Would they hoard if 'price of coffins' went up? Netizens mock people panic buying chickens

Word of Malaysia's ban on chicken exports on June 1 sent some scrambling — like headless chickens — to swoop up the remaining stock of fresh chicken in wet markets and grocery stores recently, leaving shelves empty and netizens upset.

In a Reddit thread posted yesterday (May 25), a discussion on why people would buy and hoard fresh chickens prompted many netizens mocking panic buyers in Singapore.

There were at least two active Reddit threads discussing this chicken ban on that platform this morning. 

"Why are people always so reactive?" One Reddit user asked, sparking discussions on the rationale behind hoarding chickens.

Other users also questioned if it would just be better to buy frozen chicken to begin with if fresh chicken would be left unfinished and frozen for another day.

Another Redditor compared the decision to hoard chickens with that of other products. 

It would be alright to hoard toilet paper, the Redditor reasoned, since it could be stored and wouldn't "go bad".

However, the Redditor couldn't understand why chickens, a product that would be affected by freshness, were being hoarded.

"[It] doesn't make sense to me, seriously," the Redditor said. "If they [announced that] the price of coffins [would be] going up, [would] these people also … hoard?"

"Living as if the Japanese soldiers are still patrolling our streets," another user jokingly said, referring to the period in history where Singapore was occupied by the Japanese and food was scarce.

However, a Redditor also explained that panic buying was an unavoidable necessity.

"The fact that everyone else is [panic buying] means that you won't be able to just go about as normal," the Reddit user stated. "You snooze you lose."

Although food isn't scarce in Singapore, fresh chickens are certainly becoming rarer — wet markets and supermarkets alike have been wiped clean of fresh chickens.

Even our community chickens aren't safe now, it seems.

@lxyiyi_ #chickens ♬ The Chicken Song (Tchip Tchip) - The Dancing Chickens

"The urge to catch them when the news say we are running out of chickens," TikToker Yi wrote in her video.

"Catch them!" Another TikTok user said, recommending Yi to sell them once June 1 rolls around for better profit.

Customers yesterday purchased two or even three times more chickens than they would usually have, resulting in multiple stalls across Singapore being sold out of chickens.

The sudden increase in purchases of chicken comes after Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Monday that Malaysia would stop exports of chicken following a shortage within their country.

During that period when Covid-19 restrictions were tightened last year, long queues were seen outside supermarkets across Singapore as people scrambled to stock up on things they felt they would need, with shelves of essential goods such as rice quickly emptied by panic buyers.

In October 2021, Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong addressed the nation to inform them of the "new normal", and to advise against panic buying, the Straits Times stated.

khooyihang@asiaone.com