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Supply is normal, demand is up. My guess is that panic buying will dry up fairly soon. Staff at the grocery store can find out when new stocks are coming in. T

Supply is normal, demand is up. My guess is that panic buying will dry up fairly soon. Staff at the grocery store can find out when new stocks are coming in. The orders have already been placed, the trucks are already scheduled to arrive, and staff are scheduled to stock the shelves. It’s just a pain to answer questions from so many people. Stores here (NYC area) had stockouts in bread earlier in the week. The stockouts are happening less, they’re less severe, they’re not lasting as long. Your experience will depend on where you live, exactly which store you go to, and what time you go to the store. My personal experience is that some stores will stockout much sooner than others, e.g., Trader Joes, maybe because the clientele is more prone to panic buying, maybe because of differences in stocking. The catch here in NYC is that plenty of people just eat out and don’t know how to cook, don’t have food stocks, don’t have tools. Our household bakes bread anyway so we stock flour.

saalweachter 7y ago
It's worth noting that, with the exception of the fresh vegetables imported from somewhere warm, all of the food you're going to eat during this crisis was grown, harvested, processed and preserved last fall, and the current supply chain is just moving it from the warehouses and granaries to your door.
sneak 7y ago
> Supply is normal, demand is up. My guess is that panic buying will dry up fairly soon. I don't think there is any panic buying going on. Buying for 6-12 weeks for a household is a very rational and prudent thing to do during a declared national emergency for a pandemic with a doubling time of approximately 3-4 days so far. 12 weeks is what the NSA/IC recommends for their own staff during an uncontrolled pandemic: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/nsa-coronavirus-influenza-pandemic-plan-protect https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/nsa-corona... Presuming that people buying enough to avoid the store for a month or two is "panic buying" is to invoke the term "panic" when there probably isn't any panic, which I think is a very harmful thing to do.
- ben_w 7y ago
  I normally have about 3 days worth of food at home, not 3 months. Other than Mormons, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who regularly planned for more than 1-2 weeks. By that standard, and using the definition given on Wikipedia, “panic buying” is absolutely accurate.
- Reason077 7y ago
  > "I don't think there is any panic buying going on. Buying for 6-12 weeks for a household is a very rational" Rational or not, that's the definition of panic buying. If everyone bought their normal 1-2 weeks worth of supplies then there wouldn't be a problem.
  - greedo 7y ago
    You're deliberately excluding the rest of his sentence. If things were normal, yes, buying 1-2 weeks of supplies would be fine. But they're obviously NOT normal. Stores/businesses are closing, supply is inconsistent, and wanting to limit unnecessary interactions make it prudent to plan for greater than your normal 1-2 weeks.
    - Reason077 7y ago
      I wasn't passing judgement on whether it's a right or wrong or rational thing to do. I'm saying that this literally is the definition of panic buying: buying significantly more than you normally would, because you fear that goods will be unavailable, or you will be unable to do your regular shopping in the future.
      - sneak 7y ago
        Reasonable, and I didn't learn this until today. I think the term "panic buying" is a really bad term for it, then, if you can be entirely not-in-a-panic and fit the definition of "panic buying". It paints it as something it's decidedly not, and people who don't encounter the term very often are likely to make incorrect assumptions about it. I did my "panic buying" in February, and there was no panic or urgency whatsoever involved.
PeterisP 7y ago
I think that household grocery demand will be permanently up - the switch to working from home, and having kids be home instead of school means that suddenly we're home much, much more than before and eating much more meals at home. So lots of food supply that used to go to restaurants will now be going directly to homes - it does not affect producers much, but it's a very different distribution chain than what the restaurant purchasing uses/used.

saalweachter 7y ago

It's worth noting that, with the exception of the fresh vegetables imported from somewhere warm, all of the food you're going to eat during this crisis was grown, harvested, processed and preserved last fall, and the current supply chain is just moving it from the warehouses and granaries to your door.

sneak 7y ago

> Supply is normal, demand is up. My guess is that panic buying will dry up fairly soon. I don't think there is any panic buying going on. Buying for 6-12 weeks for a household is a very rational and prudent thing to do during a declared national emergency for a pandemic with a doubling time of approximately 3-4 days so far. 12 weeks is what the NSA/IC recommends for their own staff during an uncontrolled pandemic: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/nsa-coronavirus-influenza-pandemic-plan-protect https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/nsa-corona... Presuming that people buying enough to avoid the store for a month or two is "panic buying" is to invoke the term "panic" when there probably isn't any panic, which I think is a very harmful thing to do.

ben_w 7y ago
I normally have about 3 days worth of food at home, not 3 months. Other than Mormons, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who regularly planned for more than 1-2 weeks. By that standard, and using the definition given on Wikipedia, “panic buying” is absolutely accurate.
Reason077 7y ago
> "I don't think there is any panic buying going on. Buying for 6-12 weeks for a household is a very rational" Rational or not, that's the definition of panic buying. If everyone bought their normal 1-2 weeks worth of supplies then there wouldn't be a problem.
- greedo 7y ago
  You're deliberately excluding the rest of his sentence. If things were normal, yes, buying 1-2 weeks of supplies would be fine. But they're obviously NOT normal. Stores/businesses are closing, supply is inconsistent, and wanting to limit unnecessary interactions make it prudent to plan for greater than your normal 1-2 weeks.
  - Reason077 7y ago
    I wasn't passing judgement on whether it's a right or wrong or rational thing to do. I'm saying that this literally is the definition of panic buying: buying significantly more than you normally would, because you fear that goods will be unavailable, or you will be unable to do your regular shopping in the future.
    - sneak 7y ago
      Reasonable, and I didn't learn this until today. I think the term "panic buying" is a really bad term for it, then, if you can be entirely not-in-a-panic and fit the definition of "panic buying". It paints it as something it's decidedly not, and people who don't encounter the term very often are likely to make incorrect assumptions about it. I did my "panic buying" in February, and there was no panic or urgency whatsoever involved.

PeterisP 7y ago

I think that household grocery demand will be permanently up - the switch to working from home, and having kids be home instead of school means that suddenly we're home much, much more than before and eating much more meals at home. So lots of food supply that used to go to restaurants will now be going directly to homes - it does not affect producers much, but it's a very different distribution chain than what the restaurant purchasing uses/used.