Panic Buying

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.

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!

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.??

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.

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

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.

I am doing no shopping until Thursday morning. All being well, the supermarket will be empty of customers and with shelves fully stocked. It will be a pleasure ambling around, taking my time and no queue for the till.

Grannygravy kindly informed me that the shops were fine in her neck of the woods, so I got off the bus on my way home from work and bought it all up.

Franbern I can 'sort of' explain the loo roll thing.
It started at the end of 2019 in Australia, when Aussie folk started being concerned about Covid.
A rumour started that the toilet roll factories would be repurposed to make face masks.
So they thought that loo roll would be scarce and stocked up accordingly.
The rumour spread ( but only partially - no one really understood the reasoning) and the panic buying spread too.
And in addition to this there was a Brexit related concern.
Although UK loo rolls are made in this country, the wood pulp is from Scandinavia. So Brexit preppers have always have a good supply in case of a no-deal scenario.
The result is we are now left with this ongoing loo roll business.

MissAdventure

Grannygravy kindly informed me that the shops were fine in her neck of the woods, so I got off the bus on my way home from work and bought it all up.

Oh dear MissAdventure I am going down the road today, I hope you have left a few bits for me ???

I went into Waitrose just before lunch today, no rush, no crowds, no queues and the shelves well stocked.

I had a Morrison's delivery today- 2 packs of loo rolls not delivered so received zilch. A good job I was not down to my last roll.

A friend had a good, long moan about inconsiderate panic buyers and queues - then said that she must stock up before the shelves are empty!

I give up, I really do!

Hetty58
Nail on head.

Waitrose today was fine at lunchtime, not that many people, no queues. Maybe they had already been in and out

Not many eggs left but apart from that we got our normal weekly shop. Although we never went near loo rolls so don't know what was in stock.

I suppose all this panic buying has happened not only because of lock down, many people will have got paid at the end of October so would have had funds to do so.

Likewise when LD ends it will be when people have funds after being paid at the end of November. Plus of course all the extra Xmas food and gifts shopping will happen too. I suppose it will make figures look a bit better for the economists.

Thanks for that explanation about loo rolls fannycornforth - still seems most peculiar to me.
Do wonder how many people will have money for 'extra Xmas food and gifts' travelsafar after four weeks lockdown, with many of them only getting a percentage of their usual low wages, and many more not having any jobs to return to.
Of course, older folk do not have these concerns - pensions still get paid in. Hope everybody stocking up is putting some of that stuff into the Food Bank baskets which most supermarkets have near their exits.

Thank you Franbern! I'm so pleased that you read it - I've posted versions on a theme on a few threads, but no-one seemed to read them!
It's interested isn't it, albeit, as you say, most perculiar.
It just goes to show how easy it is to manipulate masses of people.

No further comment needed !

My usual Tesco delivery came this morning, and not a single item was missing.

Ok, I hadn't ordered any toilet rolls or flour anyway, but there was no problem with my usual tins of tomatoes and soup, or even eggs. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe the media are exaggerating the problem.

Oh, and I had six bottles of wine too.
Five of them are now under a bed, waiting for Christmas.
No, it wasn't about stockpiling - it was about making use of the 25% discount offer that's on at the moment and due to end before my next delivery!

People as old as me (in my 80s) will surely remember using newspaper instead of toilet rolls. But it was poorer quality paper then so possibly more absorbent.
Really truly, honestly!
At the age I was, it never occurred to me to ask if the print came off ........................................ ?

Franbern
For many Christmas comes with courtesy of their credit cards.

So does that mean flour and pasta etc are going to be scarce again too?

FannyCornforth loo roll stocking predates COVID.

The first run on loo rolls I remember was in 1973 with the three day week and the oil crisis. Supermarkets were stripped of all stocks of loo roll - In fact the following link explains how the panic was started in Japan, spread to the USA then spread around the world and now happens whenever there is a crisis like this priceonomics.com/the-great-toilet-paper-scare-of-1973/

M0nica

FannyCornforth loo roll stocking predates COVID.

The first run on loo rolls I remember was in 1973 with the three day week and the oil crisis. Supermarkets were stripped of all stocks of loo roll - In fact the following link explains how the panic was started in Japan, spread to the USA then spread around the world and now happens whenever there is a crisis like this priceonomics.com/the-great-toilet-paper-scare-of-1973/

Interesting! Thank you for sharing