Panic Buying

I’ve just staggered in from Sainsbury’s with 2 wineboxes of Sauvignon Blanc! After sober October, it’s going to be Mindnumbing November here.

Me too Grannyrose and our granddaughter has just left some toilet rolls in our porch

Jaxie

I can’t understand the evident alcohol dependency. There are presently people struggling to put food in their children’s mouths whilst others sozzle themselves with expensive booze. Why don’t they consider donating what they spend on alcohol to children’s charities?

So you don't enjoy a drink in the evenings. I've just finished sober October and I can tell you now I am not going to be limiting my drinking during lockdown. It's might be the only thing I've got to look forward to for months.

Shropshirelass

It is on the news thread on Yahoo this morning. Panic buying and queues, rush for emergency hair appointments.

Well I haven't been to hairdressers for over a year and had an appointment for Thursday. TBH I did Instagram her after the announcement and change it to Tuesday. My daughter was sick of me trying to cut it myself.??

I visited my local Sainsburys this morning - it was fairly busy but most of the shelves were well stocked. The staff were restocking the toilet roll shelves as fast as they were being emptied.

The shelves which seemed to be stripped were the snacks (crisps, chocolate etc.), a couple of those shelves were empty as were the some of those which normally housed the most popular ice creams!

annodomini - I am also puzzled - Supermarkets will continue exactly as usual during the lockdown, as, Indeed they did last time. My Sainsbury's was definitely far busier when I did my normal Monday morning weekly shop there today. WHY???
I would love to be able to ask these people what they thought they were doing. And, why toilet rolls again? That was the only aisles that whose shelves were nearly empty - but I am sure will be full again within 24 hours.
Would be interesting if someone would come on here to explain this sheep, herd like panic buying.
I do my shopping list as I go through each week via Alexa, and use that for my weekly shop, as I did this morning.
I will continue to do my weekly shop each Monday morning as I have done for all of this years. The supermarkets are my store cupboard.

Oh for goodness' sake! Don't people listen/read the press? Essential shops (ie food outlets) will remain open. Shops selling inessential goods will close for the four weeks. There is no need to panic either for delivery slots or for toilet rolls. If you have withdrawal symptoms because of the temporary closure of John Lewis or other favourite stores, most of them now sell on line.

My Tesco delivery was interesting this morning to say the least.

I normally go down my 'favourites' in a bish bash bosh kind of way then fine tune it the day before the order is due.

Only Tesco's website crashed yesterday so no chance.

Add in a bit of shaky finger and Peggy will not need mini gravy bone biscuits until well into next year as she is now the proud owner of 11 boxes!

If there's a national shortage you know who's to blame.

Supermarkets, really do not have much chance. Most of them put limits on how many items you can buy of popular items, but how many customers choose to shop is beyond their control and 50 extra customers, all buying one extra bag of pasta and rice, soon empty the shelves.

I can't believe the supermarkets are allowing panic buying of loo rolls. They can stop it quite easily because our nearest Asda did put limits on. Let's hope we don't run out of flour again.

There is a poem ' The Ballard of the Dunny Roll' on youtube which made us both laugh in the previous lock down.

Aepgirl

I just don’t understand why people don’t keep a well-stocked store cupboard of essentials.
Where do these selfish people store all these packs of toilet rolls, rice, pasta?

A lot couldn’t afford to. So many live week to week.

More still just had no room to keep it.

I would bet that most of the panic buyers were actually people just trying to get stock in for two weeks. In today’s convenience world, the store is always open, so it’s always been easy to just run out for something.

i struggled to get delivery slots during the last lock down but did eventually manage to get click and collect slots by logging in to Tesco at midnight when they release the next day's quotes - three weeks ahead! I continued with click and collect as I have significant mobility problems so food shopping has become very difficult.

I discovered that the Tesco delivery saver pass gives access to an extra week ie able to book four weeks ahead. It costs £8 a month but if you don't spend £8 odd orders, they give you a refund in vouchers - win win ! I now have four weekly slots booked through November which gives me peace of mind. I won't be buying more than my usual shop and will plan some flexibility in case some items are out of stock.

Went to Tesco at 3.30pm today, no shortage of anything including loo rolls.

I'm disgusted that the panic buying has already started and they are showing pictures of people with trolleys full of toilet rolls. It's totally selfish. At the start of lockdown the shelves were bare and it took me 5 weeks to get a delivery slot for groceries. It meant I finally ate the tins that were 18 month + out of date that I kept putting back. The milkman was also a Godsend as although I don't really like milk I could get basics from him so have continued to support with a few things each week. I live alone so the weekly shop I normally do doesn't include a lot but couldn't even get that
at the start. I had heard that supermarkets were going to limit things this time but it appears they haven't so I blame them too. Who knows if I'll get a delivery slot now.

Mawb2; I collect greyhounds- that picture looks like my house!!!

I have been collecting extra a bit by bit over the last few months so I now have enough food and cleaning stuff for about 5 weeks. I have to shield but for the life of me I can't get a delivery for either Waitrose or Sainsbury, despite having to shield, so its a good job I am stocked up. I now my extras and I am also pretty stocked up for Christmas. I have always bought toilet rolls in bulk online so not a problem.

Tesco's website has been down in some areas today.

We have done the same Kwest, not panic buying, just a steady upkeep of a good larder, a spare soap powder, toothpaste, etc. I consider it sensible precautions as I saw this coming and do not wish to be in a crowded supermarket. This has also been done as pre-brexit preparation, just a little bit extra every week, nothing greedy, not depriving anyone else. I get my fruit and veg from an excellent local supplier, bake my own bread and cakes and don't eat meat so we are able to live from our larder quite well. I realise that not everyone is able to buy an extra pack of coffee every now and then for their stock cupboard, so before anyone accuses me of complacency or selfishness, we also have our food bank box which gets a few items of my weekly shop and then gets dropped off.

I just don’t understand why people don’t keep a well-stocked store cupboard of essentials.
Where do these selfish people store all these packs of toilet rolls, rice, pasta?

Aware that there probably would be another lockdown, I planned, not panic bought. I bought an extra freezer. Waitrose delivered the order I started planning with them three weeks ago. We will only need to buy milk, fresh vegetables and newspapers and we should have enough of everything for six weeks. I will try to organize another delivery for mid-December. There is not vast amounts of anything just the right sort of amount to keep two people healthy and well fed and clean for at least six weeks. We have found an excellent Italian Merlot in 5 ltr boxes and only 11% alcohol that we buy from Germany at a really good price and if you buy four boxes there is no postage cost to pay. We buy loo rolls, kitchen rolls and tissues online. So planned buying rather than panic buying makes the best use of our resources.

Nannan2

The supermarkets surely have learned something from last time and will be ordering in more of everything.But really they should not let people buy so much of each item! 4 packs of 24 loo rolls for one old guy seems excessive there might be a whole family who cant buy any due to stores not limiting to one 24 pack each i guess stores dont mind so long as they sell them.

Maybe he’s buying for shielding friends? Family?

I remember many seniors buying flour during special seniors hours for their younger family members

I went to my local Tesco today - went down the household items aisle and there was a lot of toilet rolls on the shelves. Plenty of milk and bread too. Perhaps the weather had put people off coming out shopping. Hopefully those that crammed their trolleys full of toilet rolls etc have learnt their lesson.

The supermarkets surely have learned something from last time and will be ordering in more of everything.But really they should not let people buy so much of each item! 4 packs of 24 loo rolls for one old guy seems excessive there might be a whole family who cant buy any due to stores not limiting to one 24 pack each i guess stores dont mind so long as they sell them.

I'll just carry on as usual with my deliveries from various shops (Iceland, Sainsburys, Cook, Waitrose etc.) as I can't believe there will ever be serious shortages.

Yes, loo roll from Groupon is very convenient, and just bulk, rather than panic, buying. It's cheaper (per roll) if you can afford the initial outlay.

I'm pathetically pleased to now be in a Waitrose Rapid area. If I want to spoil myself, they deliver (up to 20 items) in just a couple of hours - by scooter, all in paper bags!

Just got home from working in the Supermarket all day Asd

Yes was a little busy, but wouldn't say people panic buying, there were people buying toilet rolls (even as shop worker I still cant get my head around this)

Apparently it was busier yesterday, but then people do shop early for Christmas buying Christmas goods in.

But no queues at all. Just a bit busier Sunday thats all.