[user104658]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

What's the panic buy for?

Are we having a food shortage? Or people don't have other people to do the food shop if they become ill?

Panic about panic is the simplest way to put it. People are worried that areas could enter quarantine (as has happened elsewhere). If that happens, people will DEFINITELY panic-stock and shop shelves will be stripped bare (think the great supermarket bread shortage caused by The Beast From The East) so if you were one of the people who DIDN'T panic-stockpile... you now might find the shops low on some things.

Ironically though, people are panic-stocking on stuff like massive bags of pasta and white rice... when A) these are nutritionally crap and B) the supermarkets are highly unlikely to run low on them anyway!

What might run low is fresh produce like bread, meat, fruit & veg, milk, etc. That might happen whether there's a legitimate threat or not, like I said earlier... if Social Media goes nuts on telling everyone to stock up, enough people might follow that advice to create a shortage. And then their bins will be overflowing with mouldy bread and off meat in a month, and they'll still be working their way through their pasta cupboard in 2023.