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With panic buying putting the more vulnerable at risk, and seriously hurting front line service workers, is there anything we average citizens can do to help stop it - beyond not doing it ourselves?
Also, I heard cars tearing up the local streets a while ago, followed by what I assume were police cars. I don’t know exactly what was going on, but it got me thinking: if people start doing really evil things, like taking advantage of the fact that police are being deployed elsewhere and unable to police streets and neighbourhoods, or (God forbid) looting or the like, is there anything we can do?
I mean, I know what I’d like to do, but legally and realistically...
That’s the thing I’d LIKE to do.
Find a vulnerable local person and adopt them - go shopping for them, fight in the queues for them. Thats the best sort of thing. Ignore the aresholes and do a bit of good instead. arseholes will be what they are but you can be a friend to someone in need.
beyond not doing it ourselves?
As well as not panic buying, we are doing small shops (rather than usual fortnightly big shop) as & when we need it & not doing online shopping to free up spaces for those that need them
we are doing small shops
Maximising your exposure? Perhaps not the best option.
Another couple of days of tourists rocking up at our village Coop and cleaning the place out and I reckon they’ll be a welcome committee waiting for them. People up here are getting pretty ****ed off with the “let’s go up to the Highlands to get away from it” mindset.
I don't think so, in the same way there wasn't anything individuals could do during the war.
Helping each other is about all we can do.
Keep in contact with your neighbours. Offer them anything you have that they might need. If shopping (online or in person) get stuff your neighbours need. Reduce their time out of the house, and make them feel connected. I leave stuff on their window sill, and talk to them at a safe distance, asking them to leave the stuff for a while before taking it in. Look after each other. Watch out for opportunists that might pray on your neighbours… it should be easier to look out for each other now, as fewer homes stand empty often, if at all.
The more people act responsibly the more it will become socially unacceptable to behave badly. If some moron goes into the supermarket and cleans out the loo roll and is challeneged by everyone in the store as well as the staff then they'll likely think twice the next time. Even a hard Paddington stare will have an effect.
The thing to remember is that, in the main, most people are inherently good and decent (there will always be a small number of hardcore idiots), people are just scared and unsure about what's going to happen. Lead by example and good behaviour will spread the same way as bad behaiviour has been spreading up to now.
I haven't been panic buying, just tried to do a normal shop before it got stupid and that was a nightmare. Didn't manage to get half of what I needed but it is what it is unfortunately. With the guidelines stating to limit the amount of people, especially children, out and about I am in one hell of a predicament. I'm hoping I can get some friends to pick some bits and bobs up for us every now and again, but now the limits are in place I don't know how that will work with them getting stuff for their families.
I would love to be in a position to help others, but stuck at home with 4 kids it's a bit impossible.
I would say that you are pretty firmly in the group of people that are entitled to get a delivery done without feeling a shred of guilt about it.
We have had a couple of deliveries made in the last couple of weeks, nothing silly, more about not going out with 2 virus factories in the house aged 12 and 13 who had been in school up until this week but we are switching to Click and Collect so that we aren't using delivery slots that others that can't get out could be using.
wasn’t anything individuals could do during the war
Burglary & looting increased in WWII as they took advantage of the blackout. My granddad was in the ARP, they were on the way back to their base one night and saw someone stealing jewellery from corpses.
Our friends in military wear will be sorting this shit just shortly.
Hopefully.
Free hugs?
Anyone hoarding to excess, anyone preying on the vulnerable, anyone profiteering... should be made to hand over all they have hoarded beyond what they realistically need, denied any form of Government assistance they may be due to alleviate covid19, and refused hospital care if they need it for Covid19 illness. They might then think twice/change their habits.
More seriously the denial of Government grants/payments would not be unreasonable to me.
Free hugs?
I live in a rural village with an unusually high average age, due to a lot of them being ex-estate workers. A few of us have contacted the village committee who sort various things and they are finding out who needs what shopping and prescription wise, and sorting us a rota and shopping lists and the like. My youngest and her mate have been drawing pictures and leaving them on doorsteps. My middle daughter decided to support local business by getting totally hammered around the pubs of Bakewell last night, and today has been taking advantage of them selling off some ale stocks as take outs.
WE all need to lead by example: don't buy more than you need, offer to get stuff for your neighbour if you're going anyway, keep a respectful distance from each other, keep up your hygiene routines, don't make unnecessary trips, all the basics.
If the majority behave correctly then the idiots will stand out. Sadly I think there are too many idiots out there already and we'll be outnumbered.
As always STW rule #1 applies.
Don’t be a dick.
thegreatape Another couple of days of tourists rocking up at our village Coop and cleaning the place out and I reckon they’ll be a welcome committee waiting for them
Similar going on in my town (kirkcudbright sw-scotland), there are 9 holiday houses in my mothers street out of 24 houses, they are all now filled by cretinous ****s with multiple cars between occupancy's and no room left for locals to park, outside my mothers house i have a disabled bay clearly marked and one cnunt parked his BMW 4 series in it so my bro and his mates jacked it up and moved it enough so i could get parked. There are more than quite a few holiday houses in our small town and a quick spin around on the bike shows the increased amount of strange cars sitting around and the panic buying in our two small supermarkets tiny tesco express and tiny co-op is not being done by locals so the management has implemented a buy only one policy (unless your local as everyone knows each other here) which has proved extremly unpopular with the holiday home owners kicking off at the checkouts as stuff is removed from their trolly.
We are managing perfectly fine as a community, like i say we all know each other, but a mass influx of loud obnoxious panic buying idiots is very hard to turn a blind eye to.
+1 for reluctantjumper above other than....the idiots are beginning to stand out and will be treated as such.
Something else we can do - read the sticky from Mark^^^ 'Direct appeal from Singletrack' and act on it; the mag has a circulation of c10,000; membership revenue makes a contribution as do sales from the shop; ad revenue is the major income source for all publications - not just Singletrack - and once it reduces, the squeeze is really on.
Being a member and/or not buying from the shop doesn't help Singletrack so c'mon....take out a subscription, buy from the shop.
If STW didn't exist, you could go to Mumsnet or Pistonheads but it wouldn't be the same.
but a mass influx of loud obnoxious panic buying idiots is very hard to turn a blind eye to.
Whereas my colleagues and I will probably be quite happy to turn a blind eye to any reasonable local response if we can get away with it 😀