Here I am again, rambling on about this, that or the other. Today I’m going to be topical, as a trip to Sainsbury’s at Bispham made us wonder what was happening. Why? Because such a lot of shelves were empty or nearly empty. We looked at each other and said ‘here we go, panic buying raises its head because of the Coronavirus crisis’.
A lot of shelves were fully stocked up, but the veg and such like were nearly running on empty! Having said that, there’s been a lot of empty shelves in Sainsbury’s for a long time now. We’ve been grumbling when we’ve gone in for well over a year. I know a lot of the other supermarkets are the same.
Coronavirus Crisis
Then to cap it all, the paper came with the headlines screaming at us of ‘Empty Shelves’. It went on to say that shops were being raided because of Coronavirus. But the government says stocks are good, so that’s like giving with one hand and taking away with the other. There was also a couple of pages showing most of the supermarkets with empty or nearly empty shelves. When I had a closer look, the shelves were from the major supermarkets and guess what? Yes, hand sanitizer and soap were the missing items on all of the photos!
Its real scientific name is Covid-19 as you’ll know, but it seems that an awful lot of people are afraid that the virus will be rampaging through Britain. The powers that be are busy trying to reassure us all and that the country can cope with any major outbreak. Then you get the doom and gloom mongers, who are saying that the end of the world is nigh, so empty the supermarkets.
Now if you read my blogs you’ll know my wish is that people wouldn’t panic buy and force all of us who aren’t, into having to, or run out of everything. The media have a lot to answer for in my opinion. It reminds me of Brexit all over again, where huge amounts of news and air time are devoted to the ‘ifs and buts’.
We’re all Doomed…
It got on my nerves then as it was all ‘panic or else – you’ll be doomed forever’ and look where that got us. Exactly the same. The planet didn’t self explode, everything is more or less still the same. Yes, maybe for now, but we were promised that everything that could go wrong would if we didn’t stay in the EU. You wouldn’t be able to buy a bunch of flowers because they come from Holland. The list is endless and nothing has come crashing down (yet) by the day after Brexit as we were told it would. The Millenium Bug springs to mind all over again!
Anyway, back to the ‘Coronavirus Crisis’ that is occupying the TV so much this week. They have first one expert on, then another and so on. Some talk that same talk, some try to put the fear of God into us. At the end of the day, it will be people like yours truly who get the short straw, according the powers that be. Well, we got our new wills sorted out last year, so if the worst comes to the worst, we all know what’s happening in our house.
I certainly will if it’s me, yuk! But anyway, what’s the point in going on your back with your feet in the air until we know more about it? Panicking won’t stop it will it, so life has to go on.
We actually saw a man in Sainsbury’s with a face mask on, that was our first sighting of one. Jane did wonder if he was protecting us because he’d been in a risky area, or was he scared of picking something up! But the funny thing was, nobody looked twice at him, or as though he was already infected, and we haven’t seen anyone else with a mask on in England, well not yet!
Wash your Hands
The one thing that has come out of all this, is that we all should know how to wash our hands! They keep going on and on about how to get your hands germ free. But surely, Coronavirus crisis or no virus, you should be washing your hands thoroughly and often anyway. I don’t even bother putting hand cream on as I have my hands in water so many times a day. Of course I could use my skin as sandpaper, but that’s the price you pay. Having dogs makes me even more careful about hygiene, as everyone should be that keeps animals. When you think what they push their noses into and all the rest, it makes me more careful. And dogs licking faces is a definite no-no in our house!
All is not lost anyway, as a special Coronavirus pod has been set up, just in case. Although quite a few have been tested, all were negative. It makes you wonder where it will all end up doesn’t it.
The medical profession are saying that if you get it and aren’t ancient, you should have mild flu like symptoms etc. Although Kevin had flu last year and was terribly ill, even to the point of hallucinating, with a temperature that was off the scale. He was so terribly ill the poor lad, so I wouldn’t have called that a mild dose of flu.
Last Laugh
Whatever the outcome, I hope people see sense when it comes to panic buying and pull back from clearing the shelves out. It reminds me of the petrol strikes when people were panic buying then. It was awful, queueing for ages and tempers lost, but that all worked out in the end didn’t it.
All I can say to my family is ‘who’s laughing at me now’. I have always had a good stock of soap and cleaning products (tinned food, toilet rolls, in fact anything you care to mention). All the things that are running low in the shops. I might just let them have some of my stash if they stop laughing at me!
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