On Friday Starting to panic about panic-buying?
TESCO is running out of delivery slots, I’ve been forced to buy pasta twizzles when all I really wanted was shells, and there’s an oversized pile of loo rolls in our bathroom that I’m feeling slightly ashamed of.
Yes, panic buying is back and, given that we should know better by now, it seems even more ridiculous than last time.
Has everyone forgotten that the supermarkets stayed open through the whole of the Covid-19 lockdown? That they were the one place we’ve never been restricted from visiting? And that the only reason the shelves were cleared of tins and toilet rolls was because of the stupid panic buyers?
My husband and I regularly disagree over the need to stockpile food.
My preferred shopping technique is to run everything in the cupboards down as far as possible, Googling recipes to use up the tin of black beans or half-pack of polenta, popping to the local convenience store to fill in the missing ingredients.
Then when we’re finally down to the pearl barley with a best before
date of 2015, I’ll head to the supermarket.
The other half, however, likes to prepare for every eventuality. He frets about the impact of Brexit on the availability of baked beans. He worries that lockdown might leave us loo-roll-less.
And so I found myself in the supermarket on Monday night buying an oversized pack of toilet rolls that we probably didn’t need to allay his fears that we may be wiping our bottoms on leaves for the foreseeable.
I’m not suggesting my husband is a panic buyer, but he’s on the cautious side of the supermarket shopping spectrum.
And while I’d rather run out of toilet roll than pile it high, he’d rather take precautions over the inevitable empty shelves that snowball from a tightening of restrictions or a calamitous withdrawal from the EU.
And I will concede that he’s got a point. With news of 7,000 lorries queuing on our motorways and a border being erected around Kent, it feels increasingly likely there may be some disruption to food produce.
And our new lockdown restrictions have certainly had an impact on delivery slots for the major supermarkets.
The next available Tesco delivery slot is Monday, October 12. Waitrose doesn’t have a delivery available until Tuesday next week for where we live.
But my argument is that food at the moment is too readily available. It wouldn’t do those people who can afford to eat well any harm to have less choice and be forced to shop more seasonally or locally.
And if people stopped panicking, there would be no shortage of delivery slots or household essentials.
I feel for the supermarket workers who have to bear the brunt of people complaining about a lack of provisions, on top of the abuse they’re already suffering for trying to get obnoxious customers to wear masks.
I feel for those people on the breadline who have to wait until enough money comes in to buy anything at all, and then find the supermarket shelves empty.
I feel for the people who can’t leave the house to go shopping and find all the delivery slots booked up by panickers.
“There is no need to buy more than you usually would,” said the CEO of Aldi, Giles Hurley, in a message to customers this week.
Spot on.
In the meantime, if anyone needs toilet rolls, you’ll find a few at my house.
‘Given that we should know better by now, it seems even more ridiculous than last time’