I suspect it’s not panic buying but lots of people sensibly and totally predictably buying a little extra to normal in anticipation of cv, winter illness, bad weather, brexit...
But the supermarkets and suppliers/manufacturers FAILED to properly plan for this!
Supply chains have adjusted except they haven’t! I’m already having trouble getting certain items.
I prep as much as I can with adding a little more than I need to weekly shop, something I started doing a few years back following Brexit result and stepped up after “beast from the east” hit us hard (we’re on a main road and yet were snowed in!) but limited funds and space mean certain things I struggle to do this with.
No, no one is panic buying here In the SE last time the SE seemed less affected than more remote areas. Here in rural Scotland we were hit quite hard, we seemed to be forgotten by suppliers and retailers. One retailer in particular seemed not to give a shit about its Scots customers!
@SquidgeBum where are you? Because certainly where I am there were problems getting basics - milk, bread etc
I’m veggie so a turkey shortage wouldn’t affect me but I still feel for those it would. That said I think as per pps if anything due to smaller gatherings and also no office parties etc if anything I think turkey farmers are going to find themselves with a lot of excess turkeys! I predict massively reduced turkeys available Christmas week.
Thankfully supermarket staff will curtail this as they know this will happen. they were very slow to react last time and no evidence this time will be any better. They focused on profit but ironically NOT preparing for what seems to me obvious increase in sales at this time means they’ll likely not profit as much as they could have! Seems very short sighted and poor business practice
As far as I remember, we could all go shopping quite easily. wow! How quickly people forget! Not all of us can actually. Some of us are disabled, housebound, need to shield/self isolate etc
Some of us are also fearful of Brexit price rises as we’re ALREADY on a tight budget!
and even if you do need to isolate there are deliveries and even takeaways if you can't get a delivery right away. again - things quickly forgotten! It was murder in March, April and even into May getting delivery slots. Takeaways ditto where I am. If you’re reliant on deliveries as I am this is a major problem, but then I do think there were a lot of people getting deliveries who didn’t need to.
@TableFlowerss you seriously need to do some reading on Brexit. We really aren’t a big enough “customer” for other country’s manufacturers and wholesalers to be worried about us not buying, they’ve the rest of the world to sell to! We however are VERY much dependent on EU trade, not only for EU final products but for our “Uk made” products ingredients, raw materials, tools etc AND for items from the rest of the world which come to us via EU distribution routes and warehouses.
Even the govt knows and acknowledges all this they’re just keeping it very very quiet!
@heyahun it’s all very well advocating reusables - how are people meant to keep them sanitary and therefore not making them ill if they can’t sterilise/wash them properly because there’s no detergent etc?