excessive. I don't really get how the loo roll fixation began.

DP did get accused of being a stockpiler by someone in Aldi for having two different bags of rice. Apparently having risotto and basmati rice is totally unreasonable...

Last week I was behind a couple on their way out of Asda, each of them were carrying five packs of 12 toilet rolls in a trolley. I overheard the fella chunnering "It's like bloody Armageddon in there". Yes it is. Because of people like YOU!!

Clueless.

Havent really seen this round here. We are short of loo rolls, flour, paracetamol and hand sanitizer but everything else is fine. Maybe in less affluent areas like ours people cant afford to buy tons at a time?

I did buy 60 eggs from the farm shop. It was heaving and they were on trays of 20. We are helping an elderly (vegetarian) neighbour who relies on eggs for her meals. I picked up two trays (one for us, one for her) but was told I needed to get 3 so it rounded to the dozen! I feel that some people who saw me carrying (very carefully) 5 dozen eggs may have judged me, but the delight in knowing someone who is in a really vulnerable position can enjoy her usual meals negates that. I also shared some with other neighbours (and had a Mother’s Day treat of toad in the hole!)

In these strange times it is difficult not to judge, but everything is not always as it seems.

Just to add this neighbour now has a delivery slot this week with Sainsbury’s through their vulnerable persons number, so that’s a promising sign!

My friend bought 8 tins of baby milk.. I have a baby the same age and 2 days later had to go to 6 different shops just to get 1

I wonder how long it will last? Surely all the stockpilers will run out of space??

It's doing my head in. We were about to run out of bread ffs we tried a few local supermarkets over the last few days and nothing. My DF finally managed to get us some today just before we ran out, they must have restocked not long before he went in or people have calmed down maybe I don't know. How much fresh food like bread can people keep at once though? I honestly believe a lot of the fresh stuff is going to in the bin it's disgusting.

I saw one man with twenty cartons of Oatley milk in his trolley and a woman with twelve packets of Milton wipes. This was about 10 days ago. It really makes me sad that people in the UK are behaving like this. I spoke to a friend who lives on the fringes of Paris today and we were comparing notes. It sounds pretty civilised over there. They could pretty much get anything and everything they want at any time of the day.