Thread: Panic buying

I don't know that we are going to have an official lockdown again. We are, however, going to see random shortages all over the supply chain and services. Mainly because of many Many MANY more people coming into contact with Covid and being required to isolate for the specified time. I personally know three people here in Queensland that have come down with it (all vaccinated) since January 1st. The good news is that they are not very sick. The bad news is that none of these are in the official figures so the official figure of 10k and change today in QLD is probably off by at least half. That discrepancy is a guess by me, but a fairly educated guess.

The company I work for is requiring everyone to work from home for the foreseeable future. Given how hard-core they were on everyone returning to the office in the new year (before we knew about omicron), this is quite a statement

A lot of people (myself included) are cancelling plans and events. I have declined two invitations to events and cancelled two others. Even though I am vaccinated, if my personal health history is a guide, I'm likely to be quite unwell.

Assuming that I am not alone in a voluntary lockdown; I'm not sure the economy rebound we had will be sustained. I sure hope I'm very very wrong.

I wasn't until now, but sounds like a good excuse to buy some new tools to me.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Any body else considering panic buying, in tools an materials, in case we get Lock downs again.

Yes.

It would be foolish to believe the situation will change in the short term and lockdowns are the order of the day.

Anybody want to buy 3247 rolls of Costco brand toilet tissue?

LOL

Went to Woolys to buy our fortnightly groceries. I had received this morning an Email from them telling me that some stock was missing from their usual displays due to freight driver problems with staff. Well the fruit and veg had stuff missing as well as some fresh meat lines. When we got to the back of the store guess what......huge empty shelves where the stocks of loo paper should be. Why do people panic???

They get the ****s.

I'm not sure on the tools and materials but some twits are hitting the grocery stores hard with warehouse and delivery issue....

Daughter works in retail for a national store.
A number of staff are unavailable. Today being a Friday the store is normally open 9 - 9pm. It closed before 5 due to staff shortages.

Originally Posted by Handyjack

Daughter works in retail for a national store.
A number of staff are unavailable. Today being a Friday the store is normally open 9 - 9pm. It closed before 5 due to staff shortages.

Another example of the consequences of conservative/business decision makers ignoring the reality that public health precedes the economy. Failure of leadership will result in people in making their own decisions.

Profits before people.

People can be replaced.

Not sure about panic buying but I will need some more Titebond before my local supplier puts the prices up:

“Adhesives have increased by up to 25% and Polyurethane Adhesive by 30%.”

Damn heat in the garage cooks it [emoji28]

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Profits before people.

People can be replaced.

I unfortunately have too agree.

One of the big reasons I work for only one person, my self.

Cheers Matt.

In my experience, shortages are real. Raw materials for production like; board, timber hardware, glues and two pack paints. Not only are they hard to get but prices are a lot higher than 12, or even 6 months ago. Delivery times have blown out significantly to upset production schedules. It’s getting a lot harder to price jobs accurately and also to ensure you can either have the materials on hand or order them to complete a job. As you know, there is no final payment until the job is complete. That effects cashflow and then reduces your ability to pre-order materials that are in short supply. It’s a vicious circle.
The second input to business; labour, is taking a massive hit too. If you don’t have staff off with Covid, then they are off with suspected Covid or a close or casual contact and need to isolate. That’s a lot of lost production time.
That leads me to the third input to production; fixed costs. These are not necessarily fixed but are the costs that include; rent, insurance, leases etc. Those bills keep coming and are getting larger too. They don’t go away if you are not producing anything.

It may be here for a little while still. Hold on tight people.

Current modelling predicts that the Omnicon wave will peak by mid February, then slowly reduce. But it will still take a while for supply chains to catch up. How long; it’s industry and product specific. I wish I knew.
And who’s to say that there is not another “spanner thrown into the works”

All the very best to you all.

Pete.

Originally Posted by Pittwater Pete

Current modelling predicts that the Omnicon wave will peak by mid February, then slowly reduce. But it will still take a while for supply chains to catch up. How long; it’s industry and product specific. I wish I knew.
And who’s to say that there is not another “spanner thrown into the works”

All the very best to you all.

Pete.

Pete

That prediction is a little disturbing given that here in QLD cases reported per day have escalated from 500 to 5000 to 10000 today over the course of a week and that may only be the reported cases if markharrison's comment in post #2 is correct! NSW and VIC are already way worse than this I realise. The peak is maybe a month away? Supplies are not going to get any better!

I might have to scavenge in the "wood tip" at work. Trouble is it is predominantly second grade pine.



Regards
Paul