OT Panic buyers

[Jimk]

Just two?

[harry]

Panic buyers have cleared out our local village shop. Not local people but ones from miles away who don't want to go in the crowded supermarkets.

[Robin]

It takes two.

[Scott]

The way I see it, the problem will resolve itself. The 'panic buyers' will at some point become fully stocked. As deliveries continue to arrive, the point will be reached that supply will exceed demand.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

harry submitted this idea :

No real problems here, but I'm not telling anyone where 'here' is :-)

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Scott expressed precisely :

Farmers are suggesting they cannot get the vegetables out of the ground, as fast as the demand. Don't the panic buyers understand that vegetables soon go off once picked?

[Brian Reay]

Things here are much the same as elsewhere, inconsiderate panic buyers stripping supermarket shelves to the paint.

Doubtless the idiots trying to spread panic via the internet etc are the same people who are now buying up every loo roll and tin of baked beans, before going to the pub/night club, or whining that Glastonbury is cancelled.

[The Natural Philosopher]

And whining about 'soshul justiss' while they act in the most antisocial way possible.

[Brian Reay]

Oh yes but socialists/lefties/under-achievers always do that.

I'm just wondering how much the fraudsters will fiddle from the system the Gov is putting in place to help those whose jobs are suffering due to the virus. Suddenly, one man band or other tin pot outfits that made naff all will suddenly be claiming to pay their proprietors far more than they ever made. I just hope the tax man cross checks the claims and catches up with them for back tax and they get done for fraud.

[Richard]

[NY]

I've seen reports of supermarket shelves being fully stocked when the shop opens at 7 AM and being stripped bare of some items within half an hour. There are a lot of very greedy people out there.

My wife went out shopping this morning and found no loo rolls (luckily we don't need any yet), no bread or self-raising flour, no store-baked unsliced bread (but a fair amount of bought-in sliced bread *), none of the breakfast cereals that I like (but plenty of rice krispies and corn flakes). That was at about 10 AM. We might go back early one morning to get normal supplies of things that we can't get - eg about 1-2 weeks' stock.

I suspect that a fair proportion of the shelves-cleared produce is not for the buyer's own use but is bought with the express purpose of trying to create a shortage so they can sell their stock at a greatly inflated mark-up. That needs to be stopped at source, by Ebay, Amazon etc refusing to stock items which are known to be in short-supply if supplied by any individuals, and only accepting from authorised traders. It also needs supermarkets to enforce their no-more-than-n-copies-of-this-item rules more strictly.

If it continues, I wonder how long it will be before some form of rationing scheme (per household, rather than per person) is introduced so people cannot circumvent the rules either by buying the maximum number every day or else by sending all their friends and family to each buy the maximum and then pooling their resources afterwards. I'm surprised that Boris hasn't made an issue out of it in his 5 PM briefings. It's one thing to say "there's enough to go round, so you don't need to hoard". It's another to say "you *must not* hoard or sell on for profit, under pain of prosecution".

The real mystery is people who hoard items that will not keep and cannot be frozen. They will probably be trying to freeze all the veg they buy fresh, and will then get a nasty surprise when they find later on that it thaws out as a mush.

(*) The bread flour and unsliced versus sliced bread thing surprised me. I can imagine people wanting the easiest solution, and sliced bread or bread-making ingredients being too labour-intensive for the sort of people who have stockpiling tendencies.

[Martin Brown]

Yet your local shop sold their entire stock to these individuals. Willing seller willing buyer. Civilised shops limit purchases to 2 or 3 of the same item per customer. Coop and Aldi are about the best so far.

It was *very* unpleasant in the big Tescos in Newcastle yesterday.

There were young employees and nurses close to tears doing their own shopping on devastated ailses that looked like something from a dystopian future where food and toilet rolls were just faint memories.

There was absolutely no fresh milk nor any long life milk.

[Brian Reay]

The bread flour is strange. I normally bake bread- cooking is a hobby and fresh bread with homemade soup is one of life's delights- so it is something I'm used to not only buying but spending sometime deciding what to buy. Rarely do I notice anyone else buying any. When you buy other things in a busy shop, it is normal for someone else to be popping the same item in their trolley.

You can freeze fresh veg- we've done it when we had a glut in the garden before - but you need to prepare it. Just throwing it in the freezer doesn't work, at best it will taste naff.

I can see the Gov. having to divert troops to deal with the problems these idiots will cause the way things are going. Perhaps those caught panic buying should be sprayed with that stuff they spray on stolen money. Ditto those who no to night clubs or, now they've been closed, substitute gatherings. Then, check people getting sick and arriving at hospitals. If they've been sprayed, no treatment, just stick then in an empty football stadium.

[Brian Reay]

Perhaps the supermarkets should offer some special delivery slots (free delivery) to medical staff etc.

It wouldn't be hard to arrange, some employers have a scheme for employees to get discount on Tesco orders (delivered) via a special portal. Something similar set up for the NHS but also giving priority for delivery etc could easily be arranged.

[Dave W]

You shouldn't have posted that. I block Harry's posts myself, but now you've given me the idea to try local villages for the wholemeal flour I'm after.

[charles]

when I buy from our local baker it's over £2 a loaf.

[Michael Chare]

I am hoping that your are right. We had a Tesco delivery yesterday evening with many items missing. The driver explained it was due to the state of the shop. I just smiled as there was no point in complaining. I got up early this moring to place an online order with a different supermarket.

[Roland Perry]

In message <r537g0$1j6o$ [e-mail]>, at 20:02:01 on Fri, 20 Mar

2020, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nezumi.demon.co.uk> remarked:

It's about time the hospitals deployed some of their procurement effort to setting up he equivalent of a NAAFI on the premises for staff. Now cafes etc are closed, they could use the space on their concourse formerly occupied by Starbucks and Burger King. Just need an account at a wholesaler (with a "fast track" flag) and a few transit vans.

[Roland Perry]

In message <r539m1$r9t$ [e-mail]>, at 20:39:31 on Fri, 20 Mar

2020, Brian Reay [e-mail] remarked:

There's already an ID card to get discounts at various retailers, so it's not going to be hard to verify the customers.

[Scott]

How does that work? Surely the 'customers' will simply visit different shops, just as anyone wanting more than 32 co-codamol can go to multiple pharmacies?