Metropol

At least loo roll has an indefinite shelf life - it's not going to go to waste, and once someone's panic bought it once they're not going to do it again.

Speaking of panic buying, the German word for it is 'Hamsterkauf'. Thanks to a wonderful mistranslation, a friend in Switzerland has had official advice warning against buying hamsters.

Today's 'strong advice' to avoid pubs, theatres and restaurants is going to be the first big economic shock. I've already seen most of my freelance colleagues in the TV industry have all their bookings for the next couple of months cancelled, though that's a bit of a niche compared to pretty much everyone in the hospitality industry, many of whom will be on zero hours contracts. The government doesn't appear to be doing diddly squat to reassure them about how they're going to pay their bills, and it'll be 'non-essential shops' before too long. It doesn't take a crystal ball to see what happens next, though I'm not sure Boris has one of them.

The live events industry effectively shut down last weekend. There's still a few things planning on happening, but chances are they won't. That's another load of zero hours / freelance staff out of work until further notice. Lots of venues and their suppliers won't survive.

All Asda and Tesco stores that open 24 hours will close from midnight to 6am from this evening to allow for replenishment.

Tesco is closed 10pm-6am.

Went to Aldi today, they had a "maximum of 4 of each item per person" rule. So what were people doing? Buying 4 of everything they wanted, loading it into the car, going back in the store, buying some more, rinse and repeat. Several of the cars in the car park were loaded with shopping. The car parked next to ours was empty when we first parked, but had several bagsof shopping crammed in when we left. No point in rationing if people are going to get around it in ways like this. It's selfish, and means plenty of people who need to get things won't be able to.

It's a ridiculous situation, there aren't even any shortages or disruptions to supply chains, the country's just gone totally nuts, ransacking the shelves as soonas they're stocked so they have a year's supply of toilet paper, pasta and baked beans, and buying more milk than they'd have if they actually owned a cow. Imagine how we'd cope if there was an actual shortage.

I've got to be honest, I'm struggling to get my head around what's happening.

I think it’s weird because we have nothing tangible as a reason for everything we’re doing. Very few of us know anybody affected right now. We’re not seeing people keeling over in the street. This is why I think it was important that we “followed the science” a bit longer rather than knee jerk reactions that the public struggle to buy into.

No fruit at all in my large Sainsbury's today, but popped into the Local store and there was plenty of fresh fruit.

Bread, canned food and cleaning products seem to be the universal issue across both types of store.

Talking to someone at Tesco earlier, he says it's ridiculous. They're getting the same amount of stuff delivered as they always have, there's no shortages, but people are going mad and clearing the shelves almost as soon as they've been stocked. I dread to think what it's going to be like at 6AM every morning now these shops are closing overnight so they can restock the shelves without being pounced on, it will probably make Black Friday look sane.

Surely this can't go on much longer? Surely people only have so much money to stock up on things with, and so much space to keep them?

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to attempt some form of building up their supplies when there is so much uncertainty. For all the talk from supermarkets that they have enough stock and there’s no need to panic - constant empty shelves suggest otherwise. Many of us, myself included, have family members who we are concerned about.

This is the problem with panic buying - it clears the stocks, so everyone who doesn't panic buy in the first round ends up running out / worrying they're going to run out, so when they do find some stock they grab what they can. The original panic buyers then start doing the same as they can see they were right to do so as stock is still limited. Then the people who had plenty of stock before this all kicked off start thinking the same.

Only ways to stop it is to massively increase stocks so the pictures of empty shelves stop, or for everyone to buy up as much stock as they can fit in their homes.

all new Phil wrote: ↑Wed 18 Mar, 2020 08.38 I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to attempt some form of building up their supplies when there is so much uncertainty. For all the talk from supermarkets that they have enough stock and there’s no need to panic - constant empty shelves suggest otherwise. Many of us, myself included, have family members who we are concerned about.

This is exactly the mentality that perpetuates this mess.

It's totally irrational at best and selfish at worst.