Panic buying

[JeremyC]

At our local Tesco this morning; flour was limited to 3 bags per customer, might seem reasonable, except it was stacked up and marked as reduced price to clear!

[jonny777]

51 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Surely you have realised that that particular 'god' motivates all commercial activity worldwide - I'm afraid that particular crusade was lost very many years ago!

 

John Isherwood.

 

Does that mean we have to stick our fingers in our ears and shout 'La la la I'm not listening' while images of UK shops with empty shelves (which many would have guffawed at if it had been Russia a few years ago) are beamed around the world every time someone in authority mentions lockdown? 

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Shelves might be empty. But that's only down to idiots buying things they don't need.

 

Loads of stuff in the warehouses. Just that people have to move the items around the country and then restock them.

 

If Covidiots stopped buying things they don't need then the shelves would be fine.

 

 

Russia is a good example. If you were caught hording food then a one way trip to Siberia would be the result....

[cctransuk]

15 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

Does that mean we have to stick our fingers in our ears and shout 'La la la I'm not listening' while images of UK shops with empty shelves (which many would have guffawed at if it had been Russia a few years ago) are beamed around the world every time someone in authority mentions lockdown? 

 

 

 

No - because it's happening all around the globe; do you not watch the news on TV?

 

Think about it for a moment.

 

I manufacture toilet rolls, and I know how many I can sell to the supermarkets in any one (normal ) week. So I produce that many toilet rolls per week - no more, no less.

 

Then along comes a global virus and the idiots - worldwide - panic and start bulk-buying.

 

The supermarkets could panic in their turn, and try to double / treble / quadruple their weekly order; (I suspect that they don't bother because they know they'd be wasting their time).

 

Why would they be wasting their time? Because my factory can only produce the same number of toilet rolls per week as it did pre-crisis.

 

Why would I have been daft enough to build a factory capable of producing two / three / four times as many toilet rolls as I can sell (unless their is a Covid-19 crisis)?

 

A little thought before posting goes a long way!

 

John Isherwood.

[melmerby]

There must be warehouses with stocks in, as food is often made seasonally.

Tomato products such as pasta sauces are made after the tomato harvest in Italy.

I've been buying the same Italian pasta sauce and it has had the same production date for ages.

English peas for freezing are only harvested once a year, same with grains, main crop spuds etc.

All are stored in warehouses/cold stores until needed.

 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Supermarkets don't have that area of spare storage space - in fact, most have little or no storage space.

 

Try asking if they have a particular item - the answer is usually that, if it isn't on the shelf, they haven't got it!

 

John Isherwood.

 

Often true.  But also often equals "I can't be bothered to go and look out the back, so I'll give 'em the standard "we haven't got it" line....

[jonny777]

9 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

 

 

A little thought before posting goes a long way!

 

John Isherwood.

 

Rather ironic, don't you think? 

 

Given the patronising attitude of your replies? 

[jonny777]

3 minutes ago, melmerby said:

There must be warehouses with stocks in, as food is often made seasonally.

Tomato products such as pasta sauces are made after the tomato harvest in Italy.

I've been buying the same Italian pasta sauce and it has had the same production date for ages.

English peas for freezing are only harvested once a year, same with grains, main crop spuds etc.

All are stored in warehouses/cold stores until needed.

 

 

 

Our Mr Isherwood has never been to a vineyard. 

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

Why? 

 

Someone is storing it somewhere, otherwise it can't be delivered 'just in time' and that costs too. Why is it so much more expensive for supermarkets to store it and cut shelf space? Do shoppers really need to see 100ft of cola bottles in order to buy one?

 

And if you are going to reply that supermarkets tend to be in high rates areas, then someone ought to slap on an environmental cost tax, for warehouses built on Greenfield sites. 

In a lot of cases nobody is storing much of 'it' anywhere.  Yes, the distribution depots do have room for lots of stock but that is because they have to take in most items in bulk and then breakdown and reorganise that bulk in order to deliver a mixed load to the retail outlets.  So with many items the depots themselves only hold enough stock for a few days - the amount depending on what the items are and where they come from.

 

Example - Waitrose grow most of their own mushrooms (certainly for south of England depots/shops), along with various items of veg,  on their (actually John Lewis group owned) farm not all that far from Andover.  That farm picks mushrooms on most days of the week and sends a bulk lorry load to Waitrose depots.  Thus the Bracknell depot receives a lorry load of mushrooms (along with other veg items) from the farm on most days of the week and it immediately starts distributing that stuff to the shops it supplies.  So within a day or two the whole of that lorry load will have left the distribution depot and it only restocks those items when the next load arrives from the farm.

 

Overall the company knows how demand works for various types of mushrooms so the number picked each day is driven largely, if not entirely, by what the shops are ordering.  The company uses casual labour to pick the mushrooms so can decide each day how many people it needs from its contractor supplying that labour.  The warehouse also has a noticeable percentage of its workforce supplied as casual labour by a contractor so it decides for each day/shift how many casuals it needs and orders them from the contractor.  So all the time the company - in this case Waitrose - is managing what passes through the warehouse for at east a good part of its stock turnover on a basis very much led by demand from/expected from the shops it supplies and it takes stock in on the same basis.  Stock sat on shelves costs money and does bring in any revenue. (my son used to manage a casual labour workfoce for a waitrose contract).

Edited September 29, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[cctransuk]

3 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

 

Our Mr Isherwood has never been to a vineyard. 

 

My point is that the items that are panic-bought cannot simply be restocked at the panic-buyers' whim.

 

What are we talking about? Toilet rolls, pasta, flour, milk. All of these have to be manufactured or processed - and the capacity to double / treble / quadruple output is simply non-existent.

 

Pointing to seasonal production only enables me to remind you that those (non-panic-bought) items are not stockpiled by the supermarkets; they are stored in bulk by the producers, who do not have the packing capacity to suddenly double / treble / quadruple output.

 

There is always a good reason why the apparently obvious solution to a crisis in supply cannot be overcome at the whim of the consumer; it only needs a little thought to work out what that might be.

 

..... and as to my exasperation with posters who repeatedly pose questions that have obvious answers - I'm human, and I put a little thought into an issue before posting; I make no apology to those who do not.

 

John Isherwood.

[cctransuk]

17 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

Rather ironic, don't you think? 

 

Given the patronising attitude of your replies? 

 

If you don't wish to accept an informed response from a fellow member; and given your location in Zummerzet, why not ask for a guided tour of the Morrisons mega-distribution depot next to the M5? I am sure that they'd be delighted to welcome you.

 

Then, perhaps, you will accept that what I have been posting is fact.

 

John Isherwood.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

 

English peas for freezing are only harvested once a year, same with grains, main crop spuds etc.

All are stored in warehouses/cold stores until needed.

 

As far as spuds, they are stored on the farm.......we have four sealed cold store “sheds” all controlled at 4 degC The spuds are collected as and when required by the buyers/manufacturers..

[raymw]

From the shop/supermarket point of view, 'hoarders' are good for business. Not much incentive for them to stop it. They want to sell the stuff, anyway, quicker the better. Especially good for perishable goods.

[jonny777]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

My point is that the items that are panic-bought cannot simply be restocked at the panic-buyers' whim.

 

What are we talking about? Toilet rolls, pasta, flour, milk.

 

Well no.

 

We were talking generally. 

 

You never said that wine was omitted. 

 

If you wish to demand your "non warehouse" policy is limited to only the items which do not need to be stored for more than a day, the so be it. 

 

I don't even agree with your initial toilet roll proposal. 

 

If I was producing toilet roll, I would always have more stock than was needed - because I am not greedy .

[cctransuk]

23 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

Well no.

 

We were talking generally. 

 

You never said that wine was omitted. 

 

If you wish to demand your "non warehouse" policy is limited to only the items which do not need to be stored for more than a day, the so be it. 

 

I don't even agree with your initial toilet roll proposal. 

 

If I was producing toilet roll, I would always have more stock than was needed - because I am not greedy .

 

What is the subject of this thread? Panic buying; are there reports of a shortage of wine due to panic buying?

 

If you were producing toilet roll, you would spend your money building a warehouse to store product that you could not sell - unless Covid-19 came along? You wouldn't stay in business for long - that's certain.

 

End of discussion (as far as my participation goes) - we are entering 'Captain Mainwaring' territory now!

 

John Isherwood.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

are there reports of a shortage of wine due to panic buying?

 

Its sure to come.

The Daily Mail kicked off the current toilet roll story, I'm expecting the Grauniad will leap on the wine waggon...

 

[andytrains]

Start panic buying in France.

The Calais Wine and Beer Wharehouse is closing on 31st December.

Free Crossing, but you will have to isolate for 14 days when you return.

Ha Ha.

 

 

[andytrains]

5 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

What is the subject of this thread? Panic buying; are there reports of a shortage of wine due to panic buying?

 

If you were producing toilet roll, you would spend your money building a warehouse to store product that you could not sell - unless Covid-19 came along? You wouldn't stay in business for long - that's certain.

 

End of discussion (as far as my participation goes) - we are entering 'Captain Mainwaring' territory now!

 

John Isherwood.

Don't panic Captain Isherwood!

Edited September 29, 2020 by andytrains

[cctransuk]

13 hours ago, andytrains said:

Don't panic Captain Isherwood!

 

That was my father - in his time of the 14th Army in Burma; and lately deceased aged 97.

 

John Isherwood.

[andytrains]

6 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

That was my father - in his time of the 14th Army in Burma; and lately deceased aged 97.

 

John Isherwood.

John.

My dad was in the Royal Navy and attached to COPP 8, (Combined Operations Pilotage Party), going into  Arakan, Burma before the main invasion in WW2.

He was a career Navy man and served 26 years.

Andy Neil.

[duncan]

In the whisky industry, we are ramping up for Christmas / New Year, so working shifts & overtime, which we only work when demand increases.  We can ramp up production at less than a week's notice.  All stored in bonded warehouses until shops need it, which will be a week or two.  

We also bottle vodka, which makes good hand sanitiser, 80% alcohol, water & hydrogen peroxide.   We do leave the hy per out of the vodka !  

[melmerby]

Had my Asda delivery today.

Not too bad, three subs (1 bottle of wine out 6 ordered, a salad & a different type of Parmesan cheese) and three OOS.

One of the best yet, I even got the quantity of dried pasta I ordered.

 

 

[burgundy]

On 29/09/2020 at 20:49, Hroth said:

 

Its sure to come.

The Daily Mail kicked off the current toilet roll story, 

 

Do sales of the Daily Mail increase when stocks of toilet paper are exhausted?

Best wishes 

Eric

[The Stationmaster]

Mrs Stationmaster is going to Tesco for her flu jab today - it's limited to one per person

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, burgundy said:

Do sales of the Daily Mail increase when stocks of toilet paper are exhausted?

Best wishes 

Eric

 

I doubt it, the Wail smears more dirt on than it removes...