Panic buying

[big jim]

Whereas a petrol station near me that is also a Sainsbury’s local still had stacks of large free range eggs going cheap (no jokes) as they are near their date, 40p for 1/2 dozen, got to be 30 or so boxes worth 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, ejstubbs said:

 

I found exactly the same situation in my local Sainsbury's again today.  I was going to M&S anyway so thought I'd be able to get six large there.  No luck: exactly the same inadequate choice as Sainsbury's, just a smaller acreage of shelf.  Passed Tesco on the way home, no queue so thought I'd pop in there to see.  Same again.  No queue at Aldi either: they had boxes of six large but they weren't free range - the boxes specially said that they were laid by caged hens (although I thought that was illegal now in the UK?)  Last stop: Morrisons.  Can't see the car park or store entrance from the road but drove in to have a look anyway.  No queue.  Plenty of free range eggs in all size options including large.

 

So five supermarkets within roughly a mile radius and, while there were eggs on the shelves in all of them - and in some cases an overabundance of eggs, only one of the five had boxes of six large free range eggs.

 

I remain puzzled.

I mentioned this about supply when the lockdown first happened, the farm was in talks with U.K.GOV about a month before the lockdown and it was agreed we grow just the popular and easy, fast growing varieties.......we stopped supplying he less popular more “specialised” varieties to enable better distribution and packaging to apply.

 

Most likely the same for eggs, not sure we are purely arable.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

No panic, and during the trolley acquisition process Megan (age 3) made a point of telling me I had purple trousers. (She now knows they are shorts, well, I suppose there's a possibility she might remember.)

 

However Kleenex appear to have repackaged all their nasal product catching accessories, so that the specific item my wife requires is now either not available or so well disguised as to be unrecognisable. Perhaps I'll succeed in converting her to 'cutting edge' brand bog roll for the purpose.

[Nick C]

Our local butcher has eggs back in normal quantities now, and much better quality than the supermarket ones too - you can tell by the colour of the yolk (or at least my wife can, I'm not a huge egg fan)

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

No panic, and during the trolley acquisition process Megan (age 3) made a point of telling me I had purple trousers. (She now knows they are shorts, well, I suppose there's a possibility she might remember.)

 

However Kleenex appear to have repackaged all their nasal product catching accessories, so that the specific item my wife requires is now either not available or so well disguised as to be unrecognisable. Perhaps I'll succeed in converting her to 'cutting edge' brand bog roll for the purpose.

I'd would have thought that 'cutting edge' is probably not a positive quality in toilet paper..

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

At least you saw the joke...

[spikey]

10 hours ago, Nick C said:

... much better quality than the supermarket ones too - you can tell by the colour of the yolk ...

Eggs with a strong-coloured yolk and a brown shell have long been perceived as tasting better.  Breed comes into it to some extent, but the main factor influencing yolk colour in hens' eggs is actually what they're fed on, and where supermarket eggs are concerned that usually means whether or not their feed has colourants in it.  Can't  remember what the artifical ones are, but marigolds and turmeric are the main natural ones.

 

BTW, I trust that your lady wife knows that in the UK, the "best before" date on the carton is 28 days after it was laid.

[Enterprisingwestern]

11 hours ago, Nick C said:

, I'm not a huge egg fan

 

Me neither, I prefer normal sized ones!

 

Mike.

[rockershovel]

12 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

I'd would have thought that 'cutting edge' is probably not a positive quality in toilet paper..

 

That would be Izal...

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, spikey said:

Eggs with a strong-coloured yolk and a brown shell have long been perceived as tasting better.  Breed comes into it to some extent, but the main factor influencing yolk colour in hens' eggs is actually what they're fed on, and where supermarket eggs are concerned that usually means whether or not their feed has colourants in it.  Can't  remember what the artifical ones are, but marigolds and turmeric are the main natural ones.

 

BTW, I trust that your lady wife knows that in the UK, the "best before" date on the carton is 28 days after it was laid.

These ones don't come in a carton, it's serve yourself from the big trays, so we re-use existing cartons repeatedly. Not that she pays much attention to best-before dates anyway, at least not for things where it's easy to tell if they've gone off!

[APOLLO]

16 hours ago, pH said:

In the 1970s, a young woman my wife worked with in Nottingham bought a green pepper for the first time. When she cut it open to use it, she took it back to the store because it was empty!

 

I remember a certain gasman in Warrington bought a packet of beef tomato seeds, planted and grew them. He fried them and put them with a plate of chips - and was mightily disappointed on sinking his teeth into the first tomato ----- "There's no beef in it" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

True or not the tale always made me laugh.

 

Brit15

[Matt C]

16 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

I found exactly the same situation in my local Sainsbury's again today.  I was going to M&S anyway so thought I'd be able to get six large there.  No luck: exactly the same inadequate choice as Sainsbury's, just a smaller acreage of shelf.  Passed Tesco on the way home, no queue so thought I'd pop in there to see.  Same again.  No queue at Aldi either: they had boxes of six large but they weren't free range - the boxes specially said that they were laid by caged hens (although I thought that was illegal now in the UK?)  Last stop: Morrisons.  Can't see the car park or store entrance from the road but drove in to have a look anyway.  No queue.  Plenty of free range eggs in all size options including large.

 

So five supermarkets within roughly a mile radius and, while there were eggs on the shelves in all of them - and in some cases an overabundance of eggs, only one of the five had boxes of six large free range eggs.

 

I remain puzzled.

 

 

It's been mentioned before, Eggs were NEVER in short supply (you don't switch the hens on and off from laying ) The problem was a shortage of egg boxes. I would think that as with lots of other ranges, most of the supermarkets cut down on the variety and different sizes to Speed up supply and cut down on shelf stacking time. Far faster to replenish a one size fits all stack rather than lots of different sizes/ varieties

 

For myself  I would find no Eggs at all much more 'Inadiquate' than a box of mixed sizes ?  

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

These ones don't come in a carton, it's serve yourself from the big trays, so we re-use existing cartons repeatedly. Not that she pays much attention to best-before dates anyway, at least not for things where it's easy to tell if they've gone off!

Well I hope they are least stamped?

[Hroth]

42 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Well I hope they are least stamped?

Messy..... 

 

 

Yes, yes, I know what you mean!!!

 

[boxbrownie]

37 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Messy..... 

 

 

Yes, yes, I know what you mean!!!

 

Well you never know eh? 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, Mattc6911 said:

 

 

It's been mentioned before, Eggs were NEVER in short supply (you don't switch the hens on and off from laying ) The problem was a shortage of egg boxes. I would think that as with lots of other ranges, most of the supermarkets cut down on the variety and different sizes to Speed up supply and cut down on shelf stacking time. Far faster to replenish a one size fits all stack rather than lots of different sizes/ varieties

 

For myself  I would find no Eggs at all much more 'Inadiquate' than a box of mixed sizes ?  

 

I asked the domestic commissariat about this. She said she would happily buy mixed-size eggs at the “right” price, by which she meant Medium Size, but not at the price offered. 

[ejstubbs]

4 hours ago, Nick C said:

Not that she pays much attention to best-before dates anyway, at least not for things where it's easy to tell if they've gone off!

 

"Best before" does not mean that the product will have gone off after that date.  It actually means what it says: after that date the product may have started to become stale or lose its flavour/texture/fragrance:

 

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-by-dates#best-before-dates-are-about-quality

 

It's the "use by" date (if present) that tells you that the food item might actually not be safe to eat after a given date:

 

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/best-before-and-use-by-dates#use-by-dates-are-about-safety

 

This stuff is mandated by the Food Standards Agency so food manufacturers are legally obliged to use the correct term when providing such information to customers.

 

"Sell by" has no statutory meaning: it was originally used by supermarkets for stock control purposes but you hardly see it these days since it conveys little or no useful information to customers.

[ejstubbs]

On 17/05/2020 at 17:33, rockershovel said:

I always look in the box first, before putting them in the trolley - apart from anything else, looking for broken ones.

 

I do that to check for broken eggs - after checking the exterior of the box for any obvious signs of leakage - bit I'd be less keen on doing it just to check the sizes of the eggs within.  Specifically so these days when people can be quite fussy about other folks taking stuff off shelves and then putting it back, due to a perceived risk of contamination.  If the box contains broken eggs then I'd be happy to put it back - perhaps at the back of a low shelf, with the lid open so others can see that there's something amiss with it - because no-one else is likely to want it anyway.  But rifling through multiple boxes looking for one with decent sized eggs in it might raise more than a few frowns, as well as causing me to spend more time in a place where social distancing is tricky enough to maintain at the best of times... 

Edited May 20, 2020 by ejstubbs

[melmerby]

I notice that Ocado still aren't allowing already registered, first time shoppers to do any shopping.

 

I'm getting a bit pee-ed off with Asda due to the number of OOS* stock items each time my shop is confirmed, so I thought I would go backand try Ocado

No luck, as I am not on their priority list I can't get into the log in page to do some shopping.

 

*As an example on three successive shops I have put some bread in the basket and it has gone OOS, so I choose an alternative and guess what? that went OOS also.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by melmerby

[boxbrownie]

I must admit to ASDA being the good boy in our scenario, we are due our second (recurring) weekly priority order tomorrow and so far while on the priority list OOS items haven’t been too bad (with the exception of Tom purée, cheers Mike ) , where as we had a email from Waitrose telling us we were now on their priority list last week, since then we have tried twice to find a slot without luck........Waitrose idea of priority is different from ASDA.......and this despite us being regular Waitrose online shoppers before Covid, and ASDA never!

[boxbrownie]

My reference to Mike (EnterprisingWestern) above is a bit cryptic but refers to a very kind gesture of a couple of tubes of Tom purée in the post out of the blue when I mentioned I couldn’t get any, there are some diamond blokes in this community 

[cctransuk]

18 minutes ago, melmerby said:

I notice that Ocado still aren't allowing already registered, first time shoppers to do any shopping.

 

I'm getting a bit pee-ed off with Asda due to the number of OOS* stock items each time my shop is confirmed, so I thought I would go backand try Ocado

No luck, as I am not on their priority list I can't get into the log in page to do some shopping.

 

*As an example on three successive shops I have put some bread in the basket and it has gone OOS, so I choose an alternative and guess what? that went OOS also.

 

 

Are you allowing substitutions?

 

If not, I'm not surprised that they may not have your chosen brand / type in the early hours of the morning, when these orders are picked.

 

Allow substitutions; and they will deliver the nearest available product to the one that you have selected; and if more expensive, they won't charge the difference. You can reject the substitution on delivery for a refund, if you choose.

 

John Isherwood.

[Jonboy]

A neighbour had an item collected by Argos earlier today. It was a box about 5’ x 4’ x 6” . Up rocks a lorry, followed by a small plain van. Small van driver picks up the box in an effortless manner and lifts it into the lorry and they both depart. I assume this is how they they are handling two man deliveries to allow social distancing in the cab at least...

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Are you allowing substitutions?

 

If not, I'm not surprised that they may not have your chosen brand / type in the early hours of the morning, when these orders are picked.

 

Allow substitutions; and they will deliver the nearest available product to the one that you have selected; and if more expensive, they won't charge the difference. You can reject the substitution on delivery for a refund, if you choose.

 

John Isherwood.

I do for the items where differences are not an issue but some of the suggestions of alternatives when an item goes OOS are just not suitable

I don't want a chicken curry when I order a vegetable curry, I dont want a quiche lorraine when I order a cheese & onion.

Both those are their suggested alternatives when an item is OOS, there does not seem to be an option "Don't sub meat for veggie"!

 

We got coffee whitener instead of dried milk. They are not the same thing at all, even if they are both white powders.

We did get a refund and I'm trying to find someone to take it off our hands, none of my immediate neighbours uses coffee whitener

 

I've just had a great difficulty trying to get bread.

The chosen item went out of stock so an alternative, not too dissimilar was offered, then that also went OOS with no similar available I had to choose something completely different.

It'll be interesting to see what arrives.

 

We also went from Parmigiano Reggiano to Grana Padana to "Parmesan wedge" as each went ouit of stock

 

(N.B. I left it to 21 55 this evening to finalise the order, cutting it a bit fine.)

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by melmerby

[rockershovel]

I don’t think there can be any doubt that supply chains generally are still under considerable strain, and stock levels substantially below previous levels. I’d also formed a distinct impression that stock levels shown on websites are often reactive, rather than proactive with significant lags in updating of slow-moving items, or items which sell very quickly. 

 

I await the proposed re-opening of retail outlets with considerable interest, because I rather suspect that the combination of supply chain constraints and social distancing measures will prove a great disappointment to the managements concerned.