Without telling me, my Mother set off early this morning (16 March 2020) to pick up one or two items from Morley.
After seeing others with shopping piled high, and stores full of shoppers, she tried to buy what she needed, but was unable to get some essentials. My Mother is 80 this year, and has just as much right as others to purchase what she needs and not to be put at risk by those who seem to be stocking their homes for the next several months, or year?
Through necessity, people need to purchase food and home supplies. However, in the present climate of the Coronavirus many people are creating the mentality of mercenary shopping (panic buying).
The mentality may be that people see this kind of purchasing as an aggressive act and, in turn, will defend themselves and their family by making retaliatory purchases – things then spiral out of control, as we are already seeing through empty shelves in supermarkets and other stores.
A few retailers are limiting customer purchases on some items, but I can see the time where a form of rationing may present itself unless panic buyers calm themselves. Without calm we may be looking at more lives being put at risk, along with the food and home supplies.
It is understandable that people will do their best to look after their own family. But, this can be done sensibly: Do your shopping as normal, Don’t stock pile supplies, Don’t buy from one store to re-sell the items in your own business at a profit.
I’m sure other readers of South Leeds Life will have more ideas (Common sense isn’t a difficult thing to practice, but it does take a responsible person to do it).
Nobody wants to see curfews and martial law. As extreme as this seems it could become a possibility if the current trend continues, or becomes worse.
We are all in the same boat with this present crisis. Please stay calm, responsible, humane and stay safe.
This post was written by Paul Hindmarch
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Yes I agree with Paul Hindmarch it’s wrong to panic buy and now it’s forced stores to put limits on maximum amount of certain items people before it gets totally out of control.
Common sense is the most mis-named commodity on the planet!