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

ldy4mxonucwsq6 · 21-05-2020 12:54PM

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 · 21-05-2020 12:58PM

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 · 21-05-2020 01:02PM

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 · 21-05-2020 01:03PM

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 · 21-05-2020 01:16PM

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 · 21-05-2020 01:19PM

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 · 21-05-2020 01:44PM

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 · 21-05-2020 02:02PM

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 · 21-05-2020 02:07PM

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 · 21-05-2020 02:12PM

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 · 21-05-2020 02:42PM

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 · 21-05-2020 04:45PM

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

21-05-2020 05:54PM

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 · 21-05-2020 06:02PM

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 · 21-05-2020 08:47PM

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 · 21-05-2020 10:15PM

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 · 21-05-2020 10:18PM

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

corner of hells · 21-05-2020 10:36PM

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 · 21-05-2020 10:55PM

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 · 21-05-2020 11:21PM

[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.

bb1234567 · 22-05-2020 01:17AM

completedit wrote: »

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

Yeh it's crazy I am continually shocked by the amount of food that is brought into the house for my family of five each and ever yweek and we are all slim ,I also wouldn't consider any of us particularly greedy either

Better Than Christ · 22-05-2020 01:20AM

I bought so much white bread that I ended up having no use for the 12,000 rolls of toilet paper that I also bought.

CrankyHaus · 22-05-2020 10:30AM

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.

Middle Class, Portlaoise; pick one,

the purple tin · 22-05-2020 10:41AM

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. :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.

In reality we should always have a decent stock of non-perishables, you never know what can happen and you aren't able to shop.
The big snow a couple of years ago was a good example.

Feisar · 22-05-2020 10:41AM

bb1234567 wrote: »

Yeh it's crazy I am continually shocked by the amount of food that is brought into the house for my family of five each and ever yweek and we are all slim ,I also wouldn't consider any of us particularly greedy either

Running at 2,000 cals a person a day that's 70,000 cals a week which is a fair pile of food.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 22-05-2020 10:42AM

My daughter is a chef, she also does a lot of work from home (cakes, biscuits etc) and she'd been bugging me to buy a chest freezer for ages but I resisted, so when the sh*t hit the fan I asked her what she thought we needed to buy.

The smug little git said ''A chest freezer and I'll look after the rest'', she got her freezer

and I got fat

(happens when you're living with an out of work chef lol )

El_Duderino 09 · 22-05-2020 10:55AM

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Middle Class, Portlaoise; pick one,

That, was the joke.

Grab All Association · 22-05-2020 11:10AM

He actually reposted it at the time lol

22-05-2020 11:41AM

I stocked up on anti bac hand gel, baby wipes, flash with bleach. Made loads of nutritious dishes which I portioned and froze. Few extra boxes of cereal and extra prune juice, porridge and other stuff my parents eat on a daily basis.

This was before the mass panic buying as i had a feeling that would happen. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the shops when the hoardes landed and I didn’t have to as I was prepared. People freaking out that they couldn’t get hand sanitiser but I had enough for each of my family and every carer that comes into the house. The food was and is still shared around too.

I’m sure that the virus spread like wildfire with everyone I long into the shops.

Feisar · 22-05-2020 12:14PM

We bulk buy so there's wasn't any need to stockpile as we sort of are always stocked up.

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

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