We keep hearing the same thing, and for obvious reasons I very much want to believe it's true. Plus, even with lockdown rules in place, we're still allowed to go shopping for food and other essential items. The one eventuality I want to be prepared for is testing positive and having to stay in self-isolation for two weeks -- but I am that based on my normal shopping habits, anyway, simply because I don't particularly enjoy supermarket runs. I really wish people would stop hoarding, especially TP and other stuff that's been basically unavailable everywhere for the past several weeks.

The food supply chains in the Uk should be able to cope. Sudden changes in pattern are a problem. Suppliers and supermarkets are working together to reduce the problem by reducing the number of choices of the same item from each supplier. For example almost all pasta source is made by either Nestle or Unilever who each produce multiple brands.

I have stocks of canned goods and dried goods that 8 bought over several months to prepare for a no deal Brexit. I know a lot of people did this and. Cause we did it slowly the supermarkets started to stock more canned and dried goods.

The big losers in the UK are foodbanks. The stuff people are buying for the forthcoming siege are the ones the foodbanks depend on.

My guess is that, unless a reliable immunity test becomes widely available in the next two weeks, the UK lockdown will run until June.

Re: foodbanks: Yes, that's happening in Germany, too, unfortunately. Apparently at least some of it is made up for by money donations, but probably not anywhere near enough. And of course they're now also having to adapt their distribution system, at least those that can't guarantee 2 metre distance between all of their customers.

Re foodbanks: a lot of them around here have closed which is very concerning for people relying on them.

Re: food banks: Around here since restaurants and the like have been ordered to close, many of them have donated their fresh produce and other perishables to local charities, food banks, and one even donated all of their perishables to local schools to allow schools to provide meals to children at home. As far as I know, those will stay open. I know that's only a short term solution.

I've been freezing as much of my produce as I can. On my last trip for groceries, I made an extra stop to buy seedlings and such so we can get a jump start on our garden for the season. I told my husband he's lucky to be married to someone who spent a vast majority of her childhood on a family farm.

Good plan. I have a bit more frozen stuff than usual in my freezer at the moment, too, but it's just a two-shelf thing on top of my fridge, so its "hoarding" capabilities would be limited even if I wanted to used it for that purpose.

I keep telling my husband that as long as the weather holds, we should get a garden in this year. That should keep us fed for a while. Well the girls. My husband won't touch a vegetable to save his life.

Just remember you have to share your garden veggies with the bugs, birds and rodents and whatever else happens to like them. My dad is growing tomatoes. First it was the caterpillars, then the birds, now he is convinced it's a rat and I'm sure one of the dogs tried to play with the "ball" growing on the bush.

@Themis, yeah, I am just trying my best to not panic buy like a lot of people are doing right now it appears. I live alone though so it's not like I can eat this much food. My plan was to buy enough to get me through at least 2 full weeks, 3 if I push it.

@Sorry kids, no feet. A lot of my friends are now setting up kitchen gardens.

2-3 weeks makes sense. That's my rule of thumb, too -- it is anyway, at least for non-perishables. Now I have a bit more just in case, but definitely not in huge quantities. I really wish people would come to their senses ... we're all going to be so much better off if they stop hoarding.

Where are you and what is the purpose to be served by banning sales of alcohol and cigarettes during a pandemic? It doesn't really seem like the best time to attempt to deprive people of their coping mechanisms, no matter how unhealthy they might be. This doesn't make sense to me. Also, they will pry my beer out of my feverish, breathless hands...

@PA did something similar, but they gave people plenty of warning and at least I didn't see a mob of people, they were still doing social distancing. I would lose it though if I didn't have my wine/prosecco/gin supply. I added to my bar cart and other essentials more than 2 weeks ago before VA shut everything down.

Are they closing down liquor stores, or are they not allowing grocery stores to even sell wine/beer?

I guess in addition to the starter garden in my kitchen, I'm going to need to start a distillery in my basement. Prohibition rules! Next thing you know, we're all going to be re-learning the Charleston.

S.Africa. It's not a lock down here, even if that's what the government is calling it. It's martial law. The government is having all their totalitarian wet dreams come true. They've been pushing for it the last 20 years, and now they finally have an internationally approved and encouraged reason to do it.

Alcohol and cigarettes (paper and e) are not essential therefore grocery stores cannot sell them. There are informal, non-regulated, "distilleries" around - they are probably going to sneak stuff around. I suspect "black-market" smokes imported from China to be making the rounds too after a while. Forget poaching the rhino and elephants, they will probably make more cash smuggling poor quality boos and smokes.

@Sorry kids, no feet: I suggest you get a net - shade net works better than bird netting - for your veggie garden. Good luck keeping anything smaller out.

People who are addicted to nicotine would probably dispute whether or not they are "essential." It just seems extra weird to me that they will allow people to go to the grocery store, but not allow the stores to sell certain things.

There are a lot of things that aren't essential - the entire output of the Frito-Lay corporation, for example. If stores are still selling Doritos (or the South African equivalent) and coffee, it seems just mean and punitive to ban cigarette sales. I'm not a smoker, and I support everyone not smoking, but not like this.

Also, we all know that the government officials and wealthy South Africans who are smokers will still be able to get cigarettes for themselves.