64 ms·

The trouble is that realistically, it's not possible to get by with a single weekly shop in the UK right now. A lot of supermarket shelves are empty due to ever

by makomk 7y ago

The trouble is that realistically, it's not possible to get by with a single weekly shop in the UK right now. A lot of supermarket shelves are empty due to everyone buying more than they usually would, and even when they're not there are purchase quantity restrictions that make it hard to get a full week's shopping in.

jimmaswell 7y ago
And Europe as a whole tends to buy groceries every other day, so I'd suspect stores aren't prepared to provide for any degree of bulk buying. Maybe it'll catch on more after this debacle - grocery stores are generally running fine in the US besides toilet paper and the odd other thing being sold out sometimes.
- toyg 7y ago
  It’s not the stores, imho. From my experience of UK supermarkets in the last week, they’ve basically caught up with most stuff they are directly responsible for or that is produced very close to their needs. Bread is now there, vegetables are there, milk is there. What is dramatically lacking is processed food. I expect that’s because those items have much lower elasticity in their production: if you know you’ll sell X cans of tuna per year, you’ll build a plant that makes X * 1.3 or thereabout; when demand suddenly spikes to 3X or more, there is no time to build another plant (and even if there were, you might not want to invest into something that is probably temporary). Same for meat: you cannot grow extra cows in a couple of weeks. There is a lot of pressure on supermarkets at the moment which should probably be directed at the larger food industry.
  - bosie 7y ago
    Presumably cows are already being grown at reasonable rates though, they are just redirected to the restaurants. How does that work at the moment in the food industry when the wholesalers can't sell to their customers but still have the products manufactured?
    - toyg 7y ago
      If they have problems placing existing product, they typically ask for public intervention. It’s Europe, the whole agri business is regulated pretty tightly and subsidized to avoid overcapacity issues. Which is just fine, in most years, as it prevents a bunch of unsavory debates between close countries with a history of armed conflict spurred by industrial tensions. It’s the sort of thing that the Brexit saga brought to the surface. The fact that the sector has not complained in the last month or so, to me says that they are unlikely to have overcapacity issues. This said, most UK restaurants and cafes have shut down only just today, so things might be different in a week.

by makomk 7y ago

jimmaswell 7y ago

And Europe as a whole tends to buy groceries every other day, so I'd suspect stores aren't prepared to provide for any degree of bulk buying. Maybe it'll catch on more after this debacle - grocery stores are generally running fine in the US besides toilet paper and the odd other thing being sold out sometimes.

toyg 7y ago
It’s not the stores, imho. From my experience of UK supermarkets in the last week, they’ve basically caught up with most stuff they are directly responsible for or that is produced very close to their needs. Bread is now there, vegetables are there, milk is there. What is dramatically lacking is processed food. I expect that’s because those items have much lower elasticity in their production: if you know you’ll sell X cans of tuna per year, you’ll build a plant that makes X * 1.3 or thereabout; when demand suddenly spikes to 3X or more, there is no time to build another plant (and even if there were, you might not want to invest into something that is probably temporary). Same for meat: you cannot grow extra cows in a couple of weeks. There is a lot of pressure on supermarkets at the moment which should probably be directed at the larger food industry.
- bosie 7y ago
  Presumably cows are already being grown at reasonable rates though, they are just redirected to the restaurants. How does that work at the moment in the food industry when the wholesalers can't sell to their customers but still have the products manufactured?
  - toyg 7y ago
    If they have problems placing existing product, they typically ask for public intervention. It’s Europe, the whole agri business is regulated pretty tightly and subsidized to avoid overcapacity issues. Which is just fine, in most years, as it prevents a bunch of unsavory debates between close countries with a history of armed conflict spurred by industrial tensions. It’s the sort of thing that the Brexit saga brought to the surface. The fact that the sector has not complained in the last month or so, to me says that they are unlikely to have overcapacity issues. This said, most UK restaurants and cafes have shut down only just today, so things might be different in a week.