Panic buying

Dont know if the bread and tatties is a geordie thing only, but I have just spoke to my daughter in Co. Durham and theres no bread in her Asda either! I'm a Misionary (Geordie living in Surrey!) and was at Tesco this morning no shortages of anything!

It may have been a supply/delivery problem, rather than panic buying ethelt
Or perhaps like that Greggs delivery driver, they gave the bread/rolls etc away to people stuck in their cars!
That said I buy amazing fresh bread baked daily from my Co-op, but when it’s one, it's gone and 5.30 is quite late.

I live in the south and haven't noticed a shortage of anything.I don't think people here panic buy as we don't expect to be incarcerated for more than a few days.

We were told this morning at an Asda in Cheshire with no bread or milk that the delivery lorries couldn't get through the M62 as parts were closed.
We went to a farm foods for milk and I have made our own bread.(Don't know how good it will be)
There were lots of potatoes in asda, but I get mine from our market.

It is not panic buying, it is lack of supplies getting through to the shops here, principally bakery and dairy items which are usually delivered fresh daily.

Exactly Granny23 our local Asda, Morrison’s, Tesco have no bread whatsoever . No milk yesterday either and limited supplies today !

The main A1 ( north of Alnwick) has been closed in both directions for almost 3 days ! Can you imagine this being the M25 or anywhere in the South ? Unthinkable .

The supermarkets tend now to rely on having daily deliveries of all perishables. So dreadful weather gets in the way and people stock up needlessly. It is winter the severe weather was forecast in advance and potatoes keep for ages anyway .
I have a doorstep milkman who is very reliable, but to be fair South Cheshire has got off lightly so far.

Odd supplies getting through--no milk or fresh bread in our local supermarket but lots of freshly flown in daffodils!

We have had no shortages here on The Wirral everything as normal in all the Supermarkets,people stocking up expecting the siege of Leningrad annoy me they are so selfish most probably do not need it and just buy because they have heard some daft story about shortages.

I live on the south coast and am just back from a trip to Waitrose there was a shortage of some fresh veg (mushrooms?) and little bread but not completely out. I think the gaps are due to supply issues with poor travel conditions not panic buying

Massive shortages of all fresh ingredients here in the NE , the Borders and parts of Scotland too. Supplies not getting North or South . Not panic buying at all .

Just because we live in the south it doesn't mean that people are not snow bound at home. Motorways may be clear but for those in rural areas many small roads are feet deep in snow. Drifts 12 foot deep near Marlborough. Someone rescued after spending a night in a drift with the car nearly covered in snow.

My DS lives in Glastonbury, with her house standing 20 foot above the road, access by a steep concrete steps, she would certainly have been unable to get out had she not gone to London by train on Wednesday, meant to be a day trip, she is still there three days later having had to pay for a three nights in a hotel because with the trains cancelled she cannot get home.

I appreciate that M0nica. I just find it a bit annoying that it is assumed that people are clearing the shelves of fresh produce when there was nothing on them anyway .

I have a friend who lives just outside Bamburgh that has been staying at a travel lodge on the A1 because she can't get back to her house. And another friend there who can't get out of his lane [and he has a tractor]. I can't imagine what it's like at the moment.

There have been people sleeping in community centres and on floors and chairs of pubs Tegan . Bamburgh would have been very badly hit as it’s slap bang in the middle of the stretch of the A1 that has been closed for days. Poor people.

gillybob that's journalists for you, all they want is a good story and people stockpiling makes news.

We came over to France on Wednesday. We always have an emergency supply of tins and stores in the house here, but we did call into a supermarket on our way from the ferry to buy some butter, milk, bread and bottles of wine (one of each, except the wine) just in case the promised overnight snow blocked us in. It didn't but one winter we were snowed in for several days.

A friend of mine, like myself, has not been out for days but her sister went shopping in Berwick and there was no fruit or vegetables. I do not know if it was a mix of supply or panic buying.

Another in Falkirk could not buy fresh milk but that would be a supply problem. She could get bread but not necessarily what she wanted.

The big thaw has started in London so I am pleased about that.

P:erhaps, like me, they had enough tins in the cupboard and food in the fridge and freezer to tide them over, but ran out of the things that need to be bought fresh? I ran out of milk but had a tin of evaporated so used that. I made bread with the last of my bread flour There was more flour and more tinned milk on the Tesco online order that was already due to be delivered on Wednesday, ordered before the freeze descended, but deliveries were cancelled. My fingers are crossed for the re-order on Tuesday.

Of course I feel desperate about those who live on the streets with no help or possibility of a warm bed and nourishing food, the elderly and unwell living alone with little or no heating and little food but the OP is asking about panic buying so will confine my thoughts to that : the bad weather was forecast well ahead of its arrival. In anticipation of our village being cut off, if only for a few days, I bought a good supply of milk, bread and other staples in advance. DD ran out of milk as did the one and only shop within 5 miles so I was able to give her a spare bottle. So long as the electricity isn't cut off most people have a freezer and as I've done in the past, you can always put perishables outside the back door in the snow in an Eski. During the winter of 2010/11 when living in Scotland, we were stuck unabke to drive to a shopfor over 4 weeks and just lived out of the store cupboard and freezer. It's a case of looking ahead and preparing for the expected/unexpected. If most people did this there wouldn't be the mad panic to strip the supermarket shelves in preparation for Armageddon.

gillybob; there were going to be roadworks on the A1 last Monday and traffic was going to be diverted through Bamburgh. Thankfully it was cancelled, not because of the weather [or so I've been led to believe] but because it would have entailed having to take down the war memorial on the roundabout at Seahouses. Can you imagine hundreds of lorries going round that sharp bend just after Budle Bay?

I'm in northern Scotland and there was no bread and little milk yesterday in the city. It's down to lorries not getting through, not panic buying.

The village where my daughter lives has just one Coop, which had its first delivery today since Tuesday. They had no fresh goods left at all. Even now they only received a half load but it was enough to ensure all the elderly and vulnerable had supplies and some left. They'd had no buses, either, since Tuesday so had no option to go elsewhere!

Our generation is more likely to keep a full store cupboard than younger people. DS phoned to check I was OK and ask how many meals I had in hand When I said about a week's worth he was amazed, I am supposed to be the vulnerable old lady but I was more prepared than he was. It dates back to the days when I had three very small children and no car, so I had to have enough food to survive a few days of bad weather without getting everyone kitted up to drag them on foot through the storm.

West Country farmers are having to dispose of their milk because the transport can't get through to collect it. One farmer said she had to get rid of 9,000 litres a day.

So if there's no milk on the supermarket shelves it is probably not because of panic buying.

So overall, what OP observed what almost certainly not the result of panic buying. Simples!