Just do like many others do and stock up a bit at a time during the calm times and you don't have to fret yourself over such petty things. It wasn't long ago primers were on sale everywhere.
I NEVER buy primers when I actually NEED them. Learned that lesson many years ago.
I could not agree more with buying BEFORE you need them. Last year, I ordered 24k fiocchi small rifle magnum primers, and another 12k fiocchi small pistol primers. I had so many friends asking me what on God's green earth I needed to buy that many for, when I already had about 2k of each left over. My neighbor was in astonishment that I bought that many, but he is the kind of guy that will shoot maybe 50-100 rounds in a month, and only kept a box or two of ammo on hand. I simply explained that I had been through the panic in 2012/2013. I understand how the shortages go. This year, there WAS going to be a shortage leading up to and after the election. Keeping this as non-political as possible, I saw two results coming from the elections. If a Democrat wins, gun owners are going to panic buy nonstop, which will create a shortage. If Trump wins, I expect there to be massive riots from groups on the left, which would drive a shortage. Personally, I expected it to hit somewhere between 3-6 months before the election, but the beer flu and riots sped that up a bit. My buying last year was simply me planning for the next year or so when I knew it was going to be difficult to find things. Knowing this year was an election year, and after the way we saw a run on ammo and supplies leading into the 2016 election, it was inevitable that there would be a run on them this year, too.
Now, as for why I could possibly use THAT many primers, it's because I live on 180 acres, I work nonstop, and shooting is one of the things that I truly enjoy, so I go shooting on my own property when I want to get some stress relief. It's not uncommon for me to go through 500 rounds of rifle ammo in a weekend, and another couple hundred of 9mm. Doing some math, what I bought when the supplies were plentiful was enough to last me about a year at my normal shooting pace. Looking back, I wish I had gotten twice what I did when they were on sale so cheap. That said, I have cut back on my shooting some. Now I may go through 200 or so rounds of .223 a weekend, and 100 or so of 9mm in an effort to stretch my supply out further. In my view, if anything, the people that I have had complain about me buying so many ahead of time should be the ones THANKING me rather than berating me, as I have no intent to go out and buy any reloading supplies right now. If nothing else, me NOT buying during the panic is saving some for those other people that were unprepared. The only primers I have bought in the last 6 months was a brick of Large Rifle Magnum primers that I ordered last week to use in reloading for an old Mauser my grandfather brought back from WW2. Considering how rarely I shoot it, I full well expect that one brick of primers to last a couple years.
Lastly, and I'm sure I am going to get a lot of hate for this, but if I see something that I am low on and I have the opportunity and means to buy a significant amount of it, I am going to. I won't let an opportunity pass when it is uncertain that it is an opportunity I will have again any time in the near future. I won't bank on "well, maybe it will be out there later when I run out." If the opportunity is there, I am going to take it. I won't apologize for that attitude, either. Luckily, I had the foresight from previous experiences to understand that this would likely happen again soon, and stocked up heavily BEFORE all this happened so I didn't find myself in that situation AFTER it happened. I understand it is rough for the the people who just got into reloading or shooting, and I understand they are having a hard time. At the same time, if the items are there on the shelf to be sold, I don't believe someone else should inconvenience themselves just because someone else picked an unfortunate time to start.