Whilst many people are acting responsibly in the past week, others are clearly taking advantage of the situation.

There have been cases of shopkeepers hiking their prices in a time of crisis just to make a few quick pounds. Now, a number of the shops I visited this week were in fact treating their customers with a level of respect.

They realised this was a time to make sure their customers were repaid for their years of loyalty and in supporting their local business through thick and thin.

If you have over the years decided not to shop at the bigger stores and looked to help your local shopkeeper then you expect some level of loyalty when something like this happens.

Small businesses are being affected up and down the country and it is important that we support them where we can.

Sadly, other businesses do not deserve our loyalty. There were cases of store owners hiking the price of essential items and then trying to blame ‘supply’. Yes, in some cases the price of certain meat had gone up but this was not translated into the 50% price rise.

And what has supply got to do with items such as eggs and rice?

Understandably it makes shoppers angry and frustrated.

This week I have met people who would in the past talk about how we should support their own local business because the halal meat was being sold by ‘fellow Muslims’ and there was a trust issue in buying the same meat at superstores.

Within a week this has changed with people quick to point out that the major stores had kept their prices the same despite the pressure from shoppers.

And panic buying has not helped. On the whole most folk realise that things won’t be the same as they were and they will make do. Funnily enough it is the older members of our society who are most affected by changes who are behaving far more responsibly.

For those hoping that after a few days people will stop hoarding goods then think again. Unfortunately, when in a society you get used to having a certain amount of food at home then you will ensure that level is maintained.

No amount of persuasion and guilt is going to stop you from stocking up your cupboards because you see other people doing the exact same thing.

What we do need to realise is that food levels will be maintained and we can go without certain luxuries for a while. The world is not going to end if these luxuries we are used to are not in store.