Prepping and Panic Buying Question

[burger1]

Looks like some of the locals have been stocking up on toilet paper around here. Some empty shelves.

[Gosnell]

Well, I have started to stockpile,so far I have enough food to last 2 weeks with 2000kcals a day. Most of the supplies are dry foods, rice, tinned fruit and vegetables.I have enough toilet paper for 2 Months, plus 2 large boxes of tissues and lots of razors.
I also bought a wood axe in case electric is off and have to make a fire for cooking.
I didnt buy and bottled water,we have a good tap supply.

[Chips]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-51731422

Goodness gracious me, people look to be buying an entire years worth of toilet paper. How long do they think they're going to sit inside their house and not venture out!?

Unless they're trying to corner the market and then sell it for a fortune - but fairly sure shipments will continue to arrive...

I've bought some cheese to go with the wine; if times get tough - i'll be in moderate (alcohol induced) comfort.

[felter]

So I was shopping today. Went into Asda/Walmart checked out the meat and there was some nice ribs for Saturday night. Headed up to the bakery area for bread just to be greeted with empty shelves, no bread, well there was some you know the stuff no one eats but there was no normal bread left, and this is just the middle of the day. Off to get some milk, just to be greeted with another empty shelf and this is the disgusting UHT milk, normally there is plenty of it. I needed some soap, I actually looked for that in 3 different shops and there is none to be found anywhere, just empty shelves. The fruit and veg shelves are being padded out to make them look like there is things to buy, for example: normally there is one box of coconuts, today there were 6 boxes to fill in the empty spaces, with only a maximum of half dozen coconuts in each box. It's the same with tinned veg, there were more tins of green giant sweetcorn than anything else. Toilet paper is another one that is pretty much running out. I was lucky with rice though, but just because I use brown rice, there was no white rice to be found while the pasta shelves across from the rice were pretty much empty too. Quite amazingly there was plenty of tins of soup and Heinz baked beans, while the cheap Asda branded baked beans were running low. So no panic buying here so far.

[Alan Phipps]

Our nearest Tesco superstore (South of England) has nearly empty shelves where the frozen and chilled (usually the latter can still be frozen at home) ready meals are displayed. No shortages though with breads, dairy, tinned food, water, fresh fruit/veg, or essential consumables/durables, etc. I guess any local 'healthy diet' intentions will be taking a hit whatever happens over the next few months.

[burger1]

Time to corner the bidet and sea shell market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdnuOa7tDco

[Chips]

Reminds me of the bank run on Northern Rock was it? "There's plenty of money, no need to worry" as people snake around the block and media cover it with glee... which causes people to panic/not believe and start heading to the bank to exacerbate it.

Should people panic buy? No, and certainly not the excessive volumes they are stocking up on either as it's mental to buy THAT much toilet paper. You'd need food in order to need toilet paper - and you don't have enough of the former to require that volume of the latter!

But given the media and social media coverage they'll think they have to else there will NEVER BE ANYTHING EVER AGAIN!1!!1!?! Crazy.

[CBJ]

There were several things I'd have liked to have bought one of in the supermarket this week, but couldn't because some idiots had clearly bought in bulk.

[Masterbagger]

I got my essentials. No shortages of bacon, eggs, cheese, or chicken wings. I went to walmart and not a real grocery. I wanted some steaks for a Saturday morning steak and bac breakfeast but I didn't feel like driving any more than I had to. Walmart was on the way home and a store that has good meat was not. I didn't think to check the toilet paper situation. I bought a single pack of it at costco sometime last year and I am still good. I heard on the radio that there was another case of the virus in this county but no one really seems to be doing any different than they usually do. Numerous hurricanes have taught me that the fear of something is worse than the event itself. Those toilet paper forts unknown people are building in their garage are for their own comfort and they aren't thinking about others when they buy. It's silly but I can't criticize too hard when I maintain an ammo fort. At least my stash is practical. Toilet paper is useless against zombies.

[burger1]

People hoarding might cause more damage than the virus? It looks like people are stocking up on necessary medical supplies that other people also need and prices on Amazon are increasing due to demand according to what some people have been saying locally. I haven't looked into it to really make an informed opinion beyond what people have stated.

[birdtable]

Luckily my local Waitrose Store (up market) has two security guards at the main entrance and anyone who looks a little raggedy or dim witted are given directions to the local Tesco Supermarket (mid market) . Any person having difficulty with these instructions are taken around the back and quarantined until a van from Asda (low market) arrives and takes them away..... Thus avoiding any shortages in store.

[Alan Phipps]

I'll just quote myself from page 1 of this thread as I think it is even more relevant now given the developed situation and reactions:

"Also the healthy, fit and comfortably-off should probably be thinking more about isolated, elderly, young, ill or disadvantaged neighbours rather than just themselves if local restrictions become likely."

[birdtable]

Funny how panic buying creates panic buyers .. Travelled to a few stores in search for the required equipment to complete toilet activities and there was none .. Had to get up early the next morning to a recently opened store and buy (to my shame) two large multi packs of toilet tissue... Walking back to my car I felt humiliated .. I had been forced to join the band of the dimwitted.

[Chips]

Funny how panic buying creates panic buyers .. Travelled to a few stores in search for the required equipment to complete toilet activities and there was none .. Had to get up early the next morning to a recently opened store and buy (to my shame) two large multi packs of toilet tissue... Walking back to my car I felt humiliated .. I had been forced to join the band of the dimwitted.

People are silly. It's not like we s... any more than we did before, but suddenly people are buying huge volumes that'll last months as they imagine toilet paper is the thing that's going to run out.
Need food to need a s... , who has enough food to outlast their toilet paper?

[Warenwolf]

Need food to need a s... , who has enough food to outlast their toilet paper?

Thousand times this!
Shops were full with no panic buying here in Norway until today - then today I see a "special case" loaded up on toilet paper enough for 4 people all the way to 2030. Ofc, the muppet had bought also a truckload of food - perishables most of it

Coron virus is not as halfway as dangerous as much as human stupidity is.

[Alan Phipps]

If they eat much of that perishable food after it has gone off then they might *need* all that toilet paper.

[Mightysword]

Went to Costco today and I think this is the first time in my life I see empty shelves here. And it's not the cleaning supply section, but foods as well. RIP Ramen.

[Len5]

Toilet paper is the white gold in the post-apocalyptic world. We've all seen it in post-apocalyptic movies and games where people are killing each other for rolls of TP. You can buy a can of beans for 20 sheets of TP.

[Vertigo 7]

why not just use some rags you can wash instead? beats the alternative and you wouldn't have to worry about running out =p

[RegisterMe]

So it seems as if toilet paper was invented in 1857.

Which kind of begs an obvious question.