
Why stockpiling is not the crazy, selfish behaviour that it seems - DanBC
https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/why-stockpiling-is-not-the-crazy-selfish-behaviour-that-it-seems/3483
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finaliteration
I will admit, I was one of the people railing against "hoarders" based on some
of the imagery I was seeing (and in-person examples - like one person loading
their cart with dozens of bottles of ketchup). I'm also happy to admit that I
was wrong if it really is a matter of lots of people just buying a little more
than they used to and that's what's causing some of the in-store shortages.
Based on the article that seems to be the case, so I'll say it now: I was
wrong.

> there is a good chance that if the small percentage of crazy buyers does not
> increase and the majority of shoppers who have been stocking up, go back
> towards a replenishment of their higher stocks, we should see the problem
> gradually subside in the coming days and weeks

I'm really hoping that's the case. I've been monitoring a few items online to
see whether they're gradually coming back or not. We're pretty well stocked on
some staples and other things, but the kid in me who grew up poor in a large
family still has some anxiety about the whole food situation.

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saiya-jin
Its the power of many folks buying a bit more, when big shops have found a
balance during stable times of how much they need to have in store for maximal
profit (=minimal waste). Not much mystery there that it doesn't work now.

I also bought a bit more stuff. Why? Well we are 3 stuck at home 24/7 (well
newborn doesn't really count, but wife needs good diet and baby seems to have
some sort of cow protein alergy), so instead of eating lunch at work, we eat
everything at home. Combine this with desire to visit shop as little as
possible since its our only human contact indoor. I am really curious when
things get back to normal, I guess in couple of weeks.

Just to clarify, I live in city with >1k confirmed infections (so probably
10-50k real ones), quite a few colleagues have it, working from home for
second week.

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Scoundreller
I estimate 1in5 meals were prepared out-of-home:
schools/restaurants/vacations/fast-food.

So that’s a 25% increase on demand for retail sales.

While there’s some commonality of sourcing (restaurants buying from Costco), a
lot isn’t. There’s probably a surplus of 10# cans of beans in a warehouse, but
a shortage of 1# cans.

But I also believe caloric need is down 5-10% as we all become more sedentary
(don’t have to go to work, but less unnecessary bullshit in general - e.g.
driver’s licenses automatically extended another year).

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PaulKeeble
I have been saying since the beginning that I thought hoarding was unlikely
the issue since clearly there was a massive shift in where people were eating
and no spare capacity in the trucks. The UK supermarkets spend 4 months
preparing for Christmas and that is just a few days without supermarket access
and once it's done they immediately switch that tiny extra capacity to Easter.

Its a supply chain issue with 30% of the calories eaten outside of the home
now shifting into the home. It's structural and it thus requires government
intervention. When you consider that 8 hours a day people are using company
toilet paper and eating lunch from lunch take out places and all that now gets
shifted through the supermarkets there is a big problem. When the report was
the bread was out consistently it should have become clear this was just
everyone working from home needing lunch when previously they would have been
doing that at work from a sandwich shop. The hoarding narrative allowed the
government to avoid fixing the actual problem.

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ars
Summary: People are not actually buying, huge, crazy amounts.

Rather that have somewhat increased the buying of what they normally buy, and
added a few more things.

But in mass, all that small increase is clearing shelves, amking people thing
it's hoarding behavior, when it is not.

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mobilefriendly
More specifically, that small increase is clearing shelves of items normally
bought less frequently, like toilet paper and other paper goods.

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stillbourne
There is a difference between stockpiling and panic hoarding. Stockpiling can
involve, canning, preserving, dehydrating, bulk purchasing in times of plenty,
and setting up gas generators and petro. Panic hoarding is going between one
grocer and the next and buying the entire stock of an item, sometimes with the
intent of price gouging your neighbors, or just out of a general sense of
fear. One is orderly and planned, the other is a dickish move.

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NinoScript
Did you even read the article though?

