Panic buying, hoarding

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
At home bargains 1 kg mealworms is £7.99.
Hundred gram bags are normally a pound everywhere, unless it's a pet shop then it will be 299 et cetera
But like you said there's not shop near you.
That price was about 12 days ago.

[mjr]

Shop infrequently, once a week ideally! Not with empty shelves you don't. I'm going every evening because I can't get everything needed in one visit. Why¿ Hoarding still going on?

No idea. It's bizarre. People must have rooms, garages and shed full of the same stuff by now. I'm shopping twice a week like normal again now, but visiting several shops, which isn't good for exposure risk and takes far longer, but what can I do? Let my household starve? Should I hoard when I see the hoarded goods and add to the panic but protect my household? Last time I saw toilet roll, I bought only one pack because I thought the hoarding would end soon, but there's still none around here and now I feel like a mug.

I choose to go 9pm or so because there's an empty store without queues. I figure lower risk then. What's best? Early shop when busy but more chance of stock and fewer, high risk shops? Or daily, lower risk shops?

I used to shop late because I often work fairly late shifts (joys of a global trade and remote working) but even large shops here now are closing at 8pm, so that's not possible.

The big supermarkets are really dropping the ball here, with no delivery or collection slots available, massive queues outside, bad crowd control inside and low stock - but I expect they're all making a healthy profit as almost the only shops left open, so why would they care?

[...] If only there wasn't still the milk clearout going on. Pre pandemic milk never, ever got close to running out. Why is it doing so now? When will that end?

Whenever the bleeding hamsters stop buying it all. We still have patchy fresh milk supply, but as I've mentioned before, if fresh stuff runs out here amid the farms, you're all [rude word removed] because it means it's not being collected/picked/packed/moved.

[mercalia]

Hi,
At home bargains 1 kg mealworms is £7.99.
Hundred gram bags are normally a pound everywhere, unless it's a pet shop then it will be 299 et cetera
But like you said there's not shop near you.
That price was about 12 days ago.

well when I did a search for meal worms or sunflower seeds nothing came up - only the mealworm-suet pellets

[mercalia]

Shop infrequently, once a week ideally! Not with empty shelves you don't. I'm going every evening because I can't get everything needed in one visit. Why¿ Hoarding still going on?

No idea. It's bizarre. People must have rooms, garages and shed full of the same stuff by now. I'm shopping twice a week like normal again now, but visiting several shops, which isn't good for exposure risk and takes far longer, but what can I do? Let my household starve? Should I hoard when I see the hoarded goods and add to the panic but protect my household? Last time I saw toilet roll, I bought only one pack because I thought the hoarding would end soon, but there's still none around here and now I feel like a mug.

I choose to go 9pm or so because there's an empty store without queues. I figure lower risk then. What's best? Early shop when busy but more chance of stock and fewer, high risk shops? Or daily, lower risk shops?

I used to shop late because I often work fairly late shifts (joys of a global trade and remote working) but even large shops here now are closing at 8pm, so that's not possible.

The big supermarkets are really dropping the ball here, with no delivery or collection slots available, massive queues outside, bad crowd control inside and low stock - but I expect they're all making a healthy profit as almost the only shops left open, so why would they care?

[...] If only there wasn't still the milk clearout going on. Pre pandemic milk never, ever got close to running out. Why is it doing so now? When will that end?

Whenever the bleeding hamsters stop buying it all. We still have patchy fresh milk supply, but as I've mentioned before, if fresh stuff runs out here amid the farms, you're all [rude word removed] because it means it's not being collected/picked/packed/moved.

The govt should place a hefty tax on the supermarkets as they are the only people thru all of this.

[Oldjohnw]

The supermarkets appear to be behaving rather well. I can't believe i just wrote that as I am no fan, but they have acted generally pretty decently.

[mjr]

The supermarkets appear to be behaving rather well. I can't believe i just wrote that as I am no fan, but they have acted generally pretty decently.

I only said that they're currently dropping the ball here - I've tried Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys and they all seem to be performing about as badly. Asda is on the far side of town, while the nearest Co-op and Waitrose are in neighbouring towns, so I've not travelled to them recently. M+S, Lidl, Aldi and Interspar here are too small to carry enough lines for a whole weekly shop at the best of times, so I've not been to them recently because it just feels like unnecessary extra exposure risk. There may be other chains I forget.

I don't know what your Northumberland experience is - feel free to tell us. The experience may well be different across the country. After all this is over, it will probably be some national average of public sentiment/resentment that determines their future fate.

[Bonefishblues]

The supermarkets appear to be behaving rather well. I can't believe i just wrote that as I am no fan, but they have acted generally pretty decently.

They are incredibly well-managed businesses with high-calibre people. Something consistently underestimated, I think.

[djnotts]

"The big supermarkets are really dropping the ball here, with no delivery or collection slots available, massive queues outside, bad crowd control inside and low stock - but I expect they're all making a healthy profit as almost the only shops left open, so why would they care?"

And given them the taste for more. Hence the reported recruitment drives. A massive demand for jobs, take on enough to replace those who have fallen by the wayside during the weeks when no protection and finally put all on to max 10 hour contracts. They ain't doing anything other than entrenching their market position and increasing profits. Rubbing their hands in glee the more other retailers fail. Making space for adding non-food stuff I'm sure once e.g. clothes shops fold because THEY have had to close.

[Oldjohnw]

Tesco - my nearest so the only one we use - seems excellent here. Managed queues, limited in numbers in store, spaced, frequently cleaned trolleys, well stocked and brilliant staff. From what I hear the others (Aldi, ASDA and M and S) are similar.

The bakery we use took a phone order and payment and brought the order to the car. The Green Shop ok a a very cramped premise but they had only one person in at a time with a well spaced queue outside.

Sadly, the farm shop closed, hopefully only temporarily.

I much prefer the small locals and will continue to use these . I doubt that any distribution system could cope if this was all we had. Much as I dislike supermarkets, they have a good system going.

Perhaps we are fortunate.

[mercalia]

jjust back from streatham lidl ( about 1pm). They have now put up plastic sheets between cashier and buyer at checkouts and personell keep on telling buyers in the queue to the self service to distance themselves 2m apart. not many people in the store. more tins than there were - still no flour/little fresh raw meat( afew burgers, chicken thighs, lots of bacon)/no loo paper. Lot of baby care material. frozen shelves had a few pizza and lots of desert type products. I did see some kind of pasta material, seem to had lots of it but no easy cook rice. lots of fresh veg and fruit. no soap no paracetomol, some bleach and washing up liquid.

so are the hoaders starting to get sated? or just thje time of day? I hope so the first.

[kwackers]

so are the hoaders starting to get sated? or just thje time of day? I hope so the first.

Can only be so much space anyone has (and cash).

I did hear a story that some hoarders now they were beginning to discover the stuff they'd hoarded wasn't in fact in short supply were returning them to the stores and trying to get their money back.

[mercalia]

seems like people are buying loo paper on line and it is vanishing in transit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52040532

[Oldjohnw]

Let no-one ever again be described as 'just a shelf stacker' or ' only a checkout operator'. You're brave and brilliant and have my gratitude.

[carpetcleaner]

Let no-one ever again be described as 'just a shelf stacker' or ' only a checkout operator'. You're brave and brilliant and have my gratitude.

They should organise and ask for big pay increases. The have the supermarkets and the nation over a barrel at the moment.

One thing is for certain. When all this is over nobody will care about their low pay or their poor terms and conditions.

[Oldjohnw]

Let no-one ever again be described as 'just a shelf stacker' or ' only a checkout operator'. You're brave and brilliant and have my gratitude.

They should organise and ask for big pay increases. The have the supermarkets and the nation over a barrel at the moment.

One thing is for certain. When all this is over nobody will care about their low pay or their poor terms and conditions.

Not no-one.
Some of us have been involved in low pay campaigning for many years. I don't see these people thinking of themselves as gabbing the baton over a barrel: decent people doing a great job.