I’ve got my usual subscription order of 3 bags due very soon, but I’m obviously catching this panic-buying fever and I’m unsure whether or not to double my order “just in case”. Of course, that would put me into the same bracket as the effing idiots decimating the general supermarkets… and yet…
I know Huel has promised that supplies are fine at the moment, and as long as the couriers can do their job then there shouldn’t be a problem.
What are your opinions? Should I double the order, or not?
I’d strongly encourage you not to. I’ve been trying to find out if there are supply issues, either with Huel or the larger food industry, and all signs are that there aren’t. Demand is just about manageable, certainly survivable, but it’s still high and there will be/are people suffering because they can’t get basic supplies.
If you keep to your regular order it’s very, very likely you’ll be fine… if you panic buy it’s pretty likely you’ll increase suffering for someone else.
I wouldn’t bother… I did initially when I got back from working away from home for a week at 8pm last Monday, my cupboards were pretty empty and the supermarket had been stripped!!!. So I panicked and bought 4 bags of Huel.
I can empathize with that nurse who made the video so much, i’d been working 13 days straight, 7 of them in london away from home. left the hotel at 6am on monday and got back to my home city at around 8pm, was exhausted, just wanted to buy some food to make dinner and then go to bed and the place had been stripped of all sorts, no fresh fruit or veg, no soap, no toilet roll, no potatoes, it was shocking! I was absolutely furious and also a bit scared if i’m honest.
Anyway, now the supermarkets around here all seem to have caught up. I can get everything I need (Including loo roll!!!) so not much need for it. Might be a good idea to get a few extra bags just in case you have to self isolate though, it’s probably the ideal food for it
I was wondering about this too. I think, logistically, it’s easier for Huel if we make large, infrequent orders. It depends on where the bottleneck is. If they have no problems producing it, but can’t get it out the door fast enough, then large orders are good. If they can’t produce it fast enough, then we should be careful not to order too much and cause other people to miss out.
Thanks for your replies Simon, superhans and David .
I’ll wait to see if @Tim_Huel has any time to respond before I do anything that may be unnecessary.
When I receive my subscription order I will actually have 4.5 bags in the house, so realistically I should be able to weather this apocalypse.
Yeah I think that’s probably correct. And it takes barely more time to throw six bags in a big box and tape it up, compared to the small, two-bag boxes.
Hmmmm then the next question is; will changing my order now throw off the arrangements for the bags they’ve already reserved for regular subscriptions?
Still hesitating
I did, I bought eight bags with a year long shelf life. Huel is the perfect solution for self isolating. I have underlying health issues and cannot afford to catch this wretched virus. Plenty Huel means I can avoid completely to go shopping.
Preppers got a lot of criticism for panic buying. Only now, now that we are all confined to barracks, it seems preppers did the right thing and because of that, only those who didn’t prepare are populating the supermarkets and exposing themselves to the virus.
I’ve done it, but not particularly proud of myself .
I have added 3x bags of Banana to my original order of 3 bags Huel powder . Berry not available (@David I know how much you love it! )
My usual order is around 8 bags to take advantage of the bulk discount. I wouldn’t call 6 bags panic buying especially as their sales model encourages bulk buying.
I think firstly there needs to be a definition of panic buying and how this compares to stocking up. For example I will use toilet paper purchase. I purchase my toilet paper in bulk from a cash and carry. This is stocking up and the cash and carry encourages a bulk purchase. However If I bought toilet paper in response to a crisis and bought more than I usually would this may be considered panic buying. To get to the point, the Huel ordering system favours the economies of bulk purchase. However, if you purchase more than you would in response to a crisis it may be considered panic buying.
Were it not for the panic buying there would have been enough stock for everyone available. It’s not necessarily that people didn’t prepare, but that when they went to do their weekly shop there was nothing for them to buy as the locusts had stripped the shelves.
There are now reports of 30% increases in food waste and stories like this of untouched, opened food being thrown out https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-outrage-bins-pictured-filled-21773469
At the same time food banks are closing due to volunteer sickness and drops in donations. Pretty depressing indication of the amount of people with an “I’m alright Jack” attitude.
Plenty of people don’t have the money to stockpile, including many elderly and vulnerable people, but according to your interpretation their lack of preparation is the reason they are having to take risks with their health and expose themselves to the virus.
So you can say that preppers did the right thing, but only if you think it’s fine to behave entirely selfishly. Just to be clear, I’m talking about those people who changed their behaviour and panic bought to stockpile. Some of them really went to extremes. My company tracks sales of consumer durables in the UK, in the week commencing 7th March sales of freezers went up 90% on the equivalent week last year. That’s a crazy level of selfishness to buy a whole new freezer to stockpile food.
I’m not talking about those who normally bulk buy as it’s cheaper.
Our advice is just to order as usual. We have a few products out of stock on site, but generally this is so we can continue to fulfil subscriptions (e.g. gluten-free). We would strongly advise you not to panic-buy or stock up on Huel as it may mean in the long term that others can’t get the Huel they wanted.
Thanks for all the replies.
I received my order today with an extremely quick next-day delivery by DPD in the current circumstances (well done to them!)
I was pleasantly surprised to realise that it would be even less expensive to have 6 bags delivered instead of my usual 3, so I’ll change my future subscription to 6 bags but on the max 10 week delivery schedule, as 12 weeks isn’t an option .
decimating the general supermarkets… and yet… 
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I know how much you love it! )
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