Food shortages in the 70's recession

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

I actually saw two women in the local Co-Op slap each other as they each wanted the bag of sugar I refused.When the power cuts were on candles were hard to get too and one candle starting selling for the price a box of 12 had cost the day beforehand.

DawnW

I remember shortages of sugar, tea and loo rolls :eek: . Not sure why it happened. Certainly people 'talking up' the shortages made some (ie those who could afford it - certainly not me at the time) buy more than they needed. From our perspective, it made us more self reliant - we still grow our own veg / cook from scratch / keep chickens to this day. Wouldn't help on the loo roll front though:D

olly300

PasturesNew wrote: »

I remember shortages of:
- potatoes, price of chips rocketed, home made chips were made with parsnips

Wasn't that due to a long hot dry summer?

Cleaver

As someone who wasn't born in the 1970s I'm kinda reading all of these posts with a smile as it just sounds bizairre.

That same smile will be wiped off my face in six months time when I'm in a three hour queue for my sugar ration only to have it stolen by a feral gang of chavs to sell on the black market.

[Deleted User]

most of it was down to strikes by the dockers and transport unions,however much of the blame can be laid at the door of the average housewife who had little better to do than panic buy.I remember my gran had 2 very big cupboards either side of her fireplace,one was stuffed with sugar the other with tea,everytime i visited i was given bag of each to take home to my mum,who also had cupboards full of the stuff,I`d swear blind that most of the countrys supply of tea and sugar in the 70s spent all its time being moved not from shop to shopper but from house to house

Cleaver

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

I actually saw two women in the local Co-Op slap each other as they each wanted the bag of sugar I refused.When the power cuts were on candles were hard to get too and one candle starting selling for the price a box of 12 had cost the day beforehand.

Was that the 1970s or the 1870s?

piggeh

In my world chavs can only just spell, let alone have the business acumen and underworld contacts to offload dodgy gear for a profit.

You must live in a posh area with a different class of burberry touting delinquents.

[Deleted User]

Cleaver wrote: »

Was that the 1970s or the 1870s?

that would be the power cuts of the 1970s,oh what joy,electric off while dinner was cooking,no tv for hours on end(bliss),the streets so dark you could see the stars

Kez100

When I was very little my nan would get a huge Easter egg from someone every year which we all shared and it was brilliant. Then this person stopped giving her the egg and gave her shedloads of sugar instead. She said it was because she could use it for jam. Now perhaps that was true but I am wondering now if it was another secret stash.

rosemarym_2

I remember a salt shortage - I can't remember what triggered it. Panic-buying, I think, but I don't know why!