Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

I am not one to panic but people panic buying because of a terrorist threat is ridiculous. The real risk of any incident is very small and if it were a weather warning that I could understand. A flood might isolate you for several weeks and the same for snow.

Other than that you might actually be better off buying in smaller quantities so if there is any trouble you are carrying a lot less than usual so can evacuate without any risk to yourself. Trying to evacuate a store with several hundred pounds of groceries is not going to be easy. Leaving with just a bottle of milk will be a lot more achievable and safer. If there were mobs about you would lose that big shop but the loss of a single bottle of milk will not break the bank.

nuatha

I wonder where the newspaper got the idea that people were panic buying.
I used to work for a major supermarket (admittedly many moons ago) and there were particular seasonal buying patterns. In December we sold as much loo roll as we did from July to November. The end of August and beginning of September (depending when the schools went back) we sold a lot of pulses, a lot of meat pastes and lot more tins of beans and spaghetti.
The weather was likely to put in colder, so lentils and broth mix sales went up. Kids were back at school, so meat paste for sandwiches for packed lunches and beans and spaghetti were a quick and easy meal when the kids came in from school. All lines that may well be seen as panic buying but had a natural sales uplift at this time of year.

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

I wonder where the newspaper got the idea that people were panic buying.
I used to work for a major supermarket (admittedly many moons ago) and there were particular seasonal buying patterns. In December we sold as much loo roll as we did from July to November. The end of August and beginning of September (depending when the schools went back) we sold a lot of pulses, a lot of meat pastes and lot more tins of beans and spaghetti.
The weather was likely to put in colder, so lentils and broth mix sales went up. Kids were back at school, so meat paste for sandwiches for packed lunches and beans and spaghetti were a quick and easy meal when the kids came in from school. All lines that may well be seen as panic buying but had a natural sales uplift at this time of year.

How long before they report panic buying of Christmas pudding?

Though my parents keep an eye out for the top rated Christmas pudding in the papers and of course they sell out quickly.

I think newspapers are trying to fill pages with cheap copy. Personally I am trying to declutter the junk in my food cupboards and replace it with things that will be more useful to me in future. So at some point I will get around to my annual online shop and stock up on toilet paper etc.

[Deleted User]

It's all academic anyway as I assume we're all stocked up to cover potential problem times in the future. I've always run with a substantial storecupboard anyway in case the girls were poorly or the weather was bad and I couldn't get to the shops, it was just good housekeeping practise and something anyone with common sense did. I've never had to pop to a neighbour to 'borrow' a cup of anything in my life which is a direct result of living with a ditsy disorganised parent whose priorities were her cigarettes, sherry, magazines and sweeties before anything to feed us with. Makes you have your own list of priorities from a very early age and being stocked up is one of the important ones !!!

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Called into a local sports shop, looking for aluminium arrows.

They didn't actually have the size I was looking for, but as the price is the same, irrespective of size, it didn't matter.

The price?

Wait for it.

£5 each. :eek:

Don't wanna rain on your archery parade but £5 each is the going rate for the cheapest aluminium or wooden arrows. If you think of it as comparable to buying single-use ammo for a firearm, it will seem expensive, but they are a re-usable item which should last for years barring accidents or loss.

I didn't see anything about the panic-buying of food on the newspaper websites which I frequent, although I only did a drive-by search. Saw no signs of it IRL.

Shops work closely with suppliers to get the most-likely to be bought items to the shops in the quantitiy we are likely to want to buy. Watched a bit of a prog somewhere about a meat supplier and how they used the weather forecast to anticipate whether to make mince into beef burgers for the BBQ trade, should hot weekends be forecast, or sell it in pkts as mince for cooking into chili and shepherd's pie and other warming dishes. I haven't worked in retail but I have worked in a meat-packing plant and the stuff which is going out is dependant on the time of year.

Right now, anyone I know with school-age kids is in the business of re-clothing, re-shoeing and re-stationerying them and looking a bit pale around the gills at all the money bleeding from their accounts.

I buy things when I see them at a nice price but I try not to buy in quantities which would be memorable, such as only 2-3 of something. You don't want to be the memorable one with all the tins if food gets scarce. Also, should there have been a problem with that batch of cans, and you have lots bought at the same time, you run the risk of having damaged foodstuffs when you need it.

More and more as I go through life, I want to be the grey woman, the one you don't remember. It's a nuisance being about 6 inches taller than the median height of women of my generation, but nothing I can do about that. Otherwise, I like to bumble about in the background, doing my thing and not being noticed.

[Deleted User]

Oh the shame of it.

Noticed the seam was coming apart (only an inch or so), on a pair of trousers, so went to get the needle and thread out, to sew it.

Couldn't find any needles and thread. :eek:

Suffice to say, I went straight to £world and bought a sewing kit, which is now safety stored away.

elaine241

Hello all, just popping in. I haven't posted for ages as nothing interesting to say!!

This week has a potential for problems as NATO seem to have hijacked my area of South Wales! I work In the centre of Newport which seems to be on high alert and security lock down as expected. There is a march due Thursday that looks like it will bring the centre of the town to a stand still adding to existing chaos of road closures and rolling road blocks on the M4.

I will have to try to plan my route into work using side roads although the chaos already seems widespread 3 days before. Apparently bus services will be suspended so its try and get in by car, risk the train or throw a sicky. In the centre it is dodgy at the best of times with drunk's, addicts and generally criminal types everywhere. Add to this genuine protesters, anarchists, those out for a smashing, looting time and then gen public caught up in it all it could be quite a volatile place to try to walk through. I am thinking of doing " grey lady" dressing down, no handbag and footwear that I can do the 3 min mile in if necessary. I'm sorting the car to make sure I have supplies if I get stuck in one of the road blocks or jams, drink,chocolate and something to read!

As the security threat has been raised I do have a niggling concern that a terrorist attack would have more of an impact if undertaken right under the noses of the NATO leaders. I will not be going anywhere crowded other than what is necessary and then avoiding the most popular areas of the town centre on my way to work. Part of me thinks its all an over reaction but part of me is shouting louder that I should be better safe than sorry, I will keep you posted;-)

[Deleted User]

I think you're just being sensible ELAINE, if you know there might be a reason to avoid crowded and built up areas in advance it's just common sense to find an alternative way to where you have to go and back again. Dressing down and being 'invisible' is only sensible too, why put yourself at even the slightest risk if you can find ways and means not to? Good luck with it all and let us know you're OK when it's all over, Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

Your posts are always very interesting to me, elaine.

I think it would be prudent to be dressed down, but tidily, sort-of shabby-conservative, so that you don't risk being taken for an alternative type if alternative types are being troublesome and the Polis are looking for them. A respectable but slightly-threadbare matron, pillar of the community image.

I agree about the handbag as a potential problem. Backpacks might also be attracting the attention of security wallahs, so perhaps wear a very small bag under a jacket or simply go well-pocketed?

I don't know the geography of your area, for some reason whenever I am in Wales its the middle of a foggy night (several very long stories behind that comment - if it's 2 am it must be Aberystwyth if it's dawn it's Cardiff, if our vehicle is being searched by the plod at midnight it's Pembroke Docks, if it's foggy enough, it's Wherethehellarewe?!*).

Is it theoretically-possible that a security alert could trap you inside the city or prevent you from making it all of the way home? Might it be an idea to have an overnight kit stashed in case you need to hole up in a hotel/ B &B ? Just a change of clothes, nightie, washbag?

I guess it would be a considerable coup to get Nato at their meeting but their security should be proportionate to the perceived threat, unless someone is going to get creative with what they call false-flag events. Are any local businesses/ other organisations thinking of closing for the duration, do you know?

* Somewhere in Powys. I think.

Frugalsod

I feel sorry for anyone whose life is disrupted by the conference. Why on earth can't they host it somewhere safe where there is no risk of any terrorist attacks such as Rockall?