Panic Buying

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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/

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

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

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 ........................................ ?

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!

No further comment needed !

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hetty58
Nail on head.

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!

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.

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

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 ???

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.

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.

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.