I’m sure you’ve heard of the unnerving topic that has recently emerged: the fuel crisis. It wasn’t until today that I truly realised the escalation of the situation after passing several closed fuel stations on my journey home – and I’m not necessarily talking about just the fuel.
Panic buying. It’s the term we’re becoming ever so familiar with and it’s the true problem we’re facing. As a young adult entering today’s pandemic influenced world, it’s frightening how easily persuaded we are by others. It’s strange to think that even writing an piece like this could cause someone to panic and add to the problem. Every time we read or hear about it from others, whether it’s the local paper or a family member, something tells us to rush to the nearest shop and stockpile the essentials. So, before I continue, think! This is a piece from someone who wants to put a stop to this selfish behaviour, not fuel it.
Panic buying has inevitably been caused by the rise of the Coronavirus pandemic. Think back to the first lockdown, at the end of March 2020. Toilet roll, pasta and milk – nowhere to be seen down the aisles of Tesco. I even remotely recall all the painkillers being nabbed from the shelves, as if the virus, which was mostly unheard of at the time, would steer clear of your household if you were stocked up with Paracetamol.
You can understand why people panic though. The sight of a bare supermarket aisle is reminiscent of an apocalyptic dystopia, but then that’s also the case for the pandemic in general. The first time, in my life at least, that we legally couldn’t go outside. It was against the law to leave your house!? It literally sounds like a movie, a fictional story line. Alas, it happened, and society’s reasoning has been permanently scarred, it seems. People are petrified that it will happen again with no prior warning, and as we’ve seen before, that’s definitely possible.
Whether the cause is the media or just down to people exaggerating slight hiccups of our economy or even pure selfishness, there needs to be an end to panic buying. In the case of fuel, there are emergency vehicles that need it to potentially save lives, and in the case of the supermarket sweeps (which aren’t so entertaining this way), there are emergency and care workers who have finished late, dreary shifts just to be faced with these empty shelves when they come to do their weekly shop.
We’re a nation known for being excessively kind and apologetic, so why does it all go out the window at a time when we most need to come together?