So "Its all panic buying..." fault....

[Hazelnutlatteplease]

The supermarkets have been restricted sale of stuff for over a week. However we still are getting food orders with significant amount missing and some items still completely unavailable.

AIBU to start to question whether the panic buying rhetoric isnt as much about deflecting blame from an ill prepared government as it is anything else.

The Government don't run the supermarkets you know.

There's obviously a lot of increased demand that wasn't planned for.

All the people who would usually eat at work, at cafes, restaurants, school etc are now eating and home and having to buy food from supermarkets.

Supermarkets work on a just in time basis.

It probably just takes a couple of weeks for supply to catch up with demand. Also bear in mind the whole supply chain is likely dealing with illness and self isolation.

China needed a rapidly changing work force. It needed in increase in some jobs (supermarket/delivery drivers). That happens guided by govenment in a coordinated approach.

The govenment could have encouraged the introduction of restriction on goods beginning to mid feb. It could have encouraged the gentle stockpiling of goods from January. Stock enough to get you through a 2 week quarentine, especially if you are vulnerable. The volunteer army needed to have been organised early feb

This wasnt an unpredictable crisis.

As it is we have people who should be quarentined going to shops because they dont have food. We have vulnerable gojng to shopd cos they dont have food.

Thd government were unprepared. Anc given we were behind both china and Italy there was no excuse

There's obviously a lot of increased demand that wasn't planned for.

Thats exactly the point it could and should have been planned for. It was hardly unexpected

China is an authoritarian, totalitarian state. It doesn't have a government it had a dictatorship who torture and disappear citizens on a regular basis. Just google "Hong Kong booksellers" for an example.

Much easier to interfere in every aspect of life that way.

Here in the UK we're a democracy and it's harder.

There is a lot of increased demand. All the food people previously ate from cafes, restaurants, take out places, work canteens, school etc. is all now having to be bought or ordered from supermarkets. Same with all the toilet rolls your family previously used at work and school. You now need this capacity at home.

I’ve no idea if there are issues in the supply chain but the increased demand is real. I know someone who works in a Tesco Extra and she said they are getting bigger deliveries but it flies off the shelves and when they are short staffed they can’t always re-stock quickly.

Crossed post

But can you imagine the chaos if the government had told people to stock up on food? Plus throwing into the mix the idea of quarantine? I'm not sure the supply chain issue would have been avoided.

Hopefully, now with lockdown and people having had several weeks to fill their kitchens, most people will stop with the panic buying and things can settle down to normal.

Just the fact you have the freedom to come online and rant about the government tells you what you need to know.

News articles told us that supermarkets had prepared for such a crisis.

On Question Time Matt Hancock said he had been working closely with supermarket bosses. Supermarket bosses said this was not true and they had been desperately trying to talk to Govt.

It's been a shambles, like ventilator planning.

I am more scared of starvation than the virus. On top of everything else, we face food shortages.

People are panic buying because they are scared. There's no trust and clear communication.

Once again Hazel you are bang on the money.

Right now id rather have a government that protected its citizens than one i needed the freedom to rant about.

The earlier you restricted the earlier you warn your supermarkets whats coming the more you do to help your people.

They have done none of it. Our lockdown isnt even a lockdown, people in non Essential industries are still working and transmitting the virus kids are still going out and meeting up.

Everyone knows you can walk into any supermarket right now and get a job the same day (that's been the case around here for a week now)... and yet there are still loads of posts from people about their Dad's taxi sitting empty etc. The govs 80% initiative won't be helping to encourage all those cafe and bar staff to temporarily switch to a supermarket for a few months.

We're not China. The gov could have "gently encouraged" and you'd have had 50% of the population still not believing them (do you remember the threads on here from Feb, they don't age well) and the other 50% would have been clearing the shelfs back in Feb. Causing even more panic buying.

Nonetheless the panic-buying and last-minute stockpiling was an entirely predictable situation. It has happened so many times before. And the minute any government says the fatal words "There's no need to stockpile" the people do exactly that.

Supermarkets cope with seasonal leaps in demand by planning ahead. Our supermarket takes over a small chunk of its carpark to erect an outdoor warehouse every winter, in order to deal with the leap in demand for the Christmas season.

The leap in demand was entirely predictable, and draconian, liberty-limiting measures were not needed to manage it. Unless you think that limiting purchases of loo roll and pasta to one or two packets per shopper limits your liberty.

Part the reason people dont believe its serious is because the government wasted precious time telling them it wasnt and that people just needed to wash their hands.

If youd allowed "panic buying" over a longer period of time with guidance (enough to last a 2 week quarentine or an intermittently disrupted supply chain) you wouldnt have had a panic as people saw italy when they realised this was serious.

We're a very small local supermarket. We have a TINY warehouse. We simply wouldn't have the room for double the stock, even if they delivered it. We are relying on people being sensible and buying what they normally buy when they normally buy it. There's no shortages, we get the usual deliveries. But everyone is so frantic that we are 'going to run out' that they snap up whatever arrives as fast as they can. So if we don't restrict people, the morning shoppers will clear the shelves, so those who come in later in the day can't buy anything!

It’s regional. Supermarkets are nearly at BAU where I am - Sainsbury’s have online delivery slots for every day this week. I imagine there will be a lot of substitutes and probably no paracetamol, toilet paper and eggs, but the rest should be ok.

It does show up the limits of the Just In Time system that supermarkets operate on, based on what sells in a usual week. If every household decides they all need just one extra each of 10 key items in the same week, the supermarket delivery and stock system fails.

Yes, well people have been posting photos of well stocked warehouses to say there is no shortage... for the most part it makes sense when it comes to getting stuff on to shop shelves. But I shop with Ocado who deliver from their warehouse and some of the same items have been missing from my deliveries for over three weeks now (available for me to buy online and then missing on the day of my delivery) - so clearly there must be some supply issues with some items at least.

I do agree the government and the food retail industry were not properly prepared - some of these problems could have been predicted but instead they have reacted after it was too late (for example the purchase limits). I'm quite cynical about it and can't help thinking the big supermarkets were happy to cash in on the panic buying - they've had their best weeks ever, better than Christmas. They had no incentive to calm the situation until it got too out of hand.

The govenment could have encouraged the introduction of restriction on goods beginning to mid feb. It could have encouraged the gentle stockpiling of goods from January. Stock enough to get you through a 2 week quarentine, especially if you are vulnerable. The volunteer army needed to have been organised early feb
There are too many stupid people around. Gentle stockpiling? All the thoughtless people who went out panic-buying would probably have just started panic-buying earlier if the government had intervened.

I see your point but you are thinking that people would all be rational and reasonable and the truth is that they aren't.

The minute the govt asked for volunteers, that would have triggered all of the appalling behaviour.

There is a lot of increased demand. All the food people previously ate from cafes, restaurants, take out places, work canteens, school etc. is all now having to be bought or ordered from supermarkets
Just for accuracy, Take away shops can still open.

so clearly there must be some supply issues with some items at least.

I agree with this. It stands to reason that you could not have the disruption across the world that we have seen over the last few weeks and NOT have a supply problem. It felt like there must be more to it than just not being able to restock shelves quick enough - though that must have been part of the issue.

Supply chains will, presumably, continue to be disrupted in differing ways over the coming weeks and months.

I went to Waitrose this morning, for the first time in about 10 days. Last time I went, panic buying was in full swing and there was barely anything. Today, stricter restrictions are in place, entry into the shop is being staggered and fewer people were in the car park. There was much more stock and people were shopping in a much more considerate way. There wasn’t loads of the limited stuff (loo roll, pasta, flour, etc) but it was there. The message seems to be getting through.

I honestly think people don't realise the massive shift in demand as a result of everyone eating all their meals at home has. In our area, a number of smaller wholesalers who were supplying to local cafes, smaller chains etc, are now offering services to the general public because those shops aren't buying their food but it's still needed.

I think that yes, supermarkets could have had better plans in place to increase/convert supply chains much more quickly than they have done but suspect that even those who were watching the crisis unfold in China, Italy etc didn't fully appreciate the full impact and their planning was limited as a result. Also, there was limited time to make the changes needed.

As consumers, I think we need to try and find those local or other places that have supplies because realistically, even if they want to sell their goods to the supermarket, they're going to struggle. It's a bit like Brexit - the legal complexities are restrictive. It's all very well saying that Farmer Joe has 3000 cabbages that his local Sainsbury's could have, but Sainsbury's systems simply don't allow for that.

Just in time logistics aren’t robust enough. The system is being run too lean.

£1billion of extra food has been bought in the last three weeks. That’s only a fiver a week extra in a country of 66 million people. Never mind how much eating out will have dropped off.

It’s difficult to predict exactly when or what a crisis will be. But is easy to know that there will definitely be a crisis at some point.m, and at that point you will need something in reserve.

It IS the fault of panic buyers.
Supermarkets rely on a whole host of suppliers, and both have transport and storage limitations. They can't just magic up more storage space, more lorries and more drivers!! Demand has increased hugely, and there is only so much supermarkets can do about it. Although I do think they should have put restrictions in place much sooner. But make no mistake, this is a problem of our own making.

This was absolutely nothing the government could have done (or could do) about this.