To ask if you have prepped for the second wave

[Oldbagface]

Have you been buying a few extras with each shop in anticipation?

I notice many items are already out of stock online.

What sort of things have you been putting away.

We have bought the odd extras with each shop e.g. tinned tomatoes, pasta, loo roll and baking powder.

We have loads of flour anyway as buy in bulk for our bread maker.

Oh, and chocolates for Christmas.

Jeez. Are people really that ignorant to other people's lives.

It's getting very silly now

@Whatwouldscullydo

You can still go to the supermarket in full lockdown. If everyone did as they usually do there is no problem

And if you are contacted and told u were in contact with someone who tested positive do you go to the super market regardless ?

Various options.

If isolation required then friends/neighbours/local support networks or charities can help (my DH has regularly done pharmacy drops for others throughout).

Most people could get through 4-5 days with what's in their house I am sure and in the meantime you should be able to go and get a test (oh no wait those are like gold dust cos everyone who coughs goes and gets one)

Online delivery (oh no wait those are stockpiled too!!)

I got COVID at the start of lockdown. We had to self-isolate for 5 weeks as one then another of us got sick. Damn glad we still had our Brexit store of food. Neighbours brought us bread and milk and bits of fresh fruit, friends shopped for my parents (shielding) but couldn't get a supermarket delivery for love nor money. We ate our way through the freezer and the tins, both of which I've now replaced. If that's selfish I frankly dont give a monkeys, it was a bloody lifesaver.

Its not 4 or 5 days though its 10-14.

Many people here are the help and dont necessarily have the help. My parents for example would be shieldng as would our nearest friend.

Delivery is not always an option. U have to have the facility available. You have to be able to afford the minimum spend. You have to be abke to carry it all up flights of stairs if they wont carry it in.

@Happygogoat or one other option is that you can sleep well at night knowing you don’t have to rely on other people or charities to help you out. In fact, the most responsible option and actually required in many other countries.

And as fir tests by day 4/5 its too late and you are stuck isolating fir the full 14 .

And just to emphasize that 14 days is for one of you. If another member of the family gets sick on day 10 then the remaining members start again.

Its also pretty selfish to put others in the position of having to traipse bout trying to get you your shopping. Having to trust you enough to wire them the cash. Risking their own ability to go to work or have their kids in school venturing out unnecessarily getting stuff that you probably could have gotten yourself

You can't stockpile delivery slots you can book them a few weeks in advance if you are lucky. I've always booked as far ahead as possible as I can't physically get to the shop.

@lyralalala where I am Iceland charge £4 if you order £25. Free if £35.

I've been doing what I've been doing for over a year - keeping extra supplies in, rotating stock, replacing what we use. When people were cramming themselves into the supermarkets to buy up every last loo roll I was able to keep my family safe and comfortable at home.

I see how people get in this country when there's an inch of snow on the ground. I wasn't going to wait for Brexit without preparations. I just didn't realize my stash would come in handy for something else first...

Fucks sake talk about overdoing it. Is survival all that matters to some?

What do you think happens if everyone (or even half of people) are like you and buy "a couple of extras" unnecessarily each shop? It runs out twice as fast. Hence the shortages. Hence the panic. Then people suffer.

Not when everything is running as normal. The extra items get added to the next deliveries.

The panic buyers cause the problems, but they are selfish people who don't plan ahead, so nothing can be done. They won't learn any lessons because they're sitting in houses stuffed full of hand sanitizer and loo roll, as far as they're concerned it worked out. And us preppers will be fine. The victims will be the ones who (still) think everyone will make the right moral decisions and "keep calm and carry on". They won't. So buy an extra tin of soup now while it's not a problem.

I’d be interested to know whether different parts of the country experienced the initial panic buying differently. Quite a few people are saying we didn’t have food shortages but we ran out of most things at one point, no fruit or veg, bread, pasta etc. It’s still surreal to remember walking into two supermarkets and seeing a completely bare fruit and veg section and barely any meat. We’ve stockpiled for Brexit and the covid situation confirmed it’s the right thing to do.

@starfish4
I did buy a good supply of cat food 6-8 weeks ago as Purina stopped production of the two lines my cats eat for about 10 weeks. Try telling two cats they can't have their usual!

@starfish4 This made me guffaw. Thank you for the mental image! 😂

If you or one of your family get Coronavirus, what are you going to do if you don't have any food in the house? Are you going to inconvenience your friends and neighbours to do an extra trip to the shops for you, a trip they don't need? Are you going to get your elderly parents to go out for you? If any of us get it, we have enough food for 2-3 weeks and I have a list of people who will deliver.

What a selfish, stockpiling cow I am.

We have loads in but always have anyway, I buy all cleaning, washing and disposables like toilet rolls and tissues bulk from Amazon as it’s easiest, sometimes food too if it’s on offer. I have stocked up on food in the last couple of months when the offers came back as some stocks were depleted in the last lockdown.

I think people who think people who have a couple of weeks food I’m is weird/selfish probably weren’t brought up by parents who lived through the war. Both my parents and my in-laws had weeks of food available so to DH and I having a couple of weeks is entirely normal , on the conservative side and what has happened our entire lives.

If you can afford it and have the space it is selfish not to have supplies in for 2 weeks and to expect others to run round getting you stuff.

@Beetlejuicer

Fucks sake talk about overdoing it. Is survival all that matters to some?

...Yes? Why wouldn’t you want to survive an illness?

No, but I have been booking my delivery slots as far ahead as I can - and have been ever since lockdown. I can make do with what may or may not be available but need to make sure I can get hold of something!

I have had delivery slots for years because I live a long way from town, not just because of the pandemic.

@WhentheDealGoesDown1 absolutely! Why do people keep trotting out the line that other people can help out if they need to self isolate?! Why wouldn't people make efforts to be self sufficient if they can? All the mutual aid groups that sprung up were great but they need to focus on vulnerable, elderly and disabled people not people like me and my family with two able bodies adults. so I will make sure we are sorted.

Also agree with previous posters that for those with vulnerabilities in the family stocking up now in times of plenty soothes anxiety.

18.9% of people in the report on isolation compliance reviewed by Sage broke isolation to get groceries or go to the pharmacy: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.20191957v1.full.pdf+html.
People intended to comply, but in actual fact didn't. There are more than enough issues with people not isolating for other reasons, those who can keep a few tins, pasta and paracetamol in the house should do so.

If you look at it in terms of evolution it is only very recently that there has been easy availability of food all year round. Not read up on it but I suspect there is a strong evolutionary behavioural drive to have adequate stocks in.

Autumn is harvest time and before being able to go to the supermarket whenever you want , it was a time when people would be preserving the fruit and veg that were harvested to get through the winter.

Its what people have done for centuries and connects in with the rhythm of the natural year, hence it being a comfort for people to have some extra in when facing a potential known time of limited resources ie. self isolation.

When people stockpile money its called savings and pensions and considered sensible. When people put by 2 weeks of food in case they have to isolate so they dont have to break isolation or increase other people's exposure by making neighbours shop its frowned upon. Odd times.