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So food availability in the capital is my primary concern at this stage
I wouldn't stress too much then. Apparently buying in the last week has been akin to Christmas shopping. It's no surprise, then, that things are gone. But (most) people will reach their stockpiling capacity soon, and it was reported that that production of most stuff is up by 50% to cope.
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food becomes scarce.
Is it really though? I mean is anyone genuinely without anything to eat in their home?
Lolo
@user75204
I've so far been good and not done any panic buying, but after yesterday couldn't help thinking not panic buying was the bad idea.
After spending close to 3 hours yesterday visiting 4 supermarkets and my 2 local corner shops, and finding them almost completely stripped, I found it very alarming and did suddenly find myself wondering which of my bikes I'd chose to pack a small ruksak and get the fuck out of London on.
In the end I managed to stock up on fresh food in Brixton market to last about a week, the only place with rice, but still no pasta anywhere that I could find. I'd not been overly concerned about the virus so far, but seeing how things have gone to shit in just 2 weeks, yesterday was a reminder how fragile city life can be. I did all my shopping attempts by bike and am fit, well, and highly mobile and a pretty creative cook, so really it was just an inconvenience, but the thought of a pensioner being faced with that as routine, it goes from anxious to pretty terrifying. The amount of extra travel and exposure needed just to get basic foodstuffs seemed to completely laugh in the face of restricted movement attempts, and London and Londeners are going to be proper fucked very fast if food supplies are that restricted.
My local corner shop had a new supply of pasta in today, and it was being rationed to one pack per customer, along with some other products. They said they'd had loads of abuse from customers already today feeling they should have more. People go feral pretty bloody quickly when food becomes scarce.
So food availability in the capital is my primary concern at this stage, which seems fucking nuts in 2020 but here we are. The thought of cycling getting restricted makes me more anxious about even being able to achieve an escape from the city by bike. Is our imminent future dressing all in black with no lights trying to escape under the cover of darkness, trying to dodge military broom wagons, like Mexican's trying to cross into America.
In the mean time I'm gladly shopping in Brixton and supporting the little guys as much as I can, but if they start running low I'll be getting very twitchy about getting the fuck out of Dodge ASAP.
It is lovely and sunny and perfect bike riding weather today though, so I was at least enjoying that while I still can.