People who panic bought back in March, how did you get on?

CrankyHaus

Anyone who panic-bought stuff back in March when this crisis began, how did you get on with that stuff?
Did you get to avoid potentially unsafe trips to the supermarket for a few weeks?
Did you have to throw lots of stuff out as it went bad?
Were you able to use the excess to sort out elderly relatives or neighbours who may not have been able to safely shop for those items themselves?
Was your home crammed with stuff you didn't need?
Did you simply consume more to get through the excess shopping?



I'm not interested in the smug criticism sessions that these discussions can devolve into.
Panic buying was silly but nobody's perfect and I'm sure we all made mistakes in the face of this unprecedented crisis.

Church on Tuesday

It was a total disgrace and it's as simple as that.

Trigger Happy

They must be getting sick of the auld pasta dinners by now.

seamus

I doubt many people panic-bought perishables to be fair.

There are no doubt people right now with a year's supply of toilet roll under the stairs and an entire press in the kitchen filled with pasta and tins. I remember seeing a picture of a guy who had cooking oil stashed in every spare inch of his kitchen. We use about two bottles of cooking oil in a year. 100 bottles would outlast me. Could you imagine being stuck with several lifetime's supply of cooking oil?

Sunken costs fallacy tells us that they won't criticise themselves and admit that they overbought, they will tell themselves that they're quids in because they don't need to buy pasta or toilet roll till Christmas.

There will of course be others too who are convinced that the worst is yet to come and they'll be proven right shortly.

There are also people with thousands of euros worth of Nintendo Switches clogging up their spare bedroom because they believed others would be willing to part with any amount of money to stave away the boredom.

Mango Joe

Yes, its a pure joy isn't it?

There was so many small-minded, narcissistic, smug, C***s on here back in March gloating about how they'd wisely and prudently outshopped us all to stay at the pinnacle of the Darwin retail food chain.

Justifying clearing the shelves using their own selfish pseudo logic.

Now they're sitting at home anxiously checking the best before dates on 1001 different types of rank dried carbohydrates that nobody would ever choose to consume in a blind fit.

They're on course to finish the last package of Tesco macaroni and chemical cheese topping by March 2026.

Dickheads.

amadangomor

Was one of the ones who started stocking up gradually on non perishables about a month before we had all the panic buying. :cool: Just added a few to every shop I was doing.

Was sensible at the time as didnt know how bad it would be and a reasonable chance shopping could have been very limited for a while.

Probably have a couple of packs of pasta and a few tinned goods left. Will finish then in the next week or two.

NIMAN

seamus wrote: »

I doubt many people panic-bought perishables to be fair.

Did the head of one of the bin companies not say they seen a massive increase in food being thrown out just after the start of all this, and they put it down to people panic buying food then having to chuck it.

CrankyHaus

seamus wrote: »

There are also people with thousands of euros worth of Nintendo Switches clogging up their spare bedroom because they believed others would be willing to part with any amount of money to stave away the boredom.

What's the story here?
I occasionally see the Nintendo Switch Thread on the Front Page but pass right over it along with the obligatory 9/11 Conspiracy update and Bitcoin's going to bounce back to its peak any day now thread.

amadangomor wrote: »

Was one of the ones who started stocking up gradually on non perishables about a month before we had all the panic buying. Just added a few to every shop I was doing.

Was sensible at the time as didnt know how bad it would be and a reasonable chance shopping could have been very limited for a while.

Probably have a couple of packs of pasta and a few tinned goods left. Will finish then in the next week or two.

I did this with 2 weeks worth of stuff, just in case I got the virus and had to self-isolate. I live alone so it was just an extra 5 tins or so for each of 4 weekly shops in February.

Blueshoe

I bought a second hand chest freezer for 40 euro before the lockdown and plugged it in the shed of my now cocooning parents house. I filled it with food for them and they have made great use of it.

colm_mcm

I bought a few frozen pizzas, they’re still in there. Bought 2 tins of Lidl spam type meat as well.
Have a good few bottles of water from March too.

Didn’t go too mad.

Grab All Association

I sat back and watched them fight over toilet paper, Tayto and bread whilst ignoring the fresh packaged meats that could be frozen. No wonder we have a diabetes crisis in this country

Same thing at Christmas ffs women fighting in Lidl over boxes of Tayto

John_Rambo

I stocked up in January for my elderly folks after one of my bio-science clients warned me to.
My mother is ill and C-19 would hit her hard and she was very anxious at the start. Got them a chest freezer and lots of healthy freezable stuff. They didn't need to leave the house and I just had to get them the bare essentials.

the beer revolu

I'm slightly over stocked with black turtle beans, pinto beans and lentils!
The 20kg bag of Thai rice is being worked through fine (they were out of 10kg bags).

Don't think I stocked up with anything else.
Needed toilet paper at the time of the crazyness. We'd generally buy 10 or 12 rolls at a time, anyway. Might stock up again one of these days.

At the best of times, we'd tend to buy certain food items in bulk and always have plenty of food in stock, so nothing really changed.

Rockbeast2

It is unlikely that my mother will require any tinned goods for at least six years.

She is in possession of at least 300 tins of beans/peas/sweetcorn/pears/peaches, etc., all bought over about 2 weeks as this thing kicked off.

Most is very edible, save for tinned "meatballs" purchased from either Tesco or Lidl. I would honestly rather eat dog food.

Feisar

There was no panic buying, everyone only went out and got a few bits. It's a bit like the people astonished at the ques while in the que, people never seem to think they are part of the problem.

the beer revolu

My mother-in-law would routinely have huge stocks of toilet paper and kitchen roll, stashed allover the house.
I think I estimated over 50 rolls of kitchen roll, some years ago. Similar with toilet paper.

I'm not sure if she increased her stockpiling recently.

the beer revolu

Feisar wrote: »

There was no panic buying, everyone only went out and got a few bits. It's a bit like the people astonished at the ques while in the que, people never seem to think they are part of the problem.

Not my observations at the time.

Mr. CooL ICE

Probably doesn't count, but i did buy 3kg of natural peanut butter that was on special offer. No regrets as I'm 2/3 of the way through, but one opened pot is sitting at my desk in work and that could be in any state when I get back

Steven81

I was stocking up more in back end of feb, we eat a lot of pasta and as it was on offer stocked up well, had to purchase again last week at full price.

As the cupboards were well full shopping went from weekly to 10-11 days so less visits apart from the likes of milk/ bread. Did I purchase anything I won’t use no, shopping should be about planning and daily meals until the next shop. If there is something on offer though that won’t go off and is constantly used I would purchase it.

When there was the initial day or two panic I had no issues, didn’t need to go and would have managed just fine.

El_Duderino 09

I bought some extra stuff with each shop. Dried goods and things we would use anyway. They're up in the attic still and we're going to start rotating them to make sure nothing goes off. I wouldn't be so quick to criticise until after this year's harvest. If they don't manage to harvest things ot if they missed the opportunity to plant crops because of lockdown, then I'd expect some shortages next year. But it's probably not going to be bad or we can at least mix things up. So it will be fine.

But in general it seems that the initial fear of immediate shortages due to broken supply lines, didn't happen. So that's good.

Snow Garden

Did we ever figure out why the panic buying idiots bought so much loo roll?

Snow Garden

Feisar wrote: »

There was no panic buying, everyone only went out and got a few bits. It's a bit like the people astonished at the ques while in the que, people never seem to think they are part of the problem.

That's nonsense. People bought like Christmas and a Nuclear winter was coming. And then they went back for more. They were the original Covidiots.
They did not care about anyone else especially the poor supermarket staff.

El_Duderino 09

Snow Garden wrote: »

Did we ever figure out why the panic buying idiots bought so much loo roll?

It was the urge to panic but and stock up but without any clue about what was sensible to stock up with.

I also saw lots of people who stocked up on things and used those things straight away. The principle of stocking up,is to have additional stuff stashed away for the future when there isn't stuff available at that time. Bog roll was always nonsense. Just showed people weren't thinking it through.

colm_mcm

Snow Garden wrote: »

Did we ever figure out why the panic buying idiots bought so much loo roll?

Because they were afraid they would run out and have to wipe their arses with their bare hands.

At a guess.

El_Duderino 09

colm_mcm wrote: »

Because they were afraid they would run out and have to wipe their arses with their bare hands.

At a guess.

But if you're at home under lockdown, you could just hop in the shower to clean up. It would have been fine. If people thought about it, it would have been fine.

I do a big shop around payday every month. Added in a few extra items but didn't go mad. Was glad to have it as home delivery options became very scarce in March and April.

Away With The Fairies

Only really stocked up on food for when I'm sick. I always eat cornflakes when I'm sick, so plenty of boxes of cornflakes and powdered milk. And tea bags. Should get me through a few weeks if I was to get sick and stay at home.

Snow Garden

Snow Garden wrote: »

Did we ever figure out why the panic buying idiots bought so much loo roll?

Because some people wanted to feel like Will Smith in I am Legend, or Charleton Heston in The Omega Man.

I've worked from home since 2017, so no real change for me in that, but the other half does have a public facing role and while the majority of that aspect has been reduced, she is still working six days a week with some public interaction. So we decided to do a two week stock of non perishable goods just in case we had to self isolate, but have been using and replacing stuff from it as part of the regular shop.

Apart from milk and bread, I normally do a two week shop and have continued to do so. Had just done our regular shop before the restrictions were first announced and so wasn't affected by any empty shelves of toilet paper etc as they were all back in stock by the time I was back for the regular shop. Helps that we have our own chickens so no problem getting eggs and were able to give some of the excess to some of our neighbours when they couldn't get any at the time. Would love to grow some of our own veg, and planning on setting this up if I get some time.

Don't really blame anyone for panicking, given that it was an unknown situation and what was happening in other countries. Another factor and another reason I don't bother with it, was the amount of bs that was being posted on social media and from some of the posters on here, claiming that the supply chain was about to break down and the army was going to be on the streets in March based on the retailer whatsapp group that they are part of or from their cousin who is in the FCA, were imo regularly posting bullsh1t even before covid and are now doing the same and moaning away in the relaxation of restrictions thread or claiming that it's so that we can be tracked by an eventful vaccine or 5g etc.

RobbingBandit

Only panic but I did was buy a Nintendo Switch on March 16 in Newry which unfortunately malfunctioned in early April looks like it'll be a month or so before I can return it.

Snow Garden

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

Only really stocked up on food for when I'm sick. I always eat cornflakes when I'm sick, so plenty of boxes of cornflakes and powdered milk. And tea bags. Should get me through a few weeks if I was to get sick and stay at home.

You should inform Trump of this on Twitter!

ldy4mxonucwsq6

I think the food supply chain did very well in all of this and they did a great job of keeping shops stocked.

Every part of the supply chain had to work extra hard to keep up with demand and retailers were quick to adapt their stores.

So well done to all involved in keeping us all fed and watered, I think they deserve some well earned praise.

KevinK

Did a bit of panic buying. Pretty much all consumed by now though (maybe wasn’t as panicked as I could have been ) . Think it did save a few unnecessary trips to the shops in fairness.

Obviously the scenes with empty shelves weren’t great, but don’t think we contributed too much to that, most of the stuff that went were fresh items which it didn’t make much sense to buy anyway.

Got a few extra packs of toilet roll but again that’s all gone and had to get more during the week (I guess we are at home more now).

I have noticed a little more food wastage, have a a bit more in the fridge and things Can get forgotten about! Before the fridge would have been pretty empty at the end of the week while now it’s kind of full constantly,

But anyway no regrets about the panic buying and glad to avoid the shops for a couple of weeks at the start of this.

bottlebrush

Didn't panic buy or bulk buy, just a few extra non perishable items with long expiry dates anytime time I shopped . If I dont need them I will give them to some of the various food appeals at Christmas. In fact I believe one of our local supermarkets has already set up trolleys for unwanted/unused items for immediate distribution to those in need.

neris

Between a bit of snow and covid19 its shown how idiotic some people are when it comes to shopping. The supply chain never stopped and there was never a shortage of items during either situation. Id hate to see what would happen if there was an impending world war or major natural disaster on the way

r93kaey5p2izun

My family are now cocooned for 10 weeks. I should have done a lot more bulk shopping back in Jan, Feb and early March. It has been extremely difficult to keep enough food in the house and we have run out of important items a number of times. I had to go out at the end of March when I shouldn't have. I'm sorry I listened to those who said it would all be grand. It took until mid April for things to actually function adeqately.

Cal4567

We found over the last 2/3 years it was wise to keep a bit ahead of ourselves food wise no much so in winter with the threat of really bad weather. Not only food, but torches and candles as well as batteries - very handy with power cuts as we've had a few of them but have been able to use radios and have some light source.

I am now getting more and more confident with how things seem to be turning around but back in mid February, we were beginning to get concerned and I think there at the last week of Feb we started to add a bit more to the weekly shop plus we were to have family over from England for Paddy's Day, so bought in advance for them. They were not able to show, so we used that stuff.

Slightly off topic but we have little problem shopping. We both are self employed and normally do a big shop each Monday or Tuesday. Have tended over the last 2 months to shop well into the evening. Haven't found the supermarkets that busy at those times.

FVP3

I have loads of toilet paper left. Apparently the shops never ran out of them. I suppose they don't go off, there's that,but I worry about a fire engufing the 200 rolls in the garage.

Ficheall

I don't understand how people don't have a supply of toilet paper anyway - do they just think "Hmm, gonna have to go to the loo soon, hope I have some loo roll so I don't have to go to the shop"? It's cheap, non-perishable, and doesn't take up much space. I had loads of toilet roll before I'd even heard of the virus. When there were shortages, I told friends I had plenty if they needed any, but there were no takers.

Coronavirus-prep-wise, I bought a new freezer (old one on the fritz for a year, so this was the nudge I needed) and stocked up on food in January, with two top-ups in February, and got a delivery in March that was mainly fruit and veg and milk (and a couple of Easter eggs).

I've enough food for another month or two (one person; had stocked up enough in case parents had needed to come and stay with me), and have saved on food expenses and haven't had to run the shopping gauntlet since the end of February. I've thrown out one onion, half a dozen carrots, and there are two peppers in the fridge what will need to be thrown out and I'm also sceptical about two remaining pomegranates.

In hindsight, I would still have done exactly the same thing. Probably bought more chocolate, I'm almost out.
Overall, I will probably end up doing more eating in when this is all over than I would have before.

That is not to say I did not overreact at all - I have 65litres of water that I probably won't need for a while. Ditto a couple of extra litres of bleach and some batteries. One evening in February I also took the notion to hide some food in a wardrobe, in case of the unlikely event that things really went to **** and people broke in to steal food..

Upforthematch

Ficheall wrote: »

That is not to say I did not overreact at all - I have 65litres of water that I probably won't need for a while. Ditto a couple of extra litres of bleach and some batteries. One evening in February I also took the notion to hide some food in a wardrobe, in case of the unlikely event that things really went to **** and people broke in to steal food..

Lol! Break info the house to steal food? You certainly covered all eventualities!

NSAman

We always keep the freezer stocked with frozen veggies, meat (a little ice cream) and some local ready meals for work.

Didnt understand the complete ridiculous hoarding of perishables at all..

Still to this day I never understood the toilet paper thing. I still have not bought toilet paper since January. (Although we are getting a little low at the moment)

The one thing I did top up on in January was hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray, that was for the office mostly and we have not needed to purchase any more. In fact, I was giving some to the staff in the bank and post office as they couldn’t source it themselves.

Still shop once a week for the basics (this has not changed over the course of 10 years). The only thing that is lacking in stores now still is bleach products (named brands but generics abound).

neris

Apparently the toilet paper thing came from Australia. They get their toilet rolls made in China and there were supply issues there but our toilet paper is made in Europe where there was no issue but the idiots paniced. Good clip on YouTube of an Aussie supermarket owner saying how he refused to refund a customer who bought a few thousand rolls and pretty much cleared his store out

completedit

It's extremely hard to truly have a stockpile of food in an era where we eat and expect to eat so much and I include healthy people in that

neris

neris wrote: »

Apparently the toilet paper thing came from Australia. They get their toilet rolls made in China and there were supply issues there but our toilet paper is made in Europe where there was no issue but the idiots paniced. Good clip on YouTube of an Aussie supermarket owner saying how he refused to refund a customer who bought a few thousand rolls and pretty much cleared his store out

Actually they make toilet rolls in Australia for the local market and not in China according to a friend from there.

Wasn't the only country to panic buy them and weren't the first apparently but probably the first one we seen clips from that went viral
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51731422

cj maxx

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

It was a total disgrace and it's as simple as that.

True. I was in getting a big shop the same as I do every couple of weeks/ months.
I swear an old biddy followed me copying me . Large toilet roll check. Cleaning stuff check. Pasta and sauces check.
I swear the only thing she didn't copy was the 30 bottles of Heineken.

mandrake04

DubInMeath wrote: »

Actually they make toilet rolls in Australia for the local market and not in China according to a friend from there.

Wasn't the only country to panic buy them and weren't the first apparently but probably the first one we seen clips from that went viral
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51731422

That’s true 80-90% of Australia’s toilet paper is made in Australia, the panic buying started in Chinese suburbs like Epping, Carlingford and Hurstville because relatives back in China advised them one of symptoms of Covid was diarrhoea and to stock up as they had supply issues in Wuhan due to the lockdown. Of course once the media found out the whole country started doing the same.

Plumbers were also flat out installing ‘bum guns’ witch are hand held showers that are plumbed to the toilet very common in Thailand.

El_Duderino 09

mandrake04 wrote: »

That’s true 80-90% of Australia’s toilet paper is made in Australia, the panic buying started in Chinese suburbs like Epping, Carlingford and Hurstville because relatives back in China advised them one of symptoms of Covid was diarrhoea and to stock up as they had supply issues in Wuhan due to the lockdown. Of course once the media found out the whole country started doing the same.

Plumbers were also flat out installing ‘bum guns’ witch are hand held showers that are plumbed to the toilet very common in Thailand.

The bum gun is brilliant. So clean and fresh it makes you look at toilet paper as smearing the sh1t around your arse to wipe it off.

I would wonder how many houses in Wuhan use toilet paper. Might have been a middle class thing in Wuhan, that spread around the world.

Like if a rush on global avocados started in Portlaiose.

Purple Mountain

I'm sure there's a lot of happy bums out there with all the extra wiping they got.

corner of hells

I bought as much Guinness as she'd let me buy.
Guinness is a food right ?

Her panic buys on a regular basis , mention of a storm or snowfall and she hits her local supervalue .

mandrake04

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

The bum gun is brilliant. So clean and fresh it makes you look at toilet paper as smearing the sh1t around your arse to wipe it off.

I would wonder how many houses in Wuhan use toilet paper. Might have been a middle class thing in Wuhan, that spread around the world.

Like if a rush on global avocados started in Portlaiose.

Not sure if bum guns are popular in China, they definitely more of a Thai and and possibly a Philippino thing. I know some Chinese people in Australia install squat toilets so those might be popular in likes of Wuhan. I been to China (Shanghai) a few times and always only seen normal toilets but not sure what’s used in poorer areas.

Montage of Feck

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Because some people wanted to feel like Will Smith in I am Legend, or Charleton Heston in The Omega Man.

I didn't stock up so I could feel like Charlton Heston in Soylent Green.