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.

How many times do you have to explain to the hard of thinking that prepping is not panic buying FGS

Generally at this time of year I run the cupboards and freezer down to nothing then refill for Christmas.

This year I have not.

As we have used something I have ordered it's replacement.

This is not "panic-buying".

This is ensuring that I will never have to go to the shops and add to the chaos if other people indulge in panic-buying.

Me preparing now will leave extra things on the shelves then.

Our supply chains were robust last March.

They will not be next January and February.

I have a Brexit stash because a no deal Brexit will cause shortages due to just in time delivery being disrupted. I was glad of the loo roll and a few other things in March but didn’t need most of it as was able to get food throughout- except flour! I was glad of my milkman and started to get eggs from him and milk for my parents who live around the corner.
I have been rotary and adding to my stash since June when things eased, again it’s more for Brexit.
I think everyone should have 2 weeks worth in due to the need to self isolate with symptoms- if this coincided with being unable to get deliveries that would be difficult.
I was glad I had prepped - no need to shop during the panic buying in March. All my loo roll was bought in 2019!

am much more worried about Brexit shortages than 2nd wave induced shortages

Please for the love of sanity, don't stockpile!
I went months without plain flour..
Panic buying stripped the shelves bare

Stockpiling during times of relative plenty actually prevents panic buying. We should have been saying please do stockpile during August and September when there was plenty around and then people wouldnt be worrying about panic buyers in October.

I didnt need to buy a single packet of flour, loo roll, pasta or tinned tomatoes in March/April because I had a stockpile in the cupboard already. My stockpiling was helpful.

@TinkersTailor

The sheer amount of inconsiderate bastards that 'just bought a few extras' were the reason why people were left without pasta, toilet roll, baby milk, nappies, tins, hand soap/sanitiser, cleaning products.. during the last lockdown.

A thread like this, almost encouraging people to do so, is incredibly irresponsible.

Buying one or two extras a week over the course of months doesnt cause shortages.

Everyone doing it over the course of two weeks and buying double of everything does.

Why are people buying extra stuff and stock piling it? The supermarkets and corner shops never closed during lockdown and won't close if we have another. Its dickheads like this that cause there to be shortages of toilet roll and pasta and fights in the aisles when there really isn't a need to be. Ffs just buy what you need

For those who struggle to get flour: our local health shop stocks a range of flours as do a local deli. During shielding I'd email my order to the shop then phone them to pay once they emailed acknowledgement of the order. Email to the local mutual aid group to get it delivered and voilà. The health shop didn't have a minimum order but the deli did and delivered themselves. The children were so happy when I was able to get them veggie sweets, burgers, hot dogs and pâté too. It was such a treat after weeks of basic things when I couldn't get supermarket deliveries and had used most of my stash. Locally the community really came together to help those shielding and the independent shops got a lot of business as a result. Alternatively you can buy direct from Marriage's and I think Wessex Mills. Amazon too self flour in bulk. I read on here that the issue with flour was lack of small packaging rather than an actual flour shortage. Although we've not had a good harvest this year so that might change. If you bake a lot like me then I recommend bulk buying online if you can.

I have got extra in. I have been buying since July, and have mostly used costco and amazon - so not depleting any supermarket shelves, fear not!
I have 4 dc at home (2 flown the nest as well!). I am an NHS clinician - I work in mental health and my job for the last 2 months has been beyond horrendous, I am working super long hours with no prospect of it improving any time soon. My Dh is a teacher. Chances are between me, my Dh and our 4 dc we will need to isolate at some point. We have literally no one who could bring us food in that situation, and last time I couldnt get online deliveries from anywhere for weeks.
I also dont relish the idea of queing for ages outside a supermarket to then fight over the last packet of pasta after a 12 hour shift.
So yes, I have extra in - but I most certainly don't consider that selfish or irresposible!

Yes, I’ve got some extras in just in case we have to isolate.
But I think the supermarkets will run things better this time as they are prepared.

@CasuallyMasculine

I hate supermarkets, so tend to shop once a month, filling up my freezer and larder.

Do you never eat fresh fruit and vegetables? Grim.

Some people (like me) live within a short walk of a greengrocers or market. So will do a supermarket shop once a month for non fresh stuff and top up a couple of times a week from non supermarkets for fresh stuff.

Went last night to do my usual monthly shop in Morrisons (gluten free bits and stuff I can't get in my local Aldi) and both the sugar shelves and the flour shelves were stripped bare!! Not sure if it's a supply issue or if folks round here have started panic buying - and we arent in a potential lock down area as yet......toilet rolls were a bit sparse too

I think Ocado are talking of their arse tbh, there are loads of slots and nothing is out of stock.

Why the fuck do people panic buy flour and sugar!

Thank you @froggygoneacourting for sharing that. Exactly what I've been saying all along.
We have become so spoilt with our just in time system that people cannot get their heads around the possibility that a sudden change in lots of people's buying patterns could have had such an effect.
I continue to do as my mum and granny did, and aim to keep a 'well stocked' larder, so I can ride out any difficult times.
So yes @Oldbagface I always get a couple of extra bits.
Difficult times can be anything from zero hours contracts, sickness (not necessarily covid) redundancy, unexpected expenses, bad weather, a sudden run on the shops and probably more.
If anything it should be a lesson learnt from what happened in March. If more people keep a few extra supplies at hand, if it ever happens again there will be few heart rending pleas on Facebook from people who have found themselves with absolutely nothing.

I don't understand 'preppers' or panic buyers. You're hardly going to starve ffs

Have just ordered a load of toilet rolls as stock pile from last time diminished. Have been restocking dried and tinned goods. In my defence I'm at risk and am shielding 87 yr old mil.

@SpilltheTea did you not see any of the people posting on fb because they'd run out of baby milk/nappies/calpol?
What's the harm in having a couple of spares of things you know would cause distress?
Who wants to be in the the shops when there are shortages? Why not just prepare?
My NDN was ill and couldn't get paracetamol. I gave her some of mine.
It's not rocket science and it's honestly only this generation that hasn't maintained stocks/vegetable plots /kept chickens or whatever, because they haven't needed to.
March shows that the just in time supply chain is less robust than it seems.

Since just before the first lockdown I’ve always kept a month’s worth of his wipes, nappies and baby food in case we’ve needed to isolate. I’ve had to adjust how I manage the food as we are past the early days of weaning but the freezer is now stocked with baby friendly prepped family meals rather than purées. That way if I am unwell with it I can still give him a good meal easily and I don’t have to panic but the contents of my supermarket shop hasn’t really changed in the last month.

I’ve bought a couple of crafting things for me though, my son’s bday presents a little sooner than I planned plus a couple of bits to decorate in case. (His birthday is around half term so if the rumoured 2 week half term circuit breaker lock down happens then it will end up being just me and him for the day so they are more for me to enjoy). I also got the paint etc we need to decorate a couple of things- we had anticipated doing them over the coming few months.

I agree with others that everyone should be keeping a 2 week supply in case they need to self isolate - that seems like a no brainer to me. I too had prepped for Brexit and was glad to be able to use up my stash during lockdown. I have a special diet which means I need e.g. wholemeal pasta rather than white. But as most people buy white, that’s what the supermarkets prioritised stocking so around here I couldn’t get hold of wholemeal for months whether to eat straight away or to replenish my cupboard. So yes I am replacing what we ate to make sure I have enough in to see us through like in the original lockdown. I got one huge box of loo roll from who gives a crap which I’m hoping should do us until next year so I won’t be in the supermarket trying to buy that!

@SpilltheTea

I don't understand 'preppers' or panic buyers. You're hardly going to starve ffs

Well no. But when you can't leave the house suddenly (self isolation) and haven't got a food delivery booked for a week, then it's quite handy to know you have enough of the basics in, (especially when you have a really sick child and could do without the added stress) It's also good to know, if shielding starts up and you want to restrict the times you go to the supermarket It's also good, in our case, to have back ups of the specific foods that your child with a restricted diet eats. It was good to know (back in April) that we had enough stuff to be able to pop bits over to my mum who was also shielding, and unable to store much stuff It's also really handy not to run out of toilet paper when there are 5 of you and one has a chronic bowel condition.

@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.

I am going to repeat this post because it bears repeating. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME. It was not lots and lots of "irresponsible panic buying",

I know it is like pissing into the wind though and everyone will continue the pointless finger pointing exercise of telling people they are selfish for doing what they need to - provide for their family and ignoring that the ' just in time ' food supply chain is for the benefit of food providers as it cuts costs

But the more people who do that kind of shopping over a longer period, and that kind of problem entirely goes away, because the supermarkets - right now - can adjust and cope. My real, real worry is that supply chains are not going to cope with /normal/ levels of delivery in January. See reports from the RHA this week. The hauliers are not ready. The customs officers aren't there. The sodding customs IT isn't there. The minute gaps start appearing on the shelves, people start buying extra - we have all seen it happen, and like you say, it's a completely normal reaction and most people only buy one or two things extra. But in January, if that starts happening, we /won't/ have a functioning supply chain to stock back up again. None of this is hidden. It's not going to be a surprise to me when it happens. The panic buying in spring wasn't a surprise. I double checked our inventories in early January because you see it coming.

No. We didn’t last time and never struggled to get the things we needed, so I don’t see why it will be different this time.
The only thing that was short in our local supermarket last time was pasta, tinned tomatoes and hand sanitiser. I can thankfully manage without all of those things!

I've always kept stocked cupboards and freezer, because it's how I feel comfortable shopping and because it's always been cheaper to get non-perishables in bulk when they're on offer. We did a big shop as normal in early March and then kept out of the shops entirely during the mass buying; we also avoided or limited restocking of some items until the offers came back in the summer. I booked a couple of extra online deliveries for other households, so that vulnerable elderly relatives on both sides didn't have to join a scrum at the supermarket, but they're all set up and doing their own now. We found other sources for flour, yeast and milk during lockdown, and everyone is now all used to adding bits to deliveries for neighbours and family.

It's not a simple answer with supply chains. Lots of perishables ran out too, caused by people buying the extra lunches who would usually use restaurants; extra toilet paper because school or work suppliers are different. Some factories overseas and here closed or slowed production because of lots of staff off sick; some factories producing packaging in particular caused unexpected issues by closing. Mills ran out of bags for flour because they weren't being produced - so there was lots of flour, but no way to get it to the shops. Neighbours on our road were sharing out flour from huge sacks. Some products arrived with different packaging as companies used whatever they could get their hands on. Factories changed their lines to simplify for less staff and higher demand; some specific items still haven't come back into stock where lines were simplified back in April. Care providers had to set up deliveries, to suddenly supply food for people who used to shop for themselves. Meanwhile the restaurant and pub stockists set up new delivery channels direct to people's homes; it looks like some of that might stick as new business models.

If I were to advise anyone who struggled last time, it would not be to stock shelves unless you naturally like doing that for offers, because it can lead to wasted money in buying things that aren't needed. The best approach is to make sure you are set up with a wide range of supermarket deliveries and small local suppliers, and join neighbourhood groups or set up your own. Then when there are difficulties everyone pulls together, so #8's gluten free bread and #11's extra calpol go on our list, #28 gets us some fresh yeast by chopping up several 5kg blocks for the street etc etc.