Coronavirus virus fears causing panic buying

[KevinTurvey]

Parents and grandparents generation always added salt to the cooking water, as it has been said it raises the boiling point, but you need loads to make more than a degree or two difference. I suppose with the advance of pressure cookers, later microwaves and the associated health scares around salt the practice has been abandoned and forgotten about.

Probably in a similar way as frying sausages, bacon and bread (in lard) which would horrify some of the younger generation!

Anyway most tissues, paper towels, cleaning gel and washing up liquid (apart from the very expensive one) mostly gone.

 

[83A]

Went to Tesco. Plenty of stock except toilet rolls and pasta.

They had red wine which was the main thing

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Probably in a similar way as frying sausages, bacon and bread (in lard) which would horrify some of the younger generation!

I wonder how many of the more advanced in years on this website would remember the Lancashire childhood delicacy known as "dripping butties"....

 

[Meole]

Mucky fat butty from the White Rose beats that !

 

[Domh245]

Well I've never seen my local lidl so busy! Went at my normal time, and usually there'll be maybe 2/3 people at most going through the self-checkouts whilst the staff are out restocking the shelves. This morning 2 manned tills were open and queuing into the aisles and the self checkouts were queuing back as well, with shelves looking pretty empty for good measure. Worst of all though, I was forced to buy branded weetabix as everyone's bought up all the own-brand stuff! Not happy

 

[DelayRepay]

Try the various small Co-ops such as Emerson Valley or the two West Bletchley ones. People aren't hitting them for panic buying and most items are still in stock.

I'm the other side of MK to you, but I went to a Co-op last Sunday to buy a bag of flour. It seemed busier than normal and there did seem to be a few people with (small) packs of loo roll - but they were probably sensible people who'd decided to try to avoid the carnage of the big stores.

Fortunately I have plenty of soap - I switched from bottles of handwash to bars a while ago to save plastic. I've plenty of bars of soap in (cheaper if you buy bigger packs) and they last for ages anyway. And if it gets really bad I have a stock of tiny bars stolen from hotel rooms over the last 10 years, so I think I'll be fine!

 

[Tracked]

Queue outside my local Aldi this morning was a little bit under the same size as it was the weekend before Christmas, filling up nicely as I left but to be honest I didn't look at the toilet roll or pasta situation, the car park was much busier on the way out.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm the other side of MK to you, but I went to a Co-op last Sunday to buy a bag of flour. It seemed busier than normal and there did seem to be a few people with (small) packs of loo roll - but they were probably sensible people who'd decided to try to avoid the carnage of the big stores.

FWIW I did my "big shop", which was overdue, at the Tattenhoe Lane one last week, for exactly that reason - I couldn't be bothered with it all. Might do it more often, it was local, quick and the prices weren't that high, and they had almost everything I wanted. This type of store really has provided a massive improvement in terms of the ability to shop locally when compared with the poor quality corner shops you used to have (or the third-rate pub that closed and provided the building! ).

Here's a new one by the way - decided to get a thermometer and went to Boots and managed to get their last one (phew!) - I'm a bit of an oddity as due to asthma I permanently have two of the three symptoms (breathing difficulties and cough) so I really need to watch the other one (temperature) and don't want to end up self-isolating unnecessarily if I just feel a bit hot (I generally run very hot anyway). I mentioned that their website said they had loads in stock, and they said that they can't unload pallets because they need all the staff in the front of store due to people being abusive, and so have been instructed not to do so for now. So yet another way in which the panic buyers and lynch mobs are causing issues.

FWIW that will be why a few 24 hour supermarkets have closed overnight recently.

 

[Mag_seven]

My local Morrisons still has "three for the price of two" offers on many canned/tinned items. In the short term at least I think they should suspend such offers.

 

[GusB]

Went to the Co-op again for a few bits and the only thing that had been cleared out was paracetamol - loads of other stuff. Are panic buyers too thick to go to their local shop?

Essentially, yes. This morning I set the alarm quite early with the intention of taking a trip to Aldi and hoping that it wouldn't be too busy first thing. When I did wake up I decided that the last thing I really wanted to do was to spend money on the bus fare only to meet a potential scrum.

I checked Asda online - no delivery slots available tomorrow, although there were plenty for later on in the week. Unfortunately every item I selected was out of stock.

So I put my boots on, shoved a couple of carrier bags in my pocket and took a walk up to the local Costcutter. It sells Co-op branded stuff and they had pasta and bog roll (which I actually needed). I may have spent a little bit more per item than I would have done in Aldi, but I've saved a fiver on the bus fare and a lot of potential anxiety.

 

[Meerkat]

My Boots still has no thermometers. There are none of the reasonably priced ones in any local Argos, and even Amazon didn’t seem to have any (though their search and filter was behaving very oddly)

 

[trainophile]

I was wondering about thermometers. We don't have one, so it will be pot luck whether we realise we have developed an excessive temperature.

I love the expression "if you have a temperature" - everyone has one, and it's 98.4 degrees fahrenheit if you're lucky!

 

[Meerkat]

Do you reckon this crisis will trigger a change in culture away from just in time shopping?
People keeping greater stocks and more emergency stuff?

 

[A Challenge]

What a waste of good vodka,

I thought they said cheapest Aldi vodka?

 

[yorkie]

... 98.4 degrees fahrenheit ...

People in this country still use Fahrenheit measurements?! blimey

Do you reckon this crisis will trigger a change in culture away from just in time shopping?
People keeping greater stocks and more emergency stuff?

Maybe in the short to medium term.

 

[krus_aragon]

I mentioned that their website said they had loads in stock, and they said that they can't unload pallets because they need all the staff in the front of store due to people being abusive, and so have been instructed not to do so for now. So yet another way in which the panic buyers and lynch mobs are causing issues.

FWIW that will be why a few 24 hour supermarkets have closed overnight recently.

That matches my experience of high-street retail in December. When you've got crowds of customers stripping shelves, you can't really work around them: you've got to have some quiet time to restock. That's true whether they're getting angry, or ar the model of politeness.

 

[krus_aragon]

People in this country still use Fahrenheit measurements?! blimey

Every red-top newspaper does so in the summer.

 

[DerekC]

I wonder how many of the more advanced in years on this website would remember the Lancashire childhood delicacy known as "dripping butties"....

Got a bit further than Lancashire - bread and dripping certainly featured in my North London childhood! (But then both my grandmothers were Lancashire born so maybe that had something to do with it).

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Do you reckon this crisis will trigger a change in culture away from just in time shopping?
People keeping greater stocks and more emergency stuff?

It would be nice to think so. But then I always thought a modest stockpile of essential foodstuffs was good practice anyway. Not enough for a nuclear winter, but enough for if the winter is bad and the pavements stay icy for a few weeks (as they did a few years ago), or there is a petrol strike (as there was), or a delivery drivers strike, or I badly sprained an ankle and couldn't walk, or I lost my wallet with banks cards in. Probably some more very good, and reasonably likely to happen, reasons on top. Oh, like seasonal flu.

Perhaps the suppliers and supermarkets will make changes to their supply chain too. An empty shelf means a dis-satisfied customer, the customer shops elsewhere, the customer likes elsewhere and continues to shop there.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do you reckon this crisis will trigger a change in culture away from just in time shopping?
People keeping greater stocks and more emergency stuff?

I don't see why it necessarily needs to. It's an exceptional situation. Once it goes away things will return to normal.

 

[SHD]

I thought they said cheapest Aldi vodka?

Yes. I wouldn’t waste Siwucha for that use!
(The homemade stuff with ethanol + glycerol will be much more effective though)

 

[swt_passenger]

I still have a barely-used box of Rexel 56 staples.

Rexelent...

 

[PG]

Perhaps the suppliers and supermarkets will make changes to their supply chain too. An empty shelf means a dis-satisfied customer, the customer shops elsewhere, the customer likes elsewhere and continues to shop there.

Can't see it being worth their while. If all the big supermarkets are in the same position (of no stock) because they all have the same business model then there isn't much of a competitive edge to be gained.

 

[causton]

My local Morrisons still has "three for the price of two" offers on many canned/tinned items. In the short term at least I think they should suspend such offers.

I went to Iceland's Food Warehouse which had quite a few eggs (Aldi next door certainly didn't) - they had a 2 for £1.60 promotion when one pack was £1.

I only took one pack as there were about 20 packs in total, and thought it would be irresponsible to take them all!!

 

[RichT54]

Ocado is having problems keeping up with demand

https://twitter.com/Ocado/status/1238826216506916864

Their website was down just now. It makes me wonder how the food delivery firms will cope when lots more people will be self-isolating.

 

[The Lad]

Where can you buy Ethanol by retail other than somewhat dilute in the form of Vodka?
I'm pretty sure HM Customs and Excise would be very interested.

 

[JonathanH]

Once it goes away things will return to normal.

One problem with that view is that things may very well not return to normal. The UK strategy involves a peak in June / July and no stable position until the late autumn. It could easily go on for longer.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Ocado is having problems keeping up with demand

https://twitter.com/Ocado/status/1238826216506916864

Their website was down just now. It makes me wonder how the food delivery firms will cope when lots more people will be self-isolating.

Which is perhaps why it would have been wise to (discreetly) panic buy last week, before everyone else started this week, and before the bog-roll riots break out next month. Civilisation is only three meals deep.

 

[A Challenge]

Where can you buy Ethanol by retail other than somewhat dilute in the form of Vodka?
I'm pretty sure HM Customs and Excise would be very interested.

Why would it be them interested if duty was paid?

 

[Bletchleyite]

One problem with that view is that things may very well not return to normal. The UK strategy involves a peak in June / July and no stable position until the late autumn. It could easily go on for longer.

I don't think anyone takes the view that it will continue indefinitely, though. (The virus might, but not issues with everyone getting it at once).