I’m tired of Belgian/Flemish newspapers writing [articles like this](https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20211015_93489810).
Every week I’m doing the shopping for our household and I didn’t encountered any shortages over the past few weeks. Stories like these are a self-fulfilling prophecy. People will get scared, starting with impulse buys, creating more shortages.

This type of clickbait and doom stories only boost the number of visitors and grow the income they get from advertising. They should realize their responsibility goes beyond that.

The same thing happened with the pandemic. COVID-19 was very real, I’m not a denier. But the topic was omnipresent in the media creating this false sense of doom and terror. These days the newspapers write almost nothing about COVID-19 anymore (remember the daily/weekly infection updates, etc.).

Now everybody is losing their minds over the electricity and gas prices. But what every article fails to mention is that in 2019 – 2020 the energy price was at a historical low compared to the years before that. So in the end it kinda evens out…

I wish more people would realize this and there would be a kind of media boycott.

26 comments

  1. I’ve only seen this issue at Carrefour because the drivers are on strike. This is totally irresponsible and the same kind of stupid shit that led to the UK’s gas stations running out of gas for a week.

  2. Media should be held accountable for the lengths they go to gather more clicks and browsing time on their websites. This is sheer fearmongering and unfortunately it ‘sells’.

  3. I’m having the reverse problem.

    The baby has been prescribed Chaudefontaine by the doc for shits ‘n giggles. Well mostly shits.

    So we went to the store and the entire rack of Chaudefontaine was empty.

    Then this week our office’s beverage supplier sent ys a mail saying there won’t be any Chaudefontaine for at least 4 weeks because they’re still recovering from the floods.

    However nowhere do I find anything recent about this shortage online.

  4. I’ve actually seen this at Delhaize and Albert Heijn though. The former was known to have supply chain issues. The latter, despite being part of the same group / parent company, not really.

  5. >When you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed. When you read the news, you are misinformed.

    This statement has stuck with me for a long time. It seems to be true worldwide.

  9. Just came from Carrefour at shopping 2 and there are many empty shelves. It could be that they are just cleaning.
    It’s been months since I last read any news and I was not aware of this.

  10. I had not heard anything in the media when I went to the lidl today. It was closed so I was like wtf? Later heard on the radio that they are on strike.

    Onwards then, further down the road to the aldi. There I spotted some pretty obvious empty shelves, like friday evening empty but it was still 11:00.

    PS Is there something not behind a paywall on the subject?

  12. Yeah depends on where you are, my local Carrefour has a lot of shortages lately, delayed deliveries it seems. Papers were up a week in advance at certain places in the store to notify of a coming shortage. But it’s not as widespread as they make it out to be, I know of no other stores in my neighborhood with issues.

  13. I’ve never seen a mugging, so they are not happening? It’s not because maybe it’s not a problem in your store, that it is’nt happening in other stores. And about COVID-19, Every day you can find the numbers in the papers and on their sites. If you don’t encounter them on socials, it is because less people in your ‘bubble’ click on them.

  15. My Carrefour just south of Antwerp has had about 50% empty shelves for the past 3 weeks, not that I would ever defend the belgian media in any way.

  16. You should look better. Shelves definitely are emptier at my local supermarket. Just because you dont see it doesnt meant it isnt true. Your kind of attitude is just as much a problem: I personaly dont notice anything, so everything must be allright?

  18. Totally with you on this one.

    They just milk whatever issue the country faces into oblivion, often using a big misleading title for a 2 paragraph “article” that they keep rephrasing for a week…

  20. I always do my groceries at a Colruyt settlement and I haven’t noticed any kind of shortage at any department, varying from food to toys…

    Is this real?

  22. The Carrefour near me has a lot of empty shelves at the moment. They have signs up about it being related to a strike at Nivelles Logistics or something like that.

    The delhaize near me and another Carrefour a little further have shelves completely full.

    This is all just anecdotal.

  23. Just because you’re not seeing it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. My grocery store has tons of empty shelves. Surprise, journalists aren’t writing news about /u/koffietas2’s life, they’re writing about countrywide trends.

    This is one of the dumbest things I’ve seen on the internet today.

  24. I’m a journalist. Used to write for HLN, now Humo. Always open for an AMA if there’s enough interest. Just lemme know.

    Mere clicks for site traffic is an outdated concept. Online advertisements are not worth enough, subscription plans have become much more important in recent years. Although clicks will certainly be crucial for ‘fast’ news. But in a certain way, clickbait is on its return.

  25. When i read the headline I immediately thought of Het Nieuwsblad and low and behold that’s the link you included.

    Maybe skip that gossip tabloid and read something with a bit more intellectual standing?

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