The reason people are stocking up is

[1finny]

These are indeed unprecedented times.
The ironic thing is my local farm shop has plenty of fresh meat and my greengrocer has plenty of fresh fruit and veg and even my local convenience store (Nisa) has plenty of stock (with the exception of hand soap), so maybe the community spirit is still alive and well in some places.

Smaller stores are certainly coping better as people have gravitated to the 'big shop' mentality. Taking Sunday as an example I'd expect the large grocers to have been circa 50% up v same Sunday last year. This is against a backdrop of generally being -ve up to the pandemic!

Other info of note - panic buying has been more prevalent in The South (make of that what you will)

BR - we have been around the houses on this and come up with a workable solution. We know we can't please everyone. In the scenario you are talking about lets just work that through.
We take away the rationing.
We tell customers the next delivery of hand sanitiser (as an example) is 2 days away. We believe, when it arrives, it will be first come first served and have concluded our current approach is probably better.

 

[Linthorpe_Exile]

People are stocking up because they know of people like this:

Amid the panic buying sweeping UK supermarkets, some people are trying to make a massive profit by selling toilet roll and hand sanitiser online, Josh Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England correspondent, reports.

... or want to get their own supplies because they know they are "sharing" the country with those sorts.... IMO

 

[Aet290204]

I bought four multipack bags of 24 Andrex rolls when it was on offer in Tesco in the period just after Christmas. Will last me for about six months, that Unless of course I get gastroenteritis

 

[Lefty]

It’s completely pathetic

queuing out the door to get into my local Tesco at 9:30 this morning queueing for the car park at 10:00. ventured down there at about 2pm to get some alcohol, no meat, no cooking oil, no bog roll, no beans or pulses, low on veg and no painkillers which is ******* me off no end cos I’ve had headaches and problems with a sore throat since coming off antidepressants. Went down the other night to buy a loaf of bread and couldn’t get any.

sums up this bloody awful UKIP voting Brexit voting selfish load of farm yakkers I have to live near. Tossers the lot of em

you mean they aren’t exhibiting the famous British blitz spirit we heard so much about the last 4 years?

 

[Lefty]

 

[Lefty]

Aldi was pretty good this morning. No panic buying, store was Xmas busy but all pretty polite and civilised.
No bog roll but fresh fruit, veg, dairy.....pretty much everything was on the shelves. No paracetamol, but loads of Nurofen. 15 deep at the checkout though.
These people who are stockpiling are just weapon grade selfish bellends.

I’d heard they were rationing everyone to a maximum of two trumpets, one diving suit and a MIG welder.