Letters to the editor: Panic buying at supermarkets 'silly', 'pointless'

Panic buying at the supermarkets is almost laughable says one reader who survived on rations during WWII. Photo / File

We have just been shopping in two supermarkets - the amount of panic buying we witnessed made us laugh. It is really rather silly.

I lived through World War II and we were rationed to 2oz of butter, 2oz cheese, 2oz of tea and 4oz of meat per week.

We also had 8oz sugar, one egg, and 4oz of preserves every two months.

There were no bananas or oranges. Cabbages and root vegetables were available and onions hard to get but we did not just survive, we were actually a darn sight healthier than we are today, judging by some of the people waddling around the supermarket.

The food will always be there and you will always be able to get at it.

We found plenty of toilet rolls - so why the panic buying?

It is all so pointless.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Butterfly effect for all

Re Bill Capamagian's letter (March 16). I agree with some of the opinions stated about climate emergency, especially the part about the need to reduce wastage of money on feel-good factors.

However, a comment really astonished me.

The letter said and I quote, "... so that is another country's problem."

In the globalised world, no problem can be restricted by man-made boundaries - especially climate emergency. We can refer to the butterfly effect here. A butterfly that flaps its wings in the Amazon can affect the climate across the globe.

In my view, the sooner we realise this the better it will be for all of us.

Priya Fernandes
Rotorua