It was the “few extra bits” people who emptied the shelves, not “selfish stockpiles”

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Research from Kantar, analysing 100,000 UK shoppers.

”Interesting. And some of those buying "just a little exta," will be doing so because suddenly the whole family is at home all day and not eating out/having school dinners etc. It clearly doesn't take much to top things over.“

That is certainly the case here, @AChickenCalledDaal - I have gone from having dh away 3 or 4 days, and 2 or 3 nights a week, so having several days where there’s only me needing lunch and dinner, to having dh working from home and ds3 home from university - so three adults all needing three meals a day.

Our shopping has increased, but the increase does seem to be in line with the extra meals we are having to provide.

Dh did get extra coffee, because he says, if he has to be on lockdown with me, he wants me properly caffeinated!

I also did the maths on the BILLION POUNDS OF EXTRA FOOD headlines and came to the same conclusion.

My DH normally works away Mon-Fri, now at home 24/7.
My DS1 normally has lunch at work and dinner with friends.
My DS2 normally has lunch at school.
I normally eat out with friends 3X a week.
We as a family eat 2 meals out/takeaway most weekends.

None of that is happening. No meals at work, school, out. No takeaways. I worked out we are having about 50 extra meals in the house per week. Plus extra tea, coffee, fruit, snacks as we are all at home and getting a bit bored.

Yes of course. If families usually buy one pack of loo roll a month and then suddenly every family buys a pack in the same weekend, there's going to be a problem.

I don't understand why it's still happening though.

Its still happening because lots of people are now at home 24/7 and eating all meals at home. The supermarkets are not able to cope yet with this increase in demand.

To answer a PP, the companies who usually supply restaurants and canteens are trying to sell to retail supermarkets but its not easy - for examplena lot ofnthe food doesn't have the right labelling. They're hoping some restaurants stay open to sell take aways only, but the distribution companies have taken a HUGE financial hit

You will need more loo roll with everyone at home and my ds who eats a lot

The big thing to remember is that on average some families of 2 adults and 2 kids) may be needing to find around 50 extra portions every week.

Consider this:

Breakfast
Normally kids eat at breakfast club and parents eat on way to work Monday to Friday. Extra 20 portions

Lunch
Again kids and parents eat at school/work Monday to Friday; plus lunch from shopping centre/supermarket/burger van at hardware store on a Saturday. Extra 24 portions;

Dinner
Between a take out on a Friday night and a carvery meal out on a Sunday. Extra 8 portions.

Suddenly that average family has 56 "extra portions" of food that are no longer supplied by the commercial food stream (restaurants, schools, take out etc) but by the domestic one. Even then rather than the sandwich based meal deal in the week the family is now grabbing a couple extra loaves and fillings.

Nobody need be doing ANYTHING wrong at all, it's just that the whole tapestry of life has changed.

I always thought this was the case.

People started to add a bit extra, which causes a little shortage. Then people start posting on social media, everyone buys a few extra till there’s nothing left.

I’ll admit I stocked up a little last Friday. I’ve got enough food to feed me and 2 teens for a week to minimize the number of times I need to go out. They eat a lot and they are at home all the time. In school holidays I normally shop 3 times a week anyway. I’m rationing biscuits.

Undoubtedly there are people with mountains of pasta and loo roll, but I don’t think it’s the majority.

I bought a few extra tins of various soups, although I can make my own soup. It's because I was a war child, and my Gran would always be making soup, like the chuck anything in kind of soup, so I always equate soup, with the kind of food that keeps you going for any duration. !!

I have believed the government message if there is no problem with the food supply chain’.

This after I rang the local farm shop I usually buy most of our food from to ask if they had an order/collect service.

I was told they are run off their feet so are unable to offer this service and that several of their suppliers have closed and they are uncertain how much longer any of their suppliers will be operating.

I couldn't agree more, but I think it's far easier to blame 'selfish stockpilers' because then we don't need to apply any self-reflection. Most people I know picked up a couple of extra bits but there's no way they'd consider themselves to be a part of the problem at all - it's those bastards buying 3 kilos of pasta & 40 loo rolls.

In the catering supply chain, it seems the problem is that there isn't packaging capability to turn it quickly into consumer product and especially moving to the supermarket. I live in an area which produces huge amount of fruit, veg and salad, and the catering focused companies are all doing veg boxes or 'ring up and we'll box it up' assorted goods as are the meat companies (though meat seems to be moving to the butchers and farm shops now too). But a local farm showed yesterday that they are having to put milk down the drain as theirs goes into bulk containers and so unless people bring them containers they have no way to sell it

We certainly have bought much more from supermarkets since we self-isolated, a bit before everyone else so I was able to book 3 weeks of Tesco deliveries. Normally we'd buy everything from Iceland or corner shop. We have 'stockpiled' loo rolls in the sense that we had just bought a big pack, and when I heard there were shortages, I was in Iceland and there were several big 24-packs and no one fighting over them so I bought another, as my DH uses a lot for medical reasons. The main thing we've added to our supermarket shop is multi-packs of cigarettes, we would normally buy cigs every couple of days, but trying not to go out so bought a couple of weeks' supply and one extra week for 'stockpile' in case they don't come on the delivery. Not sure if others have done the same but that has added £100s to our supermarket total - would that be included in the 'groceries' total, I wonder? We have full cupboards and freezer but we would anyway, the only extra things I 'panic-bought' were three large bars of chocolate and a tub of clotted cream!

The question is what’s happened to all the catering supply food.

Some of its being sold online. Sadly, at rather inflated prices in many cases. Especially on Amazon and eBay. Try googling it. For example, I couldn't get crisps at the supermarket, so have ordered a 'pub pack' from a wholesaler. It could be a useful approach if you have kids. Or it's worth clubbing together to buy stuff, as the delivery charges are quite steep.

Interesting about half of U.K. food being catered - no wonder people are buying more. My dd has certainly noticed a difference just with 2 little ones needing lunch at home, instead of at nursery/pre-school. God knows what it must be like with a couple of hollow-legged teenage boys.

Office supply companies sell big bags of tea, huge tubs of coffee. I’ve got 440 tetley tea bags being delivered tomorrow.

I’ll be using milk and more too.

50% little extras and 50% the just in time system?/

I wonder how demand for supermarket goods in March 2020 compared to Xmas 2019? While I'm not buying party food and alcohol this month grin, my shopping habits are similar

Yes probably like that but the industry has not been able to gear up for it like they do for regular events like Christmas, bbq season etc.
Interestingly, an online order for an allegedly 90-year-old was sent out today in our store comprising an astonishingly large order very unlike the usual tinned soup and packet of ham order you'd expect! I imagine the family have elbowed their way in to that priority slot, and I bloody well hope they choke on it because my elderly neighbour (there are many like her) can't get her slot and struggled out to Sainsbury despite me telling her I would get it.

This makes sense to me. I didn't selfishly stockpile but my family eats out a lot and before this bought food every day. With the new situation and possibly might need to stay indoors for weeks of course we have bought more than normal in one go. There will be lots of other families like us.

I, and many others I'm sure, went from buying enough food to last one or two days at a time to being told that at the slightest hint of a cough or fever to self isolate for 7 days so it's perfectly logistical to prepare for that.

Lol doesnt surprise me... If everyone is adding more things and the supply is the same, and they keep returning, we're in trouble.
im really proud that i didnt change my behaviour and contributed to this selfishness. It is a problem we created for ourselves... There is no shortage of supply

I have believed the government message if there is no problem with the food supply chain’.

This is true, the issue is with the 'just in time' nature of the supply chain. Today, for example, we received our usual daily quota of flour - which usually would merely top up the stock. But as more people are buying it, clearly more than is normally needed (bread panic, bored kids at home syndrome) it all sells the same day.

As PPs have said, I think that people are concerned that they may not be able to get fresh items regularly so they are stocking up slightly on longer life things like tins and dried pasta. But the big thing for me, being in a somewhat more than averagely vulnerable grouup, is that a larger shop less often means that I don't have to go out as often and also, if a lot of people do it, helps to make the shops less crowded and therefore improve social distancing.

I have been saying this all along.

I always thought that. I was a supermarket manager. Toilet tissue is always first because it’s bulky and there are much less units on the shelf than you would imagine.