As some of you might know, I work part time as a lorry driver. There is no wash basin in the cab, so if you want to be sure that you can always clean your hand, you need to carry a hand sanitizer with you. I have it always on me, but about a week ago I’ve run out. I went to my local shop. Then to a supermarket. Then to a different supermarket. Then to a pharmacy. It was all gone. So I looked for it in the internet:
It got pretty expensive, as you can see. Just recently you could have 6 bottles for less than 9 pounds. Now a single one seems to be worth more than eight. Luckily one of my followers on Twitter reached to me when I complained and told me that his company, Derma Quat sells hand sanitiser and other associated products and he was to offer that he’ll send me some. Initially I politely refused, but as my search was not bringing me any closer to obtaining the product myself, I finally agreed to take him on on his offer.
The parcel arrived quickly and so I am now a proud owner of a big bottle of a hand rub by Nuevo and another bottle of sufrace cleaner. According to the attached paperwork, the product has been proved to kill not only Coronavirus but also some other scary things like Ebola.
DISCLAIMER: No, this is not a sponsored context. I wasn’t asked to write anything in exchange. The company does not even sell to the public anyway – they provide it to Healthcare organizations and other institutions, they also provide it to charities fighting diseases in third world countries. But I believe that people, who – when others try to profiteer as much as possible from the situation and squeeze every last penny of the desperate people – are willing to do a selfless gesture towards other in need deserve a shout out.
But of course hand sanitiser is not the only product one needs. This weekend we had to do our bi-weekly big shopping. No, we were not planning on hoarding toilet rolls, but, on the other hand, our stock was running low, so we wanted to replenish it, along with other products. That proved to be a bit tricky in part. There was not a single toilet, or kitchen towel roll. Tissues and wet wipes were gone too. 
And despite the fact, that there was a limit of how much one can buy:
There was also no soap, and many food products were also not available, or at least pretty depleted: flour, rice, pasta, canned foods, frozen vegetables or even pizza:
Luckily, some of the products that were missing from the bigger supermarket were still available in the smaller one, and our local shops still seems to be well stocked (so go, buy local – especially that in case of economical breakdown it will be the small businesses who will need your support the most).
I am not saying “don’t get prepared”. I myself bought a few extra items “just in case”. But those were the items that won’t be wasted in our home anyway. And be considerate to others: if you can afford to buy a whole shopping cart of pasta, canned soup and toilet rolls, good for you. But there are some people who have very tight budget, and barely can manage to survive from week to week. For them it is not the problem that they won’t be able to stuff their cupboards with apocalypse-proof food and toiletries. For them empty shelves mean that they might not be able to buy basic products today and go to bed hungry. You might say “let them eat cake” – indeed, the sweet shelves appeared to be really well stocked. But then, why don’t you yourself stuffed your shelves with Oreos and Tunnock’s wafers instead of pasta and flour? And what with the toilet paper? Firstly, it is not that we are expecting an epidemics of diarrhea, you will need as much as usual. And secondly: even if you run out in the middle of the quarantine, you’ll survive. Half of the world just wash themselves down there after a jobby. When the apocalypse hits the UK, this will be your last problem to be worried about.
