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.

By the way, London has never run out of anything- not in my area anyway and I'm sure more people are much wiser now, so no stockpiling from us. Learn to live it and carry on ffs.

Just stop.
Right now.
Just stop.

FWIW, I'm not in any way critical of you for doing it, but for god's sake, it is what it is

It's not panic buying that strips the shelves. Only complete divvys think it leads to shortages that panic buying does.

As soon as the arrows come off the floors I built my stock back up.

I'm far more concerned about food supplies being disrupted due to brexit though. The stores supermarkets had built up have I believe been used for the earlier on in the year panic buyers. Not completely sure though.

But all the preppers will be ready. Ready to take the blame for panic buyers... Again

I understand, I do the same every winter Oldbagface.

We can get snow disrupting deliveries and it seems quite normal to build up during autumn. This year we just have never run down stocks. (Except when we could LEAVE stock on the shelves or skip a shop when problems occured at lockdown!)

@imdonenow it's killing thousands on the continent and dozens here, right now.

I hate supermarkets, so tend to shop once a month, filling up my freezer and larder. As we’re rural as winter approaches I always buy more because if there is snow or ice, we can’t get to a shop. So I’m sure people think I’m “stockpiling” because I buy more than one of everything. If people want a few of everything in their cupboards, I don’t see a problem.

That should have read 'its not. It's panic buying that strips the shelves'

Panic buying. Just don't do it man.

@MadamHoooch

Threads like these are completely irresponsible

Feel free to ignore them

I havent picked up extra for a second wave but we always always have extra in because of weather where we live, so I have more than we need at any one time as we've been caught out many a time before!

What is the inevitable we are prepping for ?!

Feel free to ignore them

You aren't the thread police; I can comment on what I like. Feel free to disagree with me. 👍

Inevitable second wave?

I have prepped. Never had 'backstock' in my pantry before but after last time I saw that having a month or so stock of staples is utterly practical.
What with covid AND brexit looming ahead, I sincerely advise others to do the same. The supply chain is reasonably robust but it works on 'just in time' principles, so does not cater well to rapid upsurges in demand like we saw in the last lockdown (toilet rolls, beans, tinned tomatoes, sugar etc). Add to that lorries backed up at ports and fresh produce will be affected too.
It's not stockpiling if it's stuff that you would buy anyway and are going to be able to use regularly.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with stockpiling, gradually over weeks and months. The bag of pasta your neighbour bought a couple of months ago has already been replaced! It’s panic buying that’s the problem - where people go out and buy any old shit in one go that leads to shortages. In fact stockpiling sensibly in advance is a responsible action. These people are unlikely to be stripping the shelves in a panic as they’ve been sorted for weeks.
Having said that - we haven’t prepped this time, maybe we should have done, but it’s too late now. It genuinely would be panic buying now!

No, but I’m thinking about it.

@froggygoneacourting

The stockpiling/shortages thing is actually a myth.

An economist online did a deep dive into the numbers released by the supermarkets, and only something like 7% of people were bulk buying. The shortages were actually caused by large numbers of people buying only slightly more than they needed.

British supermarkets operate on a “just in time” system which is very fragile; the tiniest interruption to supply chains (like a snowstorm) or unanticipated increase in demand can lead to empty shelves very quickly.

According to ONS data 50% of meals in the UK (pre-COVID) were eaten outside of the house, that includes school lunches, restaurant means, takeaways, supermarket and coffee shop ready-to-eat foods, and of course most working people eat lunch out of the house. Lockdown meant the vast majority of people who’d normally eat at least a third of their meals at school/work/out where suddenly eating all their meals at home. That meant millions of people had no choice but to buy more - not because they were hoarding but because they had extra food requirements placed on their household. If you suddenly have to make lunch 5 times a week for 4 people, that’s 20 extra meals a week. So you have to buy extra food.

The media cynically exploited images of people bulk-buying and juxtaposed then with images of elderly people crying in front of empty shelves in order to manipulate the public into blaming each other and creating scapegoats among the general public. All through this pandemic the government and the media have tried to create scapegoats from amongst the public (disabled people, medically vulnerable people, people on beaches, shoppers) to avoid blame falling on them for their own failures. It’s classic media manipulation.

The reason we had empty shelves is because millions of people needed to but two packs of pasta when they’d normally buy one, not because of a tiny minority bulk buying. And if the government had been competent and not dragged their heels on announcing lockdown and employed such poor and last minute communication throughout, supermarkets could have altered their supply chains accordingly, in the same way they do before every Christmas or other any other occasion linked to an increase in demand.

Perfect analysis! Yet more blame given to blameless people who ought to be able to rely on a govt.

No, I thought it best to have no food in beyond what I need that day so I can feel smug about not stockpiling

Oh
Wait
That would be idiotic

Yeah, I've kept levels high in case we needed to do a two week isolation. We haven't, so we still have plenty
I now know I need more chocolate than I ever thought possible

I'm far more concerned about food supplies being disrupted due to brexit though. The stores supermarkets had built up have I believe been used for the earlier on in the year panic buyers. Not completely sure though.

100% on brexit. But supermarkets don't build up stores like that (I work for one) - it's the 'just-in-time' supply chain now.

Why do we need to shop more food now if there is a lockdown (genuinely!) I find this all quite perplexing

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

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

Aka 'stockpiling'

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

Aka 'stockpiling'

I'm asking if people had bought a few extras with each shop in anticipation of the inevitable.

Aka 'stockpiling'

I have bought the odd extra tin of toms or bag of pasta over the last few months with each weekly shop.

Aka 'stockpiling'

You are literally describing "Stockpiling". You might not define it as that, but if you are genuinely buying extra items every week, over the course of months, then what on earth other than a 'pile' of 'stock' would you describe your now accumulated hoard of items that far exceeds what you would ordinarily expect to use in the course of a normal week as?

FWIW, I'm not in any way critical of you for doing it, but for god's sake, it is what it is.

Isn't this better than panic buying?

I'm buying bigger, so instead of my usual packet of rice I've bought a 5kg bag, I've also got 3kg bags of pasta but that's only 6 meals so when you eat loads of pasta that's not a huge amount really. I'm buying it due to brexit as a friend said their could be issues for rice and pasta so I'd rather have a bit extra!

No. We are a household of 6, and the more I buy, the more they eat.

Rates are also 12.2 per 100,000 in my county, so I will be singularly unimpressed if there is any hint of a lockdown in the imminent future.

@MadamHoooch

Feel free to ignore them

You aren't the thread police; I can comment on what I like. Feel free to disagree with me. 👍

You were the one attempting to be thread police, I just suggested you ignore threads you disapprove of.

🙄🙄🙄

Iv got 3 tins of plum tomatoes cos I picked them up by mistake and my mum (83) has 6 packets of batchelors pasta in sauce cos it was on offer in morrisons for 50p.
Wont be buying extra, we survived the last lockdown, I expect to survive again hopefully

Nothing extra but I learnt the hard way how quickly supermarkets could leave you stuck. Now I use a small supermarket - less choice but more slots. I use Deliveroo for small top up shops. Plus a fruit and veg box. It does cost more but you don’t have all your eggs in one basket.