Thus I have amassed many little collections; scarves, handkerchiefs, hats, storage tins - and lots of non-perishable foods.
So I am in no position to castigate the recent hoarders of foods and toiletries.
However ...
There is a difference between buying too many things that no one else wants anyway (cloth handkerchiefs anyone?) in a time of plenty, and hoarding stuff that everyone else desperately needs.
I am rather disappointed in my fellow humans, since I have been preaching about this since 2016. "Buy yourself a little security stash now," I told everyone. "If you buy things now, when the borders are open and we are still in the EU, they can be easily replaced in the shops. But if you wait until the last minute, everyone else will try to do the same and then there will be a massive shortage." But of course, no one listened. Most of my friends and acquaintances dismissed me as alarmist. I was - but better safe than sorry!
So slowly, over time, I accumulated a little hoard of grains, pulses, toilet paper, tins etc - as per an earlier blog post: http://dblenck.blogspot.com/2019/01/prepping-for-brexit-madness-continues.html
Unfortunately, because of the constant Brexit extensions, some of my hoarded food is now beyond its Best Before date. But I am not bothered. I don't think rice and dried beans and such like get worse over time. It may be that they don't taste so good anymore after a while, but since I have nasal polyps and thus have no sense of smell I can barely notice the difference anyway.
So my advice, once again, is in future prepare for hard times when stuff is cheap and available, and always have a little stash of essentials.
But for the time being only take your fair share - it is in no one's interest if some people can't get the things they need, because others are stripping the shelves!
That said, I do understand why people are hoarding. They are bombarded with messages telling them to stay at home, to self isolate, to prepare for a crisis that can last many months. Of course they are hoarding! They are frightened of the future!
Much of my hoarding was simply a means to assuage my Brexit worries. When we are faced with a catastrophe, we feel the need to do something. Sitting in my dining room, surrounded by grains and pulses, I felt safer. Buying things was all I could do to calm my jingling nerves.
But because there were so few people doing this then, it had no effect on what was in the shops. If people assuage their worries by shopping now, they can seriously affect other people.
Normally when there is a crisis, we jump into action. I think many people secretly love a crisis, because it makes them feel more alive. Human are designed to solve problems, to rise to occasions, to survive by using their ingenuity.
Normally we lead a soft life, with few worries. I think that may be the reason why we often manufacture our own little crises, which we blow out of all proportions, just so that we have something to get our teeth into, a problem to solve, a crisis to handle.
That's what makes this crisis so difficult to endure. Because this crisis demands that we remain inactive, that we stay at home and wait it out. This is the opposite of what our instincts tell us to do.
Humanity will face many more crises that will require our ability to jump into action and rise to the occasion. In the meantime,
