Panic buying

Advised my daughter to always keep some bread and milk in the freezer for emergencies. Now she does and was pleased she didn’t have to go to the shops in the snow as she had everything else in the cupboards.

I shopped on Saturday morning at Tesco and didn't see many empty shelves - although we got horrible snow it's generally much kinder to us here in the East Midlands.
I always dread having to go out in it but really, it was only ankle deep which is nothing compared to other regions.
I had to make a special journey during the week to get more cat food and litter as I was getting short. I don't mind getting a bit short of things for me but not for puss.

Well said Elogran, that's what we had to do when our children were small , stock up , 3 children under 4years old, no car , I always had tins of food in and a well stocked freezer in case I couldn't get out , I would never had wanted to drag DC out in bad weather,

I'm in the SE, just inside the M25. There was bread and potatoes when I went to Sainsburys on Thursday and we got a delivery fom Morrisons late Wednesday night with milk and everything else we needed. But just after Xmas, I think between Xmas and NYE, the local Asda ran out of bread. It is often very low first thing early in the morning. They are open 24/7. Not sure if that makes a difference.

We had plenty of notice and I took heed. I had milk including a few long life and bread including half-baked. I had tins of soup and all sorts of things in the freezer. I could have fed hubby and me for a month if necessary without wasting anything. I live down a lane and have learned to do this over the years. I also took the opportunity to defrost my freezer leaving the food in bin liners in the garden under snow whilst I did.

The only thing we bought in larger quantities was a supply of vegetables to make soup.
We have not noticed people filling trolleys with bread and milk, we are a stoic lot up here in the north.

I’m in the south east and there has been hardly any bread or milk for days in all our major supermarkets....it’s quire shocking. The shelves are actually bare. Strangely too, they e been completely out of digestive biscuits too!

My nephew is a farmer and he posted on F/B a photo of thousands of litres of milk from his cows being poured down the drain. Apparently the tankers couldn’t get through! And we live in an area that wasn’t one of the worst affected by the snow !

The thing is Elegran many young people are not financially able to stock pile or they don’t have any space . My DD lives in a tiny little starter ( box ) home barely room to breath and no cupboards or garage .

Let them eat cake?

Well in Asda near to me they said they hadn’t had a bread delivery since Wednesday etheltbags I managed to get my dad a small whole meal loaf which was all that was left on Thursday morning. Nothing since then .

Some people are daft - and greedy.

Absolutely ridiculous Tegan ! How did they expect people to get to work ? Hospital appointments ? Emergencies ? Etc. They were saying they would have to queue and be taken through in convoys once an hour or so ???? Oh that’s fine then . All to save money !

I asked the checout girl who said it was due to panic buying. They were rationing bread today. I just bought 4 bread rolls which will last me till monday as i live alone. There are 4 asdas near me and i saw people piled up with bread yeasterday. The temperature is now 3 degrees and raining so will be gone soon.

Gave some supplies to DD this afternoon, the local shop was out of certain things.The supermarkets will have plenty though I guess, as the roads here are all fine now.
We always have plenty in ( the just in case factor!) with bread in the freezer and long life milk and plenty of tins.

A bit of both with the bread I would think

So overall, what OP observed what almost certainly not the result of panic buying. Simples!

West Country farmers are having to dispose of their milk because the transport can't get through to collect it. One farmer said she had to get rid of 9,000 litres a day.

So if there's no milk on the supermarket shelves it is probably not because of panic buying.

Our generation is more likely to keep a full store cupboard than younger people. DS phoned to check I was OK and ask how many meals I had in hand When I said about a week's worth he was amazed, I am supposed to be the vulnerable old lady but I was more prepared than he was. It dates back to the days when I had three very small children and no car, so I had to have enough food to survive a few days of bad weather without getting everyone kitted up to drag them on foot through the storm.

I'm in northern Scotland and there was no bread and little milk yesterday in the city. It's down to lorries not getting through, not panic buying.

The village where my daughter lives has just one Coop, which had its first delivery today since Tuesday. They had no fresh goods left at all. Even now they only received a half load but it was enough to ensure all the elderly and vulnerable had supplies and some left. They'd had no buses, either, since Tuesday so had no option to go elsewhere!

gillybob; there were going to be roadworks on the A1 last Monday and traffic was going to be diverted through Bamburgh. Thankfully it was cancelled, not because of the weather [or so I've been led to believe] but because it would have entailed having to take down the war memorial on the roundabout at Seahouses. Can you imagine hundreds of lorries going round that sharp bend just after Budle Bay?

Of course I feel desperate about those who live on the streets with no help or possibility of a warm bed and nourishing food, the elderly and unwell living alone with little or no heating and little food but the OP is asking about panic buying so will confine my thoughts to that : the bad weather was forecast well ahead of its arrival. In anticipation of our village being cut off, if only for a few days, I bought a good supply of milk, bread and other staples in advance. DD ran out of milk as did the one and only shop within 5 miles so I was able to give her a spare bottle. So long as the electricity isn't cut off most people have a freezer and as I've done in the past, you can always put perishables outside the back door in the snow in an Eski. During the winter of 2010/11 when living in Scotland, we were stuck unabke to drive to a shopfor over 4 weeks and just lived out of the store cupboard and freezer. It's a case of looking ahead and preparing for the expected/unexpected. If most people did this there wouldn't be the mad panic to strip the supermarket shelves in preparation for Armageddon.

P:erhaps, like me, they had enough tins in the cupboard and food in the fridge and freezer to tide them over, but ran out of the things that need to be bought fresh? I ran out of milk but had a tin of evaporated so used that. I made bread with the last of my bread flour There was more flour and more tinned milk on the Tesco online order that was already due to be delivered on Wednesday, ordered before the freeze descended, but deliveries were cancelled. My fingers are crossed for the re-order on Tuesday.

A friend of mine, like myself, has not been out for days but her sister went shopping in Berwick and there was no fruit or vegetables. I do not know if it was a mix of supply or panic buying.

Another in Falkirk could not buy fresh milk but that would be a supply problem. She could get bread but not necessarily what she wanted.

The big thaw has started in London so I am pleased about that.

gillybob that's journalists for you, all they want is a good story and people stockpiling makes news.

We came over to France on Wednesday. We always have an emergency supply of tins and stores in the house here, but we did call into a supermarket on our way from the ferry to buy some butter, milk, bread and bottles of wine (one of each, except the wine) just in case the promised overnight snow blocked us in. It didn't but one winter we were snowed in for several days.