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

[GravityFalls]

Research from Kantar, analysing 100,000 UK shoppers.

Interesting link, thanks.

The 'Just In Time' supply system is not very resilient, it would seem.

My pre-Covid pattern of shopping was to go twice most weeks, buying enough for 3-4 days at a time. Also not averse to the odd popping in for the odd thing in between, if we fancy something in particular. We normally also have lunch out every Friday, and a take away some weeks as well.

Now, Boris says go to the supermarket as infrequently as possible. So when we went on Monday, I made sure to get enough so we won’t need to go again before next week. That’s not stockpiling, that’s the effect of doing what we’re told (stay home, shop as infrequently as possible)

We deliberately didn’t go and stick up at the start of the rush as we had some tinned food and pasta, and milk on the doorstep, so we were the lucky ones, right? Wrong - with extra teenagers at home full time we ate through everything in a couple of days. No deliveries available anywhere nearby for weeks. It was... eye opening.

Stock up, not stick up. I haven’t yet resorted to stick’em ups.

It doesn't surprise me.
I've had to buy more to make sure I stay at home as much as possible and after a week away from the supermarket I've realised I'm down to 4 slices of bread. DC'S aren't eating at school.
I used to shop and top up five days a week. I pass two supermarkets on foot on the way to work so it was easy to keep on top of.

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

There’s quite a few pubs with restaurants open round here as pop up shops selling boxes of stuff they had to get rid of.

I went to Tesco last Friday, shelves were bare, the freezers were empty. I’ve never seen it like this before not even at Christmas.

I've thought this from the beginning, of course when people can't get what they need they get angry and blame stockpilers when it is just people buying extra which leads to resentment.

Like everyone else, I've been eating more bread for lunches as well as butter and fillings. We would have probably eaten out at least once a week and today I've signed up to a local scheme which is distributing boxes to the elderly and vulnerable so will be buying things like biscuits, tinned soup and whatever fresh fruit and veg I can find.

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

That’s a real shame. I guess they would need to link up with one of the biggish dairies like Arla, assuming those companies have extra bottling capacity.

I knew this was it. I have to feed my kids all the time now and the little buggers eat loads.

This is what I suspected. The public have by and large swallowed a cartoon of "selfish stockpilers" grabbing whatever they can. This work shows the reality is the shortages are caused by the industry being unable to rapidly respond to the reasonable response of the population to an unexpected natural event.

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

I saw a post from a hospice in Southampton (that cared for my lovely MIL before we lost her to cancer), that had had a big donation of fresh eggs, from the local McDonalds. That made me smile - I thought it was a generous gesture.

Our schoo's kitchen contents is going to be moved to the hub school and used to feed the kids that are being catered for.

Fresh stuff was refused when they tried delivering it in the last few days of school as we had an idea this might happen.

Here dh would usually eat at work, breakfast and dinner weekdays and he'd usually just want a light lunch maybe twice a week when not at his brothers and a snack before bed. Work canteen shut down. 13 extra meals a week added.

Dd, would usually have a peice of fruit on school days and breakfast at school. Hot lunch and just want a very light evening meal. 10 extra meals, plus extra fruit for the snacks school usually provide.

Ds would have had hot lunches at school or nursery 4 days a week and breakfast at nursery 2 days. 6 meals plus snacks.

Most weekends we'd eat at one hot meal at my parents. Another 4 meals there.

With everyone home and not seeing parents the past few weeks that's 33 extra meals I've had to shop for. A big change to our house hold shopping habits but through nacesssity not panic buying.

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

As has been explained by a PP on a different thread there are people who feel they have, 'won' if they buy up lots of groceries therefore making other people lose by depriving them of it.

Funny how it's the same, 'top ten' grocery items that are missing in every supermarket in Britain.

Panic buyers/hoarders/stock pilers don't meal plan etc. If they did they would know exactly what their family eats/uses in a week and it sure as hell ain't 48 toilet rolls.

These are the sort of people who just buy what they fancy at the supermarket when they're not living off takeaways or eating out. Now that the pubs, cafes etc are closed they panic buy.

What is it about a lock down that makes them want to live on baked beans and soup for a week ?

People who meal plan shop sensibly in my opinion and won't need to panic buy. Then KEEP panic buying out of sheer greed.

Yes my teenage children now at home full time - definitely seeing a big difference which only makes sense! Plus when bored they tend to open the fridge and pick here and there.