We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Why are people scrambling for petrol?

13468927

Comments

  • We did have to fill up with petrol first thing this morning as the car was running on empty.  My daughter is currently on a Guide camp an hour’s drive away and I’m not sure she’d appreciate not being picked up tomorrow!  If it hadn’t been for that we’d probably have been able to cope (so long as the local buses don’t have any more cancellations due to lack of drivers…).
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 7,175 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 25 September 2021 at 2:30PM
    "Why are people scrambling for petrol?"

    Because the sensationalist press told them to. The same way they told them that Brexit was great and how Corbyn was growing Anti-Semitic cucumbers and selling them to Hamas.

    Hasn't stopped EG Group forecourts from cashing in though with huge price hikes.
  • motorguy said:
    One thing that these situations bring out that is worse than the panic buyers is the smug moral superiority of the people who call them idiots.

    Many of those in the queues will genuinely need fuel, as demonstrated by some posters ok this thread. Wafting past, nose in the air, calling them all idiots and lemmings serves no purpose.

    Let's look instead at the government actions that have led us here and sling the mud at the right target.
    ?

    Yeah NOT buying in to the hysteria is obviously much worse than sitting for hours to get petrol unnecessarily. 

    :|

    Of course theres a small percentage who actually do need the petrol and have got surprised by the sudden demand but lets not kid ourselves - the vast majority are there because they're panic buying unnecessarily.  Just like they did with bog rolls and paracetamols.


    Not buying into the hysteria is sensible. Calling people idiots and lemmings is not.
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,619 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 25 September 2021 at 2:27PM
    motorguy said:
    One thing that these situations bring out that is worse than the panic buyers is the smug moral superiority of the people who call them idiots.

    Many of those in the queues will genuinely need fuel, as demonstrated by some posters ok this thread. Wafting past, nose in the air, calling them all idiots and lemmings serves no purpose.

    Let's look instead at the government actions that have led us here and sling the mud at the right target.
    ?

    Yeah NOT buying in to the hysteria is obviously much worse than sitting for hours to get petrol unnecessarily. 

    :|

    Of course theres a small percentage who actually do need the petrol and have got surprised by the sudden demand but lets not kid ourselves - the vast majority are there because they're panic buying unnecessarily.  Just like they did with bog rolls and paracetamols.


    Not buying into the hysteria is sensible. Calling people idiots and lemmings is not.
    The bulk of them are foolishly buying in to hysteria whipped up - yet again - by the media.

    You might call that viewpoint smug moral superiority, i call it a statement of fact. :)
  • troffasky said:
    Hopefully someone can come up with a way to panic-buy electricity when we're all driving electric cars.
    Love this!  :D Pity we can't put some gas and electricty in storage now! 
  • Marvel1
    Marvel1 Posts: 7,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 25 September 2021 at 2:53PM
    TripleH said:
    I was completely oblivious to this.
    We went to a retail park last night to look at sofa beds. Ended up in a 20 minute queue to get out and couldn't think why.
    Only found out once we had got out that everyone was queuing for fuel and the queues were long. This was at about 8pm.
    Was very miffed that we had to wait when we only wanted to get out and go home.
    Lived for 4 months in rural shire without a car, so we can manage without having to use ours all the time. If people were a little less lazy and stopped using their cars for all the silly unnecessary trips*, this wouldn't be an issue.
    Daft thing is how much fuel was wasted queuing to fill up?

    *- accept people's needs do differ but we nearly all do it.
    Pretty much this, I saw photos on Facebook yesterday of the 3 petrol stations near me main road jammed from both directions and a supermarket entrance blocked.

    Idiots the lot of them (the ones who purposely set out to top up when wouldn't have normally).

    P.s. I have a half tank, could have filled this morning as I was doing a good shop, but I have never filled on a 1/2 tank, only below quarter, so I didn't.
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 21,429 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Sixth Anniversary Name Dropper
    It's not the media's fault. They have just reported that BP said that a handful of their stations were closed as they could not get fuel to them.
    And just who pays their inflated prices.. 9p Ltr more than supermarket for base petrol round here..

    The fault is with the lemmings that are now rushing to fill up. Oblivious to the fact that there are 8000+ petrol stations in the UK.
    Some one on the news last night said they had tried two petrol stations to get fuel & been turned away.. Great reporting, but plenty more stations to try....

    Perhaps get a staff  member out and anyone with more than 1/2 tank gets turned away. Or tell them, Yes you can fill up but there is a min charge of £50.
    But given price has gone up anyway in the last two days.. These lemmings are paying too much anyway. So laugh is with the people who are not rushing out to fill up.
    You obviously didn't see the headline in The Sun yesterday,  then - "Running on Empty"  Irresponsible and counterproductive.
    Does that say rush out and buy fuel?

    If the sun said chop your hands off to save your life. Would the readers do that.... 

    I'm sure the vast majority were not sun readers that were waiting at the stations.
    Life in the slow lane
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.5K Life & Family
  • 258.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.