Shortages & inflation-are you stocking up?

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madebyyouandi

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Over here (in Japan) they announce on the news what's going up in price and by how much and when. Myself, I'm a bit of a food hoarder -- trust me, during the zombie apocalypse you'll fatten up if your holed up with me -- so I'm VERY well stocked atm, and I'm glad. The price of flour has already gone up a dollar a kilo and is set to rise again, and on and on and on.

Myself, I've always kept at least 30kg of flour on hand and I put 10kg of butter in the fridge for the holidays this afternoon (butter is becoming a luxury item over here at about 10usd per kilo and set to rise again this month). I've already bought and stored my holiday meats, sought out the booze I'll need, and bought most of my holiday essentials.

Anyway, I'm wondering if you're buying ahead and/or (usually) buy in bulk and what the "shortage" situation is in your countries.
 
I lived through the 50s and 60s when food items were either there, or in season, or not available. When they were not available, we didn´t eat them, full stop.
I get annoyed when the media, or politicians, or greedy businessmen start telling us of imminent "shortages", because it means some folks will enter in panic and empty the supermarket shelves, leaving no products for those who, perhaps, can only afford to buy one essential item.
Hoarding, in my humble opinion, also encourages waste. Some of what ever is hoarded will inevitably go past its sell-by date; things like flour and lentils may get infested with weevils, etc. All sorts of things can happen. Then, of course, stuff gets hidden in the freezer and forgotten.
So no, I´m not buying ahead or in bulk:D:D
 
The population of Thailand in general do not panic buy. Most of them cannot afford to. I follow their lead. My philosophy has always been, for non-perishables, buy two of most items; when I open the second one, I buy two more, etc. If there happens to be a shortage of items for whatever reason, we do without.
 
Can't speak of the climate in Japan but no, won't be doing that. Plus it's not in my nature. Seriously, you have over 20lbs of butter in your fridge? Organic butter is twice the price and cheap butter is about the same compared to Japan that at my local.
 
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madebyyouandi said:
I put 10kg of butter in the fridge for the holidays this afternoon (butter is becoming a luxury item over here at about 10usd per kilo and set to rise again this month).
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Blimey - you must use a lot of butter! I find one pack (250g) lasts me a month. The price you quote is similar to mid range butter prices in the UK. It can be bought a little cheaper but not by much.

Its not really in my nature to panic buy. In fact I rather like the idea of creating dishes from a limited selection of food. But, I have a well stocked freezer and cupboards of dried/tinned stuff. I could probably survive a very long time without bothering to order shopping (all my shopping is on-line). I haven't stepped in a supermarket since the pandemic and even before that I only really ordered food and drink on-line. I sometimes went to Aldi (end of my street) pre pandemic but only to pick up a few extras.
 
I've always had a good stash of non perishables, long before the pandemic ever was a thing. Not crazy things, I don't buy perishables in large amounts. But I do have 20 kilo's of rice in a silo/drum, and 5 kg of lentils, and 10 kg of pasta, and 5 litres of sunflower oil. I just like being prepared, I guess it's a quirk I got from being starved when I was a child. I just can't handle the thought of no food in the house.

I also have plenty of tinned veg, fruit, jams, tinned tuna and beans/and corn to last me a while.

But there's a difference between people who are well prepared like me and pandemic hoarders: I already had this stash forever, so I am the LAST person who needs to panic buy. The people emptying the shelves of perishables DURING a pandemic were not people like me, who have a stash to AVOID panic buying. In the beginning of the pandemic I was nowhere near the store, DUE to my well prepared stash for when shtf.
 
I keep a decent amount of non-perishable foods, like dried pasta and canned tomatoes and beans in the pantry all the time. That is for convenience -- its there when I want it.

No, I don't see myself stocking up any more than usual any time soon.

CD
 
It's funny, because my wife and I were just taking about this earlier today, and we both mentioned how since the pandemic started, we haven't done anything but keep a normal stock of whatever we buy usually on hand, and we never had any real issue with anything.

We'd bought one big bag of toilet paper from Sam's (I don't know how many rolls) and the same for paper towels, and even when all the shelves were bare of that stuff, we never felt the need to buy extra when it was available.

There were times something that I wanted was out of stock, but never something that I needed...and that's probably the key to the whole thing, separating those two concepts.
 
A phrase I often use to my wife. If someone appears at the gate selling anything i always tell them "I don't want any". My wife would ask "What were they selling?" I would answer "I don't know but if we needed it, we'd already have it".
 
garlichead said:
Can't speak of the climate in Japan but no, won't be doing that. Plus it's not in my nature. Seriously, you have over 20lbs of butter in your fridge? Organic butter is twice the price and cheap butter is about the same compared to Japan that at my local.
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Yeah, I bake a lot, especially during the holidays. It'll all be gone before Xmas. :)
 
TastyReuben said:
There were times something that I wanted was out of stock, but never something that I needed...and that's probably the key to the whole thing, separating those two concepts.
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That is a very wise statement. In truth, there is very little I actually need if I really think about it. The majority of food shopping I do is stuff I want.
 
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