Panic Buying

I work in a supermarket. Apparently Sunday was terribly busy, I was there Monday evening and product capping had just been introduced on some items but there wasn't much loo roll even then. We have a policy of 'Please be considerate' on items that we're not actually capping but if we gently ask if a customer might take fewer of a whatever product they've gone overboard with, they just come out with a string of excuses as to why they need so much, eg multi packs of bottled water.

Someone wants 6 packs of 6x 2 litre bottles. "No, they're not all for me, two are for my family, two for my sister who doesn't drive, two for my wife's sister, we can't come every week, it's only 12 bottles each for three families, we use a bottle a day, the shelf is full and don't you refill the shelf overnight anyway...?"

I'm a cashier, not the police. It's exhausting and depressing. Definitely easier when there is a printed list at the till stating clearly what the restricted items are, but even then people either reel out the excuse of shopping for lots of other people, or you see them go out to the car, come back in and go through a different till, or self-scan, with the items I'd asked them to leave.

I took my elderly mother shopping today, just for a few bits, not a big supermarket shop. Mum wanted birthday cards and Christmas cards while the card shop was still open. We went into Savers, there was plenty of toilet roll there. Mum bought a packet of eighteen rolls.There was plenty more left.

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/

Wow, thank you M0nica!
It's actually got a history!
I wonder if it's got legs for a PhD thesis?

I would think there is a thesis in panic buying. There is an intersting Wikipedia entry on the subject.

As I said further back, I was leaving any shopping until this morning when I reckoned shops would be empty and shelves full - and I was right!

I ambled into Waitrose just after 8.00, the place was nearly empty, the shelves were full and I found every single item that I and the friend I shop for needed - and that is quite rare, quite often at least one or two items are unavailable - drifted up to an empty till and had t scanned and paid and got home earlier than usual. I confess, I am feeling a trifle smug.

To Grannygravy13
I suppose you think that those who preach charity in churches, mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras etc and exhort us on TV on the Children in Need programmes are shouting their charity from the rooftops as well. Some of us need a jog to our consciences. I’ve been very grateful to friends who’ve had the guts to challenge my own selfishness in the past.