By Sue Vincent-Jones (a personal view)
IS IT me or has Barry gone even a bit more bonkers lately as we saw residents race to the pumps to fill their tanks to the top fearful of a fuel shortage?
Truth be told, I’ve just about recovered from the absolute carnage that was Asda when it all kicked off – scan systems down, petrol panic buying, shelves being swept of stuff…and ‘click and collect’ nearly three hours behind.
To be honest, it took me about three hours to actually get to the pick-up point to finally find out about the delays. As soon as I made it to the Memo I saw just how our hapless waterfront highways were grid-locked with those selfish souls gearing up for the garages.
Brilliant idea to place the pumps right firmly in front of the only entrances to the stores, leaving the entrances badly blocked with the chances of picking up a frothy coffee from Costa while you waited absolutely nil.
And it wasn’t just the supermarkets either. Saturday night saw me stuck in a crazy queue of cars on Cardiff Road causing chaos in their desperation to get that last drop of petrol firmly in their fuel tank.
For me, it was the mainstream media shooting a scaremongering story across the bows that emboldened some Barrians to go battling for fuel and scurrying to stock up stuff.
Social media soon came to the party too, as rumours were rife about petrol shortages, food failures, and even the possibility of cancelling Christmas…again!
Many blamed the build-up of traffic on Brexit of course.
Well Barry’s Tesco shoppers must have voted remain then, because that store was running like clockwork. The Port Road place hasn’t got any petrol pumps – get it.
Seriously though, although in my view it was the scary supply shortage news stories that started the panic, it all does seem to be slightly going to hell in a handcart.
Empty shelves, rationed fuel, big energy bill rise, and a cost of living leaping up as we fight our way through the pandemic that is still plodding on.
So shall we just stop the pathetic petrol panic buying, selfish stocking of non-essential supplies, and all pull together instead.
The short-term selfish ‘I’m all right Jack’ mentality will only have consequences for our community – trust me.
Come on Barry we are much better than that.
