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Most of that's going is overreacting people hoarding supplies.
by rimliu 7y ago
Most of that's going is overreacting people hoarding supplies.
- cycrutchfield 7y agoPrecisely. Which causes supply shortages, and then you can't buy what you need. The whole point is to be ahead of the crowds.
- earenndil 7y agoSo basically a bank run but with naturally (not artificially) limited resources. Great...
- paulgb 7y agoIronically, when I considered the likely outcomes, the one that convinced me to stock up on food was not actual supply chain distruptions (which I see as possible but fairly unlikely), but that mass hording will lead to shortages (which I see as very likely).
- misterprime 7y agoKinda like a run on the banks. There may be no good reason for it, but it's still gonna happen.
- Recursing 7y agoShortages of what? Supermarkets in northern Italy have been restocking without problems, there is a shortage of N95 face masks on amazon, but they're not even proved to be useful for healthy people
- jrs235 7y agoThere aren't shortages until there are. All seems normal until the tipping point. Don't go out and buy up 2 months of supplies in one swoop, unless you want to raise eyebrows and lead to the perception of shelves emptying and then causing it to come true. Buy a weeks worth of extra supplies every other day for a week or two.
- lancesells 7y agoI grew up in a hurricane-prone state in the US. 95% of the time people stock up and panic and nothing happens. I'm talking about gas shortages and empty aisles in the grocery store. But the 5% where something does happen you wish you stocked up because you're not even able to leave the area because there is no gas. Not debating N95 masks effectiveness but I would rather be at least slightly repaired because things go south really fast when people get hungry.
- Recursing 7y agoMaybe it's more common in the US as it's more sparsely populated? As in there are more potentially isolated cities? The scenario you're describing doesn't seem plausible to happen in Milan
- cycrutchfield 7y ago"It can't possibly happen here!" says increasingly nervous man.
- Recursing 7y agoHi! Are you following me from the other thread? o.o It's not "It can't possibly happen here!", more like "it hasn't happened in any place in western Europe in recent memory". We've had major earthquakes and stuff, but nothing that "stocking food" would have been useful for, (afaik)
- keiru 7y agoWhich brings us back to the matter at hand; devastating plagues have happened many times in Europe. This one is probably not going to be devastating, but we really don't know the effect of this disruption in today's society.
- Recursing 7y agoFully agree with this (especially considering the last few days), my disagreement was with the whole "prepping" thing, doesn't seem to be useful
- teddyuk 7y agoYou are part of the panic stocking problem
- lucasmullens 7y agoHow is buying food before the shortage contributing to the panic stocking problem?
- brokensegue 7y agoThe same way withdrawing from a bank you expect to have a bank run soon does? This is what causes bank runs.
- anfilt 7y agoHowever, the problem is if you don't try to get stuff before or during the panic you get screwed yourself. Its why its a dangerous feedback loop. If you don't join in you lose/ get negatively effected by it. Its kinda of a prisoners dilemma but at a larger scale.
- paulgb 7y agoThe difference is, a bank only has a certain amount of money, while a grocery store can turn over inventory on a daily or weekly basis. So if I stock up now before everyone else does, I can actually make less of an impact if and when there is an eventual need for everyone to prepare to stay home for a week.
- brokensegue 7y agoFunctionally the grocer has a limited supply also because there is only so much production/shipment capacity. I agree if you do it early enough your impact is minimal. But if you withdraw early enough from a bank then the bank can in theory safely exit from its positions and become more liquid
- anfilt 7y agoMass hoarding is a supply chain issue. one in which the supply chain cant handle the peak demand. Whats worse about mass hoarding is it can cause feedback that amplifies it.
- marshray 7y agoNot overreacting: This is not the flu, current estimates are ~20% of cases require hospitalization. Where it has hit with full force, hospitals fill up and people drop dead in the streets. China has shut down big parts of their economy and put major cities into quarantine. Not hoarding: Empty shelves are how capitalism sends signals to producers that they need to increase production, much like how packet loss tells TCP to cut back on its rate of sending. My local Lowe's has been out of N95 masks for a month. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/guidance-business-response.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/gu...
- Jtsummers 7y ago> Not hoarding: Empty shelves are how capitalism sends signals to producers that they need to increase production, much like how packet loss tells TCP to cut back on its rate of sending. My local Lowe's has been out of N95 masks for a month. You should look into the beer distribution game [0]. Empty shelves don't always signal what we think they signal. And increased production cannot be scaled back as easily as TCP packets. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_distribution_game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_distribution_game