Panic buying

[Nick C]

8 hours ago, big jim said:

passed the newly re-opened KFC too, queue right round the car park to get in there!  

 

The KFC just up the road from us made the national news the day it reopened - they reckoned at least 70 cars in the queue...

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, melmerby said:

Asda Crunchy Peanut butter: Peanuts (94%), Peanut Oil, Sugar, Palm Oil, Sea Salt (BTW still available at my Asda!)

How can you? it's rubbish, I like my Peanut Butter to taste of Peanuts not Palm Oil & Sugar.

 

ASDA peanut butter is fine, I actually said we prefer the ALDI than anything else, we tend to go by taste rather than the fad of reading the ingredients and making our decision on that  we have two pots of Meridian peanut butter, well actually one now as we tried it again the other day and threw it away as it has transformed into a gloopy oily stodge, the big pot we are HAVING to use presently is thick with a oil settled on the top, no amount of stirring gets it amalgamated again.

 

Oh BTW the Aldi Peanut butter is 100% peanuts with NO palm oil......but then again it’s Aldi not Holland and Barrett, you should try it......in a couple of months you could buy another Loco with the savings 

 

[kevinlms]

31 minutes ago, Nick C said:

 

The KFC just up the road from us made the national news the day it reopened - they reckoned at least 70 cars in the queue...

KFC and similar have never closed in Australia,  just take away only. Although some close early, about 8.00 PM.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

KFC and similar have never closed in Australia,  just take away only. Although some close early, about 8.00 PM.

 

The big chains closed in the UK but most smaller businesses have remained open for takeaway and / or delivery.  I guess a mix of because they can, because they don't have multi-million pound corporate resilience and business continuity plans, and because they can fill the void and capitalise on their competitors' absence.  

 

There is no shortage of burgers, chicken, kebabs, pizza, Chinese, Thai, Indian, fish & chips or indeed other styles within a reasonable radius of here; what there is a shortage of is delivery riders! 

[Reorte]

Safeway had a scan as you shop, just pay (with the odd random check) at the end system years ago. Not sure what happened to it, although I wouldn't be surprised if one reason it ended was because of a lack of supply of the very useful boxes that were part of it...

 

Never really seen the point of not just shopping the usual way, with manned tills though (present situation notwithstanding).

[Gwiwer]

23 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

Never really seen the point of not just shopping the usual way, with manned tills though (present situation notwithstanding).

You and me both.  I detest self-scan and regard them as a means to do away with jobs and diminish the level of customer service particularly to the disabled and elderly.  They seem to require more staff intervention than they are worth and are not quicker in my experience.  Besides time isn't everything to a lot of us.  

 

Scan-as-you-go is filed under "Just because we can doesn't mean we have to" in my world.  I much prefer the (usually pleasant) social interaction at the till and, often as not, in the queue if there is one.  

 

OK I come from a generation who grew up without computers.  I had graduated from university before ever seeing one.  Phones were in boxes on the street corner etc etc .....   But my age-group makes up a very significant part of the population and of personal shoppers.  Our opinions are ignored at the peril of the business on question.  

 

 

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

we have two pots of Meridian peanut butter, well actually one now as we tried it again the other day and threw it away as it has transformed into a gloopy oily stodge, the big pot we are HAVING to use presently is thick with a oil settled on the top, no amount of stirring gets it amalgamated again.

Must be something wrong with them, they're never like that when I buy it.

There is oil on top when you first open it but once stirred in it's OK, rarely needs another stir.

BTW I keep it in the fridge because it doesn't contain preservatives.

I don't like the ones with sugar (most) as I don't use/add sugar into food and the taste stands out, same with salt, the same reason I hate salted caramel as I taste salt not caramel.

[melmerby]

Just had the e-mail for the pick of the shop at Asda.

Only 4 items missing and 1 sub.

Yay! Pasta on the way.

[boxbrownie]

36 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Must be something wrong with them, they're never like that when I buy it.

There is oil on top when you first open it but once stirred in it's OK, rarely needs another stir.

BTW I keep it in the fridge because it doesn't contain preservatives.

I don't like the ones with sugar (most) as I don't use/add sugar into food and the taste stands out, same with salt, the same reason I hate salted caramel as I taste salt not caramel.

Maybe there is, but they were both like that not long after we bought them.....never mind.

 

As for the salt and sugar we NEVER put either in our cooking, if the ingredients are good you don’t need flavour enhancements, makes us mad watching these chefs on TV putting “pinch” after “pinch” in the same dish as they go through the cooking process, is their food that bad it needs all that crap to make it taste of anything?

 

Always notice when we go out for a meal (when was that, can hardly remember now) we come home and head for the fridge for a few glasses of water, bloody salt in everything.

[spamcan61]

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

Safeway had a scan as you shop, just pay (with the odd random check) at the end system years ago. Not sure what happened to it, although I wouldn't be surprised if one reason it ended was because of a lack of supply of the very useful boxes that were part of it...

 

Never really seen the point of not just shopping the usual way, with manned tills though (present situation notwithstanding).

I was thinking of that earlier, used to use that in Safeway Amazingstoke, must be late 90s as we escaped / moved out of the area in 2001. Still got some of the big green crates in use in the garage / back of car. I notice Bookers use the same / similar  system (post Tesco takeover).

 

Not sure why it went out of fashion (although specifically in terms of Safeway then the Morrisons takeover presumably put the kybosh on it) may have been quite expensive to install and run compared with employing a few more till staff, and that's why it failed.

 

 

[Reorte]

24 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

I was thinking of that earlier, used to use that in Safeway Amazingstoke, must be late 90s as we escaped / moved out of the area in 2001. Still got some of the big green crates in use in the garage / back of car. I notice Bookers use the same / similar  system (post Tesco takeover).

 

Not sure why it went out of fashion (although specifically in terms of Safeway then the Morrisons takeover presumably put the kybosh on it) may have been quite expensive to install and run compared with employing a few more till staff, and that's why it failed.

As you say you've got some of the crates - I rather suspect far more of those crates went than were required for shopping because they were very useful, maybe too useful!

 

[spamcan61]

I can't recall how much the crates cost but from memory they were pretty cheap at the time. Think we had around 8 in total, mind you we used to do a lot of shopping there.

[Paul H Vigor]

I heard they were panic buying the May Railway Modeller here in the Swansea Valley!  Managed to get mine (just the one!) yesterday

[kevinlms]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

The big chains closed in the UK but most smaller businesses have remained open for takeaway and / or delivery.  I guess a mix of because they can, because they don't have multi-million pound corporate resilience and business continuity plans, and because they can fill the void and capitalise on their competitors' absence.  

 

There is no shortage of burgers, chicken, kebabs, pizza, Chinese, Thai, Indian, fish & chips or indeed other styles within a reasonable radius of here; what there is a shortage of is delivery riders! 

There was an article in The Age today, about the number of places that are abandoning Uber Eats and the like and self-arranging deliveries. It seems obvious, given that Uber Eats and the like charge around 35% of the total! How can any business afford that skim off the top?

[Gwiwer]

1 minute ago, kevinlms said:

There was an article in The Age today, about the number of places that are abandoning Uber Eats and the like and self-arranging deliveries. It seems obvious, given that Uber Eats and the like charge around 35% of the total! How can any business afford that skim off the top?

Uber Eats has probably not taken off in the way the business hoped.  If they are "skimming" 35% as their "cut" I am not surprised.  I believe Deliveroo operate on a much lower take.  Just Eat often - but not always - relies upon self-arranged deliveries although one of their linked outlets we have used (and which does not have a contract with Deliveroo) uses a co-branded rider wearing a Just Eat tabard and using a Deliveroo back-pack.  Nice work if you can get it?  Those folk are paid little enough for a thankless and unsocial-hours job.  

[kevinlms]

2 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Uber Eats has probably not taken off in the way the business hoped.  If they are "skimming" 35% as their "cut" I am not surprised.  I believe Deliveroo operate on a much lower take.  Just Eat often - but not always - relies upon self-arranged deliveries although one of their linked outlets we have used (and which does not have a contract with Deliveroo) uses a co-branded rider wearing a Just Eat tabard and using a Deliveroo back-pack.  Nice work if you can get it?  Those folk are paid little enough for a thankless and unsocial-hours job.  

It was actually Tuesday.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/business/small-business/restaurants-go-it-alone-despite-deliveroo-and-uber-eats-fee-reductions-20200511-p54ruy.html

 

I've never used the thieves!

[Gwiwer]

2 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

It was actually Tuesday.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/business/small-business/restaurants-go-it-alone-despite-deliveroo-and-uber-eats-fee-reductions-20200511-p54ruy.html

 

I've never used the thieves!

We will never use Deliveroo again.  Twice they failed to deliver the food but claimed they had.  We even managed to speak with someone (probably in their Phillipines base) who claimed she rang the door bell but got no reply.  We don't have a bell.  We asked which address she had delivered to at which point she hung up.  We tried to claim refunds but they maintained they had delivered though changed the story every time.  We approached our Trading Standards people who wrung their hands and sucked their teeth.  They apparently have a huge file of complaints against Deliveroo but are powerless to act as they are somehow operating under Filipino law.  

 

We placed feedback on their social media sites and Trust Pilot.  The term "International Pirates" was used.  It was not taken down nor denied.  We received numerous "Helpful" ratings.  But never got our money back.  Twice.  

[melmerby]

29 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

There was an article in The Age today, about the number of places that are abandoning Uber Eats and the like and self-arranging deliveries. It seems obvious, given that Uber Eats and the like charge around 35% of the total! How can any business afford that skim off the top?

The local Indian & Chinese (next door to each other) have been doing home deliveries for years, they use the same guy that delivers by (his?) car.

 

Some "restaurants" that advertise deliveries only don't have a shop, they are just ghost kitchens in portacabins, sometimes doing several types of food.

Different phone numbers for Indian, Chinese, Mexican etc.

[rockershovel]

49 minutes ago, melmerby said:

 

 

Some "restaurants" that advertise deliveries only don't have a shop, they are just ghost kitchens in portacabins, sometimes doing several types of food.

Different phone numbers for Indian, Chinese, Mexican etc.

 

Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. 

 

My kids had an instructive time, using Uber Eats while we were in Florida in January. I don’t think they’ll do that again! 

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

I heard they were panic buying the May Railway Modeller here in the Swansea Valley!  Managed to get mine (just the one!) yesterday

Oh no, that doesn’t bode well, could be the start of panic buying of model railway items as millions of Dads suddenly realise there might be something other to do than watch old reruns of Match of the Day 

[stewartingram]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Uber Eats has probably not taken off in the way the business hoped.  If they are "skimming" 35% as their "cut" I am not surprised.  I believe Deliveroo operate on a much lower take.  Just Eat often - but not always - relies upon self-arranged deliveries although one of their linked outlets we have used (and which does not have a contract with Deliveroo) uses a co-branded rider wearing a Just Eat tabard and using a Deliveroo back-pack.  Nice work if you can get it?  Those folk are paid little enough for a thankless and unsocial-hours job.  

Not Panic Buying related, but regarding the "branded workwear"....

When I was working on the tube as a contractor, one of my workmates changed his job to a new company. We often met up during jobs. I saw him open his wheelie toolcase once to get out his HiViz (mandatory whilst on the station for us). He actually had 8 - yes EIGHT - of them, each with different branding on them (also mandatory). Because the Underground was split into different groups (such as Tubelines), and the company had contracts with all of them (3 if I remember correctly), and his company was in alliance with other companies on certain of the contracts, he had a HiViz for each!

 

Stewart

[andytrains]

3 hours ago, melmerby said:

The local Indian & Chinese (next door to each other) have been doing home deliveries for years, they use the same guy that delivers by (his?) car.

 

Some "restaurants" that advertise deliveries only don't have a shop, they are just ghost kitchens in portacabins, sometimes doin g several types of food.

Different phone numbers for Indian, Chinese, Mexican etc.

Not a problem as long as they have to comply with the food standards that we are now, hopefully accustomed to. However I have recently seen a TV report that they are not.  So who knows. Hopefully somebody can shed some light on what standards they have to comply with.

[melmerby]

Our Asda delivery arrived with a couple of extra subs.

Sunflower Hearts bird food substituted with peanuts

Easy Cook Basmati rice which was already a substitute for ordinary Basmati Rice had been substituted with - Ordinary Basmati rice! (much to my relief)

 

Did get three heads of Broccoli instead of the one ordered - they must have a surplus

 

[Butler Henderson]

Re the self scan devices has anyone seen any store disinfect them or the self serve tills that you have to use. Find them very good at times of having a £x off £y spend voucher as you have a ready total of how much you spent. Had a number of  £6 off £40 spend ones for Sainbsburys last year and for example  I had totalled up just over £34 but did not need anything else a quick browse of magazines etc can easily mean the voucher total is achieved and the magazine etc is free,

[Mark Saunders]

16 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Re the self scan devices

 

I was In Sainsbury’s earlier and they now offer a self scan app to use as you shop according to their tannoy announcement!