Panic buying

[beast66606]

9 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Why should home delivery 'customers' get priority?

The system of picking off the shelves, sounds like a fair system to me, AKA join the queue!

 

Indeed - and all those who think this is reasonable can job share with my Mrs who is part of the team for the local hub school, no choice about it and she will come into contact with all sorts of people over the coming weeks. She could self-isolate of course, the same as medical staff can, but then who will do the job of looking after the kids of people at the front line ?

 

Want to volunteer for to do her job ? - we'll happily queue then.

 

Seems reasonable that after putting herself (and myself for that matter) in a risky position she should then queue for basic food and potentially spread it to as many people as possible  <ironic>

[kevinlms]

10 minutes ago, beast66606 said:

 

Indeed - and all those who think this is reasonable can job share with my Mrs who is part of the team for the local hub school, no choice about it and she will come into contact with all sorts of people over the coming weeks. She could self-isolate of course, the same as medical staff can, but then who will do the job of looking after the kids of people at the front line ?

 

Want to volunteer for to do her job ? - we'll happily queue then.

 

Seems reasonable that after putting herself (and myself for that matter) in a risky position she should then queue for basic food and potentially spread it to as many people as possible  <ironic>

I did follow up to my comments with this, but it was deleted, because to it contained other deleted information written by others.

 

Depends on what is meant by the priority customers. You mentioned home delivery, which by my understanding is anyone, not specifically those at risk.

 

I have no objection at all, for people at risk due to factors, that you and others have mentioned to get priority. However the context of my reply was based on why should just anyone get priority, just because they have ordered (for delivery?) over the website? So my comment had nothing whatsoever against vulnerable people.

 

[jjb1970]

12 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I did follow up to my comments with this, but it was deleted, because to it contained other deleted information written by others.

 

Depends on what is meant by the priority customers. You mentioned home delivery, which by my understanding is anyone, not specifically those at risk.

 

I have no objection at all, for people at risk due to factors, that you and others have mentioned to get priority. However the context of my reply was based on why should just anyone get priority, just because they have ordered (for delivery?) over the website? So my comment had nothing whatsoever against vulnerable people.

 

 

A valid point. Not all those shopping online are in vulnerable categories or key workers. And some of those going to the shop are key workers. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Just stocked up on Christmas crackers, sun tan lotion, pancake mix, easter eggs and coronation flags 

I'm in this for the long game!

 

Mike

[Mark Saunders]

4 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Just stocked up on Christmas crackers, sun tan lotion, pancake mix, easter eggs and coronation flags 

I'm in this for the long game!

 

Mike

 

Easter Eggs are about the only thing in really vast quantities currently in the big shops!

[Rivercider]

I have recently returned home after working an additional shift at my store. One that opened doors early at 09.00 for NHS staff (and staff who work at the store) to spend an hour browsing/shopping before checkouts opened at 10.00.

 

The store was very busy right from opening, (and it was restricted to eligible customers only).

Although it got quite crowded, with the longest queues I have seen in 12 years snaking round the store waiting for 10.00, pretty much everyone was good natured.

Someone thanked me for being on duty, (which was un-necessary - but nice), and I heard several of our staff thanking the NHS people for what they are about to possibly go through.

 

I am in the fruit and veg section, specifically the flowers and horticulture, and we were giving away a free bunch of mother day flowers to NHS staff.

The produce section was fairly well stocked, if a little patchy. Waiting out In the warehouse in reserve we had precisely three plastic trays of potatoes, and a cage of iceberg  - well there is always more of that than you first think!

 

cheers 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Rivercider
grammar

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
Anectodal I know,but if you do have a Morrrisons locally,try them. Agree generally about the system being overwhelmed since midweek but local Sainsbury’s wasn’t too bad for fresh produce on Friday. Tried Morrisons Sat .am....crowded,so avoided.Returned 3:00 pm ,no crowd,easy to get around,good stocks of fresh produce,including a stock of spuds sufficient to keep a chippy going.Lady on checkout scathing re: panic buyers.

 

Hopefully,the silliness will be temporary but we will avoid Friday and Saturday am shopping for a while.

 

For this scenario was written the expression. “Hell is other people “ something I don’t subscribe to but it seems I can be persuaded.Sincerely I do hope not.

The nearest to me is a large Sainsbury's, where I will try tomorrow morning.

Morrisons nearest store was taken over from somebody else years ago and is about as big as a large "metro" and has empty shelves and stale bread, even during normal shopping episodes.

I usually drive into Bromsgrove where there are 2 Aldis, an Asda (medium size not all ranges stocked) and a moderate size Morrisons

There is also a Sainsburys in Redditch, a large Morrisons and a Large Tesco as well as Aldi

There are also some Lidls around.

There are a couiple of local Tescos but they don't stock much apart from fags & lottery tickets

[kevinlms]

3 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

Easter Eggs are about the only thing in really vast quantities currently in the big shops!

Yes, my local supermarket has heaps stacked up on the top shelf, above where the toilet paper should be!

[kevinlms]

4 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

I have recently returned home after working an additional shift at my store. One that opened doors early at 09.00 for NHS staff (and staff who work at the store) to spend an hour browsing/shopping before checkouts opened at 10.00.

 

The store was very busy right from opening, (and it was restricted to eligible customers only).

Although it got quite crowded, with the longest queues I have seen in 12 years snaking round the store waiting for 10.00, pretty much everyone was good natured.

Someone thanked me for being on duty, and I heard several of our staff thanking the NHS people for what they are about to possibly go through.

 

I am in the fruit and veg section, specifically the flowers and horticulture, and we were giving away a free bunch of mother day flowers to NHS staff.

The produce section was fairly well stocked, if a little patchy. Waiting out In the warehouse in reserve we had precisely three plastic trays of potatoes, and a cage of iceberg  - well there is always more of that than you first think!

 

cheers 

Yes, it must be difficult working at any grocery type shop at present. The hard part would be keeping up with customer enquiries and hopefully the vast majority are polite about it.

[John M Upton]

In my break on Friday mid morning, I popped to the main M&S in Brighton town centre.

 

A few holes in the stock but a calm not overly busy atmosphere, got some ready meals for the freezer, eggs and some hot cross buns no problem at all.

 

The key I think is that this store does not have car parking immediately nearby unless you are a bus.

 

It seems stores where Mr and Mrs Chelsea Tractor can park up immediately outside to fill their vehicles straight from the trollies are the ones being hit the hardest.

 

Heaven forbid some souls might actually have to walk with heavy shopping....

 

Meanwhile a quick visit to my local model shop (Gaugemaster in Ford) revealed lots of gaps in the Metcalfe kits!!!

[midlands]

I've just checked Sainsbury and Morrisons online delivery websites to see if theres a chance of a slot but both systems appear to be broken,  Sainsburys won't even let me log in despite me having an account before all this debacle and displaying this message.

"Email address

Due to the huge increase in online orders, we're pausing new registrations for the time being."

 

And the Morrisons online page where you choose your day/time slot is displayed incorrectly and does not allow you to select/highlight a day or scroll through the day/months.

So, for those two anyway, I'm stuffed..good job i'm only ordering for me and nobody is relying on me.

[Baby Deltic]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

I am reminded of the cruise captain who abandoned his ship in one of the first boats to be launched because he could better supervise the abandonment of the ship from his lifeboat. Reprehensible perhaps but not irrational. 

The Costa Concordia?

[Rivercider]

2 hours ago, 57xx said:

Tesco are supposed to be doing an NHS half hour for our frontline people to get essentials. My brother's fiance works in the NHS so they went down early this morning to find a queue snaking around the car park. Seem most of his locality now work for the NHS... They gave up in disgust and went home, especially after seeing people they knew who they know don't work for NHS chancing it. If people's current behaviour is what's so "great" about Great Britain, then I think we need a rebranding exercise.

Without knowing the store, it may be that some shoppers that were not NHS staff might be people who actually work at the store. That was the arrangement at my store where I have just finished a shift. It seemed to be well organised, and apart from the congestion everyone seemed in good humour,

edit - the generalpublic were kept back until 10.00 at our store.

 

 

cheers

Edited March 22, 2020 by Rivercider
additional information

[tomparryharry]

Having just visited our local Aldi, I'm happy to report that nearly all of the stock levels here are near normal. Some tinned stuff is in short supply, but by & large, it all seems OK. This should give the population enough time before the next Con-Virus comes around. 

[Gilbert]

6 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

It is very indicative of the total lack of trust in and respect for politicians that this the case. Listen to the politician and do the opposite of what they ask you to do.

 

But I think the media have to take part of the blame too. BBC have been going on endlessly about the shortages and panic buying this morning. What useful purpose does that serve?

Likewise at our two local supermarkets...but no eggs...fortunately we are 2 miles from a egg producer who will both sell and deliver.

[LBRJ]

3 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Don't think there would be much panic buying if there was only old fashioned toilet paper available.

 

Now wash your back.......

[Mark Saunders]

2 minutes ago, Gilbert said:

Likewise at our two local supermarkets...but no eggs...fortunately we are 2 miles from a egg producer who will both sell and deliver.

 

I fear the self isolation bake off is due to start !

[LBRJ]

The "NHS Staff Only" thing could be quite interesting around my locale - With 3 major hospitals, a Medical School and a dental hospital within a couple of miles there genuinely is a huge number of NHS Staff live in the area.

[jonny777]

12 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

Having just visited our local Aldi, I'm happy to report that nearly all of the stock levels here are near normal. Some tinned stuff is in short supply, but by & large, it all seems OK. This should give the population enough time before the next Con-Virus comes around. 

 

I wish the same could be said for Ocado. On Thursday and Friday there was a note on the web page to say only Sat/Sun deliveries could be edited at the time (mine is/was who knows? for Tuesday) and customers with delivery slots for other days would be notified when their orders could be edited/updated. I had no notification, and a chance visit to the site this afternoon reveals that I can no longer edit my order because they are 'out of stock'. How can a chain the size of Ocado be out of stock of everything? So now it is just sit back while the wife and I play at how much/little (if anything) will arrive and what items will be missing. A great game for whiling away the hours.

 

[Butler Henderson]

3 hours ago, Jonboy said:

@Butler Henderson you may wish to try looking at local farm shops or Holland and Barrett If you struggle with the gluten free flour in the supermarkets.

Thanks - had no luck in the past  when Sainsbury briefly stopped stocking it, you go to the manufacturers web site, look up stockists , trek off to them and find its a solitary item or two stocked that you do not want.

[bourneagain]

This NHS Staff shopping happy hour is a complete joke and publicly stunt.

This morning my Son-in-Law who is a Paramedic went to his local Tesco Extra for the priory shopping hour only to find that he couldn`t even access the car park and that was an hour before they opened. He returned home empty handed!

He did expect, knowing the situation on previous recent occasions he tried to shop there, that the car park would be full. But he hoped that Tesco would have recognised that fact and had somebody at the car park entrance to turn away any vehicles that did not contain any NHS Staff, until such time the NHS happy hour was coming to an end. How does Tesco expect the NHS Staff to get their shopping done, when they can`t even access the car park?  I wouldn`t be surprised if many of the other well known supermarkets have the same problem with this car parking problem, until they do something to resolve it the NHS Staff will continue to suffer.  

[Gwiwer]

43 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

How can a chain the size of Ocado be out of stock of everything?

 

The queueing system was working very well to access the Ocado website.  I joined at around 2700 and was quoted a wait of "over an hour" but with the numbers counting down before my eyes I was in in ten minutes.  No delivery slots available.  The message referring to deliveries for the next two days said that they were "sold out" and orders could not be changed.  They had access to all later orders still blocked.  

 

My guess is that while they deliver from their own warehouse rather than picking from supermarket shelves their own stock levels also need breathing space to recover from the onslaught.  Changes might upset something going on behind the scenes to ensure supply is maintained.  In common with other delivery apps I have always noted that Ocado suffers from more substitutions and missing items across the weekend probably because of the normally-increased demand set against a slight gap in warehouse deliveries.  

 

So we currently have an order due next Sunday which contains all the normal basics.  We shall see what we get and will be prepared for significant gaps by not relying on one delivery to fulfil all our needs.  

 

Not a case of panic buying.  Just a case of prudent buying as opportunity presents to have one of everything in reserve as well as the one in use.  

[jonny777]

24 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

 

The queueing system was working very well to access the Ocado website.  I joined at around 2700 and was quoted a wait of "over an hour" but with the numbers counting down before my eyes I was in in ten minutes.  No delivery slots available.  The message referring to deliveries for the next two days said that they were "sold out" and orders could not be changed.  They had access to all later orders still blocked.  

 

My guess is that while they deliver from their own warehouse rather than picking from supermarket shelves their own stock levels also need breathing space to recover from the onslaught.  Changes might upset something going on behind the scenes to ensure supply is maintained.  In common with other delivery apps I have always noted that Ocado suffers from more substitutions and missing items across the weekend probably because of the normally-increased demand set against a slight gap in warehouse deliveries.  

 

So we currently have an order due next Sunday which contains all the normal basics.  We shall see what we get and will be prepared for significant gaps by not relying on one delivery to fulfil all our needs.  

 

Not a case of panic buying.  Just a case of prudent buying as opportunity presents to have one of everything in reserve as well as the one in use.  

 

 

That is a similar situation to the one I found when I tried it. Like you, I shall just wait and see. The problem is that they have a 3-tier 18cm steamer on offer for £30 which I wouldn't mind. It is £60 in John Lewis. I can't even add that at the moment. 

 

Paracetamol and other pills have been auto restricted to two items for years. Try to add a third and it just doesn't work, plus comes up 'maximum exceeded' or some such. Why can't they just program this restriction to every single item on the site? Couple that with another bit of software which restricts customers to one delivery slot per week, and I reckon their problems would mostly go away. 

 

I wonder if they are struggling with the ( a ) business mantra of selling as much as they can at all times, in order to maximise profits; against ( b ) a more socialist (small  's') policy of extreme reductions on single customer purchases, but with more frequent customer bookings? 

 

 

[phil-b259]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Yes, it must be difficult working at any grocery type shop at present. The hard part would be keeping up with customer enquiries and hopefully the vast majority are polite about it.

 

From the staff comments I overheard on Friday there were plenty of impolite or just down right abusive customers about.

 

That said I think its an improving picture - as the realisation is slowly dawning on folk we are in this situation for the long haul people are getting better.

[Gwiwer]

Reduced shopping hours and staff redeployment are aiding the catch-up of shelf-filling.  There will continue to be gaps as supply catches up with demand but there seems to be evidence that the gross hoarding of a week or two ago is easing.  Coupled with purchasing limits and the (possibly temporary) abandonment of multi-buy promotions.  

 

I too hear stories of shop staff being abused but in fairness as I hear them n-th hand I cannot make any comment on the truth of the matter.  I wouldn't be surprised if there was some abuse - I did witness one minor scuffle early on in the siege myself - but so far there has been, within my experience, a resigned frustration more than overt abuse of staff.