While some people are busy hoarding supplies for the coronavirus situation, others are writing think pieces about the hoarding behaviour itself.

One such writer is Smith Leong, who is identified as a part-time lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and social media trainer at NTUC Singapore on his Facebook profile.

Extra stress for the workers

In a Feb. 8 post, Leong wrote about the hoarding phenomenon and how it affects the systems in Singapore as well as the supermarket staff.

According to him, various supermarkets are already restocking.

But the mass buying is causing plenty of stress for the workers, who have to work doubly hard.

His post is also accompanied by a photo of efficient re-stocking done by the workers:

Sadly, Leong says that he has also witnessed shoppers abusing and scolding the staff.

He believes that Singaporeans can do better than this, and emphasises that that these are just workers doing their part:

"Guys, we are better than this. They do not owe us a living. They can jolly well walk away and not work but they did not abandon the community.

So instead, why is the community abandoning them? They are only workers and doing their part."

Calling it "an act of selfishness", Leong hopes that Singaporeans can stop their hoarding.

Furthermore, the situation is not helped by buyers who abandon their baskets full of goods when the queues are too long:

https://mothership.sg/2020/02/shoppers-abandon-groceries/?fbclid=IwAR1WY94SwelaASnM-OxEROS0KvMtMNf-EiGc-8jezOjE9NRhKPqrteCMzHY

This not only means that the supermarket stuff will have extra work to do in putting the products back, but some non-perishables might also spoil from being out of the freezer for too long.

Breaking the system?

Leong thinks that the panic buying is "simply breaking the system for ourselves even before anything happens".

He gives another example of how difficult Singaporeans are, in the form of a conversation he had overheard about the announcement of DORSCON Orange.

According to him, someone was saying, "Why tell Singaporeans about the DORSCON? This kind of information only scares people. Tell them for what? They also do not know any better."

However, Leong reasons, the same individual might also complain that the government is not being transparent if Singaporeans were not informed of the change in the DORSCON status.

He hopes that his post will help to deter mass buyers.

You can read it here here:

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Top image by Smith Leong and Melanie Lim