I left home for the first time in over a week this morning. Food shopping. After seeing a week’s worth of stripped supermarket shelves on the News, I figured I’d shop at the local village store. My slight trepidation disappeared the moment it was my turn to step across the threshold. Everything I wanted was there. None of the shelves were bare. There were no ‘maximum two purchases’ notices anywhere. Just my normal village shop.

Why do people panic-buy in supermarkets and not in local shops?

First principles.

Everyone stepping into a supermarket steps into a world of anonymity. Pile too many toilet rolls into your trolley and you might get one or two people shaking their heads at you in pity or disgust, but chances are you won’t ever see them again, and if you do they won’t recognise you anyway. Plus, you’ve probably already worked out that if anyone actually has the nerve to challenge you, you can easily lie and say you’re shopping for others as well as for yourself. Not to mention the fact that the moment one person starts piling too much into their trolley, it gives everyone else permission to do the same. And within minutes the supermarket has become a community of anonymous hoarders. No recriminations, no downside. At least, not until you go back a couple of days later to find the shelves are bare.

In the village shop, on the other hand, everyone knows everyone. Being the anonymous hoarder is not an option. Take more than you need and, guaranteed, next time you’re out for a walk, everyone else in the village will have been told. There goes that selfish-asshole. Not the kind of label that anyone wants. The kind of label you’ll be no closer to shedding five years later.

Reduced to first principles, humans are simple creatures. ABC-M. Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, Meaning. Going to the village shop offers up a simple reminder of how transitory the Belonging part of the story can be. We all want to belong to something. Six miles away at the local Asda, I get to belong to the anonymous-hoarder tribe, just doing what’s best for my immediate family; five miles closer to home, and I’m part of a community that makes sure not just my family but everyone else’s family is okay.

Locally speaking, we beats me every time.