Sometimes I just shake my head in despair

[British Red]

A South Wales Supermarket

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-snow--s...lves-from-panic-buying-114529619.html#iCOATAw

What kind of people need to panic buy like that because of snow? They may be a day or two where they can't drive to the flourescent hall of plastic wrapped plastic food and they have to sweep the shelves.

Heaven forfend we ever face a real emergency!

 

[salan]

How much of that will be in the bin in the next few days?
Alan

 

[Tadpole]

How much of that will be in the bin in the next few days?
Alan

If you'd watched a BBC programme last night you'd know, roughly 60% will end up being binned. :sad:

 

[Lister]

It's not panic buing, look at the section headers: "Carrots"......they just want to make an army of snowpeople!

 

[Harvestman]

Panic buying is great for supermarkets. Some politician will probably be along soon to say it is great for the economy too

 

[dave53]

i couldn't get any milk either or bread regards dave there all maaaaaaaaaaaaad

 

[The Big Lebowski]

I bet the supermarkets are loving 'the season of skintness'

 

[addo]

I went to do the normal family shop last night and had to contend with twice the amount of numpties and a half the amount food.

 

[nigeltm]

"We went to three different supermarkets just to try and find some milk for a cup of tea, but there was none anywhere."

I love it! So there was no powdered milk, powdered tea or how about lemon tea? Panic is a wonderful thing. I was is the Morrisons in Port Talbot an hour ago and a guy was loading 9 or 10 loaves in to the back of his van.

Hang on. Bread in Port Talbot. Maybe the report is just a bit sensationalist?

 

[Toddy]

Supermarkets bring in huge quantities of fresh fruit and veg on a daily basis. Folks have just shopped early, just in case.

I keep a well filled pantry (you should hear the comments from HWMBLT and Son2, who are manfully eating their way through my usual Winter squirreling ) and I do store some veg in trugs with compost, but not everyone has either the means or the space to do so.

This is just folks shopping, not rioting and looting. Snow of any depth, or lasting for more than a couple of days is really quite rare in most of the UK. There's no getting away from it; we are a very urbanised society.

cheers,
M

 

[British Red]

This is just folks shopping, not rioting and looting. Snow of any depth, or lasting for more than a couple of days is really quite rare in most of the UK. There's no getting away from it; we are a very urbanised society.

cheers,
M

Thats far from normal patterns (trust me, I have worked on storereplenishment systems for years - bread and milk are designed to be "Noos" items - Never Out Of Stock). As you say - a couple of days without being able to get to the shops is extremely unlikely. Come to that what kind of person can't go a few days without shopping. Just plain weird.

 

[Still Waters]

A South Wales Supermarket

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-snow--s...lves-from-panic-buying-114529619.html#iCOATAw

What kind of people need to panic buy like that because of snow? They may be a day or two where they can't drive to the flourescent hall of plastic wrapped plastic food and they have to sweep the shelves.

Heaven forfend we ever face a real emergency!

Apparently the beefburger isle is exactly the same since they are selling horse for the same price as beef

 

[Jared]

Shame didn't have a picture of the flour / baking ingredients isle.

Cos surely if you expect to be that snowed in, your not going anywhere anyway.

 

[andybysea]

Same thing happened here at Christmas shelves bare, i wouldnt mind but the shops barely close at Christmas/New year these days!

 

[Teepee]

I think there are good reasons for people to stock up;

The Met office had the highest level of warning out for South wales which is "Take Action!"

Thats also the veg aisle, so most of it won't go off in cold weather as it can be stored outside.

Lots of people will have shopped early as its a friday and won't need to go out in the snow and risk falling over or denting their car, others will have stocked up so they can go sledding with their kids over the weekend instead of doing the trollley derby in the supermarket.

I live in a village, and now the roads are impassable with just 2 inches ( I know because I've just nearly got stuck and had to put the snow chains on) .They will be for 3 or 4 days without snow chains or 4wd's.

I honestly don't think stocking up well before a forcast heavy dump of snow is really that mad TBH, and I've seen shelves that stripped on normal Sundays in local supermarkets.

 

[Gaudette]

Panic buying is great for supermarkets. Some politician will probably be along soon to say it is great for the economy too

Panic buying is never good for supermarkets. It upsets the supply chain and depending on the systems used takes awhile to readjust.

 

[British Red]

I think there are good reasons for people to stock up;

.

Of course there are - "stocking up" doesn't mean panic buying because there may be a few inches of snow. Stocking up means having a decent supply of staples and regularly used items - not rushing out because of the weather and buying up loads of stuff because you can't get through the weekend. As for the weekend shop - its the middle of the month - people get paid monthly now, not cash on a Friday - what is the point of a "weekly shop" these days?

 

[CheeseMonster]

Show the rest of the supermarket and I doubt it will be so bad. People are just getting ready for a few days without going to the shops. I'm not saying there isn't an element of panic buying but if I walk into a supermarket and see the image i'm not going to freak out.
I'm a guy on a low income, no garden etc but I've got easily enough food in to last a good few weeks and I think most people will be the same.

 

[British Red]

I'm a guy on a low income, no garden etc but I've got easily enough food in to last a good few weeks and I think most people will be the same.

That was my point in a nutshell

 

[santaman2000]

I have enough "food" on hand to see me through a month more or less. That said, I don't have enough milk or similar perishables on hand so yes, there is a need for doing some shopping on a weekly basis.

But I agree with BR that there's a difference between normal stocking (or even emergencey stocking) and panic buying. But even as we know this; resalize that there are always younger generations learning what took us years to learn. And when they learn it, there'll be another younger generation behind them.

Personally I prefer them to err in this direction rather than to go unprepared and expect me (or the government using my taxes) to get them through tough times.