What's the rush?: An exploration of Panic Buying

by Zac Duthie

Panic buying by definition is the action of buying a product in large quantities due to sudden fears of change or forthcoming shortage. This behavioral phenomenon has taken the world by storm since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak back in 2020, with it seemingly becoming an outbreak of its own within the UK. But why are they so drawn to these products and why is it so hard to stop?

The way Panic buying is described doesn't convey what is really happening within the people of the UK. A clearer way of understanding it from Richard Bentall, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Sheffield is. “It [Panic Buying] implies that there is something completely irrational about it – that isn’t true,” he says. “If there’s a danger of depletion of resources in the future then it makes sense to go out and get some”. Which is why you have seen hoards of cars queued miles back outside of every Petrol Station over the last week and empty shelves in all supermarkets a year ago. I believe that it's something deep rooted in our Psychological makeup that causes us to rush out and run specific resources into the ground.

With social media being at the fingertips of everyone now, you are never more than a few clicks away from any information meaning that anything can spread rapidly across the planet in just seconds. This access to information can easily lead to rapid trends in the market like seen in fashion when there are only a limited number of a item of clothing then the demand for that is already high but when you add to that the “hype” social media you can create you can end up with with a massive surplus of customers for a product a large amount of people want. But when you convert that philosophy of large demand for a small amount of a product into a nationwide market which is far bigger than anything that social media can create and is a much more essential product than any item of clothing can even come close to, it creates a phenomenon like no other. This paired with the sheep mentality that can come out from people in challenging situations.

Another side of the story is who are the people who are emptying our shelves and hoarding petrol? Well, a study at the University of Sheffield has found that women and those living in higher income households with children are the two biggest groups of panic buyers. This follows the natural animal instincts that we as humans have that we look to ensure that children and women have first got the food and supplies that they need to help their families before all else. Additionally, these groups of people are also more likely to have a wider range of technology and access to the spread of rumours giving the greater chance of being fear mongered into over buying and hoarding based off of only one rumour or piece of news.

An example of the fear mongering being blown out of proportion happened with the recent fuel shortage, because when the BBC first reported on the potential shortage of fuel they had got the information from a leaked piece of information from the cabinet about HGV shortages that could cause some delay for fuel. This was 10 days prior to the BBC's report meaning that had they not reported this leaked classified information. Then the greater public wouldn't have ever been concerned by the chance of a lack of fuel.

This is why it's clear to me that the role of media and the way it portrays certain events, can drastically affect the world, shown by just one report from the BBC creating a somewhat disastrous 2 weeks for the fuel industry. This shows that media is a powerful tool that needs to be used carefully by the companies at the forefront of it, especially trusted corporations like the BBC who millions of people watch and trust a day, who's every word shapes the way that the British public see the world. One slip up could have horrific consequences one day soon, if the way they portray events like these does not change.