Panic buying

[KeithMacdonald]

[tigerburnie]

4 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

I think it's wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to late now

[black and decker boy]

We are going to wait until mid week when shelves restocked before our stock up though we stocked up for Brexit and have batch cooked meals on ice (we have a 5yr old with no patience) so only really need toilet roll & frozen rice.

 

I’m taking the opportunity to panic buy ale though as my Xmas stockpile has now run out.

[Platform 1]

54 minutes ago, Busmansholiday said:

Do what everybody did decades ago, cut them into small squares and nail them to the back of the toilet door.

 

Except that... at some point since the fifties/sixties, istr newspaper ink changed to a non-fully-drying type in order to assist newsprint recycling.  So whilst agreeing re-use of newspaper squares on the back of the bog door would be useful, I'm not sure I want an inky bottom.

 

Cue jokes about rubber stamping...

 

[Erichill16]

26 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

I would agree, I have been diagnosed coeliac for 14 years, and the products are much better.

From the experience of the store I have worked in for the last 13 years (though it is not my department) , there is a delivery each day, though not necessarily of all gf lines. 

It is the case in our store that pretty much all stock is on the shelves each day, we hold next to nothing in the warehouse,  

 

cheers

Hopefully us with gluten intolerance aren’t going to starve then!

thanks Robert

[jjb1970]

Might be wise to avoid fiery vindaloos for a while.

[John M Upton]

My dad has several copies of the Farmers Weekly available, a traditional loo roll substitute in rural farming communities which thanks to the shiny pages means it is also wipe clean and reusable...

[sandwich station]

5 hours ago, Tony Davis said:

There was a certain rough type of paper available in my youth, always reminded me of greaseproof paper but with the texture of wet and dry! The council bogs seemed to be well supplied with it back then.

 

You just reminded me that when I was little, my grandparents had that.   

[polybear]

9 hours ago, BobM said:

 

As a (past) beekeeper myself, I have often pondered if honey would be so popular if it was marketed as basically what it is....'Bee Sick' !

 

Bob

 

You just put this Bear right off Honey....

 

[Chris M]

I'm going to do some panic buying today -

a couple of boxes of Interior filler for making scenery

some plasticard sheets for making buildings

a couple of paintbrushes - mine never seem to stay good for long

some butane gas for my live steamer out in the garden

some horticultural grit for my garden railway ballast

 

That should keep me going for a few weeks.

[tomparryharry]

14 hours ago, Furness Wagon said:

I'm hoping to encourage the panic buying of kits. These will be the easiest way of passing the two weeks of solitary confinement  that you will all be facing. Also buy now and you might avoid the shut down of the postal service. Buy now come on you know you want to!!!! You will need at least 10 wagons to last the two weeks.

 

Marc

 

Yes; same here. Should the zomboid apocalypse happen, I'll have enough to see me safe for a year or so. 

 

"A mineral a day makes the sanity stay".  

[Nick C]

16 hours ago, Rivercider said:

I suppose it all depends on circumstances.

The virus might only cause one person to undertake a two week self-isolation.

Imagine though they normally do a two-weekly shop, and also care for an elderly relative who cannot, or would not shop, for themselves in the circumstances, and one or the other of them might contract the virus. Then now they are looking at 2 + 2 + 2 weeks  worth of shopping.

 

cheers

I reckon you've sussed it - they've worked out that they need 2+2+2 weeks worth, so they've gone and bought 222 week's worth...

 

We've been buying quite a lot of the non-perishable stuff in bulk for a couple of years now (rice, pasta, cat food, loo roll etc), simply because it works out cheaper. One box of 48 toilet rolls lasts us 7 or 8 months, so those stacked trolleys in some of the photos would represent about two years worth for us!

 

Even worse is the bread - given that it only last a few days, what's the person a couple of pages ago buying 12 loaves going to do - they'll almost certainly waste 11 of them...

[Reorte]

16 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Even worse is the bread - given that it only last a few days, what's the person a couple of pages ago buying 12 loaves going to do - they'll almost certainly waste 11 of them...

 

You can freeze bread, but buying 12 loaves suggests a pretty big freezer (assuming they're not planning on living off bread and water!)

[jjb1970]

It's not much different from Christmas where most shops being closed for one day triggers preparations to survive a nuclear winter.

[hayfield]

12 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Certainly agree that the product range is improving. I’ve only be on the ‘diet’ for just over a year but people have told me things have improved dramatically. Still missing Eccles cakes, and jam rolly polly, and stew and dumplings and ........

Anyway thanks for easing my fears.

Robert

 

Many folk have a totally false perception of how much stock supermarkets hold, shops now hold very little stock in their own storage areas with the exception of chilled products, the idea being stock is only showed when on show, everytime a product is handled profit is reduced, surplus stock ties up working capital. Stock comes in off the lorry and goes straight out on the shelves (handled once), there will always be a certain amount of reserve stock but it is kept to a minimum. At times like Christmas and Easter stock levels are increased to cover very high buying peaks. 

 

Both customer buying habits and shop stock replenishment have both changed over the years. Go into most supermarkets first thing in the morning and the shelves are full, go in late afternoon and early evening and they are empty as most large supermarkets restock overnight, during the day topping up occurs on either high selling items or what are called overs.

 

The panic buying in all but a few items may result in short term unavailability, which in most cases will rectify its self in a few days. You may have to buy an alternative product for a while.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I've been panic buying bags of ballast.   i'm ready for two weeks of enforced ballasting.

[tomparryharry]

" Ok, lets see..."

 

Tinned Soup?  Check

Tinned rice pudding? Check

Plastic milk? Check

Tinned baked beans? Check

Tea bags? Check

Rice? Check

Pasta? Check

Tinned meat?  Check

 

.....Oh, and a diet Coke...... Just the one......

[spikey]

12 hours ago, black and decker boy said:

 ... so only really need toilet roll & frozen rice.

Gosh.  I didn't even know you could buy frozen rice.  Anyhow, when I did my usual sparrowfart sweep of Morrison's today I noticed the shelves were brimming with bogrolls, kitchen towels, paracetamols and hand "sanitiser", albeit with a limit of two per punter on the latter.

 

Two hours later, however, a neighbour prevailed upon me to get her a few bits and bobs from Waitrose if I was passing it, which is what I normally do on account of all the bullsh1t with which they bombard the chattering classes offends my sensibility (who comes up with nonsense like "You can taste when eggs come from happy hens" on a big window poster, and why are they not stoned to death for their pains?).  Sorry, where was I ... oh yes ... not a bogroll to be had in Waitrose, nor even a pack of kitchen towel!  Don't know about hand "sanitiser" as in my haste to get out of the place I didn't look ...

Edited March 9, 2020 by spikey
the inevitable typo

[Nearholmer]

Waitrose does seem to have particular problems. We shop there for several reasons, not least being that it is a five minute bike ride away, and it has been stripped of flour, pasta, loo rolls, tinned fish, and a few other things every day, early in the day, for the past week.

 

Two possibilities strike me:

 

- they generally stock quite low on these things to keep more shelf-space for higher-margin items, of which they stock a lot, whereas Tesco and others devote a lot of shelf-space to ‘essentials’;

 

- the customers are above averagely greedy, paranoid, or old.

 

I think it is a combination, with ‘old’ being a really important factor, as people realise that the older you are, the bigger the risks, so older people are already beginning to go into self-imposed siege.

[didcot]

Went to our local Tesco yesterday afternoon for Optrex as I had managed to get some crud in my eye. They only had the large ones left. No Pasta, tin tomatoes or toilet roll. Why the coffee pods had sold out is beyond me! One check out assistant was looking rather worried as she told a family they had exceeded the amount they could purchase of certain items.

Our youngest is a very bad eater so I did stock up on Rice Crispies, chips, nachoes and waffles for him. He also has juvenile arthritis and being on immunosuppressants I made sure we had some extra nurofen just in case. Plenty of the Tesco own brand, but not the usual Calpol branded stuff. Beats me! Still there was a large supply of half price Easter eggs and a shelf full of Corona beer! 

[Nearholmer]

Part of the psychology of this may be that people are scared, and feel generally helpless, so are desperate to do something, anything, however pointless or counterproductive, to make them feel as if they are in control of their destiny, and creating a stash fulfils that need.

 

That's probably a long way round of saying 'people are a bit panicky', but at least some are.

 

Good job we don't live in the USA, because I suspect that there people might get tempted to stash not only loo-rolls but ammunition ......... after all, its the stuff of so much 'box set' apocalypse telly.

[Ron Ron Ron]

1 hour ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

I've been panic buying bags of ballast.   i'm ready for two weeks of enforced ballasting.

 

I've heard it's OK on toast, if you get a bit desperate for food.

A bit crunchy though and it can get stuck in-between your teeth.

 

 

.

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

I've heard it's OK on toast, if you get a bit desperate for food.

A bit crunchy though and it can get stuck in-between your teeth.

 

 

...Oh!  and I forgot to add;   I've heard if you mix the ballast with Cannabis, you can get stoned much quicker.

 

Mind you, I wouldn't know. I don't Tamper with the stuff myself.

 

 

Hat...Coat.......

 

 

 

.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Ron Ron Ron

[Dungrange]

18 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Part of the psychology of this may be that people are scared, and feel generally helpless, so are desperate to do something, anything, however pointless or counterproductive, to make them feel as if they are in control of their destiny, and creating a stash fulfils that need.

 

I think that is precisely the issue.  There is a sense that we should prepare for an enforced period of isolation (like in Northern Italy) to reduce the risk of being infected and/or spreading infection to others, but when will that happen? - Don't know.  What parts of the country will be most affected? - Don't know.  What should anyone be doing to 'be prepared'? - Don't know.

 

My wife bought a multi-pack of toilet roll on her last trip to the supermarket.  Why?  Well it was apparently because everyone else seems to be buying it.  Since no-one really knows the best way to prepare, they tend to copy others and that creates the problem.  I also read an article where a psychologist stated that when we panic we are usually drawn to grabbing larger items such as toilet roll, as we tend to think that size is important - ie we want to grab the biggest thing we can find and there isn't too much that bigger than a multi-pack of toilet rolls.

[Reorte]

8 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

...Oh!  and I forgot to add;   I've heard if you mix the ballast with Cannabis, you can get stoned much quicker.

 

Mind you, I wouldn't know. I don't Tamper with the stuff myself.

 

 

Hat...Coat.......

.

That is really about as groanworthy as they come - I'm impressed!