Sophia wrote on Mar 11^th, 2026 at 11:07pm:




There is an entire psychiatric industry devoted to understanding panic buying. There are two schools of thought. One is that egoists and narcissists are predominant in our populations and they refuse to yield control over their environments.

The other, less judgmental approach, is that perceived crises fuel mass anxiety, and queuing at a servo for an hour before hitting the bowser creates a sense of calm, even if there’s some biffo coming for any queue jumpers.

In other words, we live in grim times and one is compelled to do something. Panic buying is something. So, let’s do that.

Another theory to explain panic buying, one of my own, is that quite a lot of us might be a bit stupid.

Well Queenslanders and southern Welsh biff over a football
Why not have fun in the supermarket over a roll of trout paper?