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.

Surely those who are buying a few extra during times of plenty in order to build a proper larder and therefore do not need to adjust their purchasing habits when the shit hits the fan are actually doing a favour to those who are unable to do so for any reason? As the former will be able to cope without buying more so there will be more available for the latter.

Fwiw I've seen reduced pasta and flour in Sainsburys recently.

Exactly Lemming.

No. There was nothing I couldn't get during the first lockdown that I needed. I shopped as normal. There was no pasta but I can live without that for a few weeks.

I had a Brexit stockpile last time, and had started adding to it again recently (for Brexit, not another lockdown), but noticed that some things are quite few and far between on the shelves (there was a another thread about this in AIBU I think) eg the sort of tinned fruit I usually buy.

We were glad of our stockpile last time - we already had loo roll and there was a short period when there wasn't much in the way of fresh fruit so we were glad of the tins. I would definitely advise making sure you have enough loo roll and some tins/packets of soup or something else you may not find that exciting to eat but would keep you going for a few days if eg you had to self-isolate.

Well I have a "stockpile" of two weeks worth of supplies. I work in education and it seems obvious to me that my family will be called upon to self isolate for 2 weeks at some point. Its not excessive but but if we are isolating I dont want to be going out to shop. Seems sensible to me. Its not the equivalent of two weeks worth of shopping but I have tins to make chickpea curry or lentils to make a chilli. Beans and soup for lunches. A few freezer meals.

MN privilege showing again. Some people literally live week to week, not everyone can afford to have a 2 week stash in.

No I don't think I will be.i did stock up last time and we had enough food in for the first fortnight of lockdown but afterwards we found it relatively easy to get online deliveries and our local greengrocer was delivering too so we didn't go without.

Irresponsible thread

Yes, I cleared out some space during lockdown and filled it with essentials by the end of August. It is now on strict rotation with my usual shop. I am a single parent and therefore feel it is essential I can keep out of the way should I show symptoms.

I didn’t starve during the first lockdown so I don’t see any need to prep for the second. The food supply has been stable throughout the pandemic. This time it isn’t the same anyway - people are still going to work, restaurants are open, it’s hardly a lockdown in the same sense.

I bought a few extra things in case we need to isolate for 2 weeks. Not enough to get us through two weeks, to be fair. I wouldn't have space to store it. Last time around I started doing a weekly shop, rather than picking up bits every couple of days, and I have pretty much stuck to that routine, so my shop is bigger than pre-pandemic.

What I thought was irresponsible last time was people taking up the delivery slots when they were not elderly/ vulnerable/ didn't have a car. It seemed pretty clear to me that we were asked not to do that.

What a way to encourage people to buy more shit they don’t need.

Christ on a bike we don’t need people buying 200000 rolls of toilet roll and enough pasta to feed the whole world.

I really hope people don’t start panic buying again. As if life isn’t crap enough already!

No buying extras but last night I booked online delivery slots until mid October.

I'm due to be shielding before an operation on October 24th which may or may not happen and wanted to make sure I didn't have to break that to go shopping.

I have in a way, in the same way as I prepped for the first. Have been buying a couple of extra tins, dry goods and snacks since June. It was a godsend before the first wave since I then didn't need to visit the big supermarket for months and I could just pop to the local independent supermarket for fresh goods and didn't need to do a big shop at all during the entire lockdown. Worked really well for me, so I've carried on. I live very rural so it helps to have extras in as we inevitably end up stranded for a few days to a week every year due to weather or illness anyway, so it's useful to have a few spares. I've also upgraded my freezer for one wirh bigger freezer space. The one I have now has really small awkward drawers so it will be useful to have a bit of extra space to stick a pint of milk and a loaf of bread in. I don't know why people are being so arsey on here though, given that technically we could be required to isolate at any time. It's not so easy to get deliveries here, slots are few and far between, and it would be a massive ballache to have to ask someone to do an entire food shop for 6 to be dropped off as opposed to picking up just a few bits. Peppers were not to blame for the shortages! It was surely people needing to buy far more shopping than normal because everyone was at home all of the time so needing more food than usual. Plus I was safely at the point of not needing to shop at all during the shortages stage because I had enough in from buying the odd extra for MONTHS in advance.

I have to shield. Online slots can be hard to come by.

I worry about when the second wave/winter flu takes hold, Christmas rush plus Brexit panic happens. It's the perfect storm IMO.

We’ve got 72 eggs due to a slight miscalculation of how many eggs are in a box and fat fingers doing an online shop. Does that count? 6 boxes of 12 is not the same as one box of 6....

One day last year Tesco's decided they weren't fulfilling orders in my area "because it was too windy" so they cancelled me but I could go in myself back then as it was pre-COVID.

@PinkPiranha11

I don’t get why people do this??? You can still go to the supermarket even in full lockdown.

I was working throughout. After work the shelves were bare of anything except junk food. No fresh fruit and veg, meat, tinned tomatoes, pulses, rice and so on. Fine for those who could queue at 9am!

I've been trying to keep 2 weeks worth of essentials in, for isolation purposes. I'm now adding extra pasta and a few tins each week, but only buying what we need. We've only just finished the extra stock of pasta I bought last time so seems sensible to add another 3kg bag now then to continue to buy as normal.

I've made a point of ensuring I have enough of some products in case of further lockdowns, isolating or problems with supply chain. I've done this over the summer when there was plenty of supply. 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!

It's wise to be prepared at the moment, especially if we have a mini lockdown and a family has to self isolate.

@SpilltheTea

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

Not proper starve. But I am underweight and have 'safe' foods I usually eat, so I'd prefer to have those in the house.

I have a stockpile I started about 18 months ago due to Brexit. Yes, I used the 's' word! Now I only need to keep it topped up. I have probably about a month's worth. I don't drive, am underweight and have certain food requirements, and can't easily get out so it's been very handy to have, especially when lockdown started in March and delivery slots were like hens' teeth to find.

I think it's a very sensible precaution to have extra food/essentials on hand, in some countries it's strongly recommended that people do that (e.g. Japan, Switzerland).

If the people who can have good stocks of things at home built up gradually when there's good supply it helps everyone. Supermarkets don't keep big warehouses of stock because storing food is expensive. Much better and cheaper for the store of food to be in all our ladders, than in a supermarket warehouse.

This does assume those with good stores of food do sit back for a bit when things are scarce though.

During last lockdown we ran down our stocks alot and bought less at supermarket- easing pressure on the supply chain. It feels very odd though to be running down stock when you're normally in a 'keep the freezer full' mindset and I wonder how many peppers found themselves mentally able to live off their stocks for a bit rather than still trying to keep them full.

Yes. We did the first time, starting in early February and just buying a few extra things from lots of different shops (no supply issues created here). We didnt have to go to a big supermarket for 2 months and then it was just for perishable food. The shelves were clear of pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes etc but we didnt need those at that point as we had prepared.

Doing the same now. Have been anticipating a second wave for a while so have been adding a few extras to each shop for weeks. We will then continued to buy milk, butter, cheese, fruit and veg and bread from our local shop knowing that we will only have to go once a fortnight and can be in and out quickly.

For those saying supermarkets will be fine, that may be the case but do people really want to risk the awful scenes of panic buying from last time? People stripping the shelves and leaving nothing for others? It was also a faff having to queue for ages so why would people want to do that weekly if they dont have to.

Also, you risk transmission in busy supermarkets.