Panic buying

[Gwiwer]

A walk out this afternoon and a second quick visit to the local shops proved sanitiser, bread, milk, toilet rolls and all other supplies were still in stock late into the afternoon.  They have more coming in daily.  Charging royally for sanitiser but everything else is normal.  They rely on local trade so are unlikely to hike prices to take advantage knowing we can always shop elsewhere.  Also no limits applied on anything except one bottle of sanitiser per person.  

 

 

[jjb1970]

Things seem a lot calmer here today, with shops slowly catching up.

[Mark Saunders]

Just now, jjb1970 said:

Things seem a lot calmer here today, with shops slowly catching up.

 

The things that are still missing is strange as now there is no bleach!

[JohnDMJ]

Went shopping earlier; never seen so many police in one place at a time!

 

3 hours ago, eastglosmog said:

Sadly all to true.  I have been shocked by some comments from people who seem not to have even the basics of cooking (like boiling eggs).  My mother taught me how to cook before I left home.  Whilst I am far from a good cook, I know enough to be able to mix the ingredients cook them and survive. 

In my day, schools only taught girls how to cook (domestic economy), so it was not much better then for boys.

(I also learnt some of the basics from reading Swallows and Amazons et seq.)

 

I used to cook Sunday Lunch for my parents; if I'd got it right, there as enough for me for the following week's lunches!

 

3 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

I've recently been attending Cardiac Rehabilitation following some major surgery a couple of months ago. As part of the course, we had a visit from a nutritionist who gave us an hour-long talk on how to read the labels on pre-prepared ready meals, at the same time telling us to only put low-fat spread, not butter, on our baked potatoes. Sod that for a game of soldiers....

 

I work on the basis that if it's a naturally based product, e.g. milk (even if converted to cheese or butter by 'natural' means), meat and vegetables, then we've been eating these for centuries without these problems. It's only latter-day technology that has screwed us up!

[Metr0Land]

52 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

The things that are still missing is strange as now there is no bleach!

 

CV hangs around on hard surfaces - bleach cleans hard surfaces (other surfaces available)

[railroadbill]

Local shop within walking distance has new limit of 1 item of each product type per customer. That has meant they do have a drip feed of stock onto the shelves - we're just topping up that way.  Didn't go there today but told by a neighbour  there was some unpleasantness and aggression going on by "individuals" **   who felt it was their right to clear the shelves.  Hopefully that will be sorted.

Local e-mail group has started reporting on experiences at different supermarkets at different times, not too much stock but fewer queues and emptier car parks so perhaps it's getting better.  Help group round here as well to shop for those who can't get out.

Hope situation gets better for us all.

 

** insert description of choice here....

Edited March 21, 2020 by railroadbill

[Butler Henderson]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Not true.

Most thing keep at least 3 months, sometimes much longer, even then the time limit is more to do with taste & texture of the product rather than safety.

A lot of fridge products which can be frozen have a use within 1 month statement on them.

[cctransuk]

2 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

A lot of fridge products which can be frozen have a use within 1 month statement on them.

 

Just the producers covering their corporate a*ses.

 

If we believed everything printed on packaging we'd throw away more than we use!

 

If it's not green and moving of it's own accord, I usually eat it.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Trainshed Terry]

I went to the super market to get a few bits that I required, but when I got there half of the shelves where empty of products. So I went to the other supermarket and that was in the same situation, so I did not get what I needed.

 

I blame the national press and local, for the situation, as well the goverment has not handle the problem with due diligance and should have played down the effect regarding how things would be regarding the availabilty of foods and other items in the supermarkets.

 

If everyone just did there shopping as they would on a normal day there would not be shortages of certain products. For those people that have purchased more than they require is so selfish, it just makes me wounder how much food is going to wasted by those people that have brought more than the need and will end at the back of the cuboared and forgottan about in years or so time.

 

Me, personal I take it one day at a time as I live on my own, but there are things that I still have to buy when I need them.

 

Rant over.        

[gordon s]

Interesting maths....
 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1613304368826125&id=541157469374159?sfnsn=scwspmo&extid=nKsXHFVcXGLb8ebM&d=n&vh=e

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, Metr0Land said:

The again, west Wales has always been quite isolated from the rest of UK.

 

, and IMHO is all the better for it.

 

Mike.

[Bert Cheese]

I live literally next door to a Home Bargains store, and being day off on Wednesday thought I'd wander around early in the hope of picking up a 4 pack of loo rolls and perhaps half a dozen eggs along with the usual general bits to fill a hand basket...they open at 08:30 and I arrived there no more than a couple of minutes after.

 

The sight that greeted me was bizarre as only large 24 loo roll packs has been stocked overnight, and nearly everyone in the shop was already carrying one...I had no chance!

There were also several people with trolleys containing up to 9 of these 24 packs sauntering around, young & old alike...according to a mild confrontation I heard between two women its fine though as the bulk buyers are only doing it on behalf of the less fortunate...I had to stifle a laugh seeing the state of the hard faced cow with 216 rolls piled high saying this as I walked past on my way out empty handed (no eggs either...)

 

Better news on a return visit last night, the bogroll cage is still devoid of them but has been half filled with aluminium stepladders on discount...and I was lucky enough to acquire the last bar of soap on the shelf...quite manly too?

[Baby Deltic]

[DIW]

6 hours ago, AY Mod said:

I am trying to police, address and/or remove stupidity from these pages to reduce the likelihood of here being a source of reference for bad facts.

 

I would love to see punitive measures and prosecutions made against the most stupid such as whoever first posted fake images of troops moving into London with accomplice prosecutions for anyone who went on to share it. Even locally on a Facebook page someone posted "Heard in the Co-Op that they're closing Aldi", are they so stupid to not see the implications of their need to spout bullocks?

 

The answer then seems to fit such armchairs with ejector seats to remove them from the environment they're affecting.

 

Andy, I remember that you had a quotation in your signature line (a few forum iterations ago) along the lines of removing weapons from the hands of fools, and starting with typewriters. Considering that the keyboard is the modern version of the typewriter referred to at the time the quotation was made, the quotation seems to still be an applicable ideal!

 

[stewartingram]

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

So in a few months when hopefully this

has all calmed down , what will they do with an appliance that cost money to  buy , money

to run and more money to stock and is no longer needed ??????

 Chuck it down the tip. Probably. More money than sense. They will need the extra space in the garage for their new bigger SUV.

 

There again, they wouldn't put the SUV in the garage would they? Not able to be posers to the neighbours if they park it inside where no-one sees it.

 

Stewart

[melmerby]

One thing that seems to be a problem with home deliveries and was mentioned on the lunchtime briefing is that home deliveries are picked off the shelf not from stock before it hits the shelves.*

That means the products are put out and the public have their share before the pickers make up the home delivery orders.

Seems a bizarre way of doing it.

Just imagine Hattons et al getting a delivery from Hor/bach/dap putting them on the shelves for personal callers to take their pick before fulfilling pre-orders.

 

* all except Ocado that do it from a warehouse.

[Butler Henderson]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Just the producers covering their corporate a*ses.

 

If we believed everything printed on packaging we'd throw away more than we use!

Food marking standards;

"Show the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date

You must usually show either a ‘best before’ or a ‘use by’ date on the packaging or label of pre-packed food products.

Only show a ‘use by’ date where there is a safety issue with eating the food after this date." If there is no issue then Best Before should be shown.

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, railroadbill said:

Local shop within walking distance has new limit of 1 item of each product type per customer. That has meant they do have a drip feed of stock onto the shelves - we're just topping up that way.  Didn't go there today but told by a neighbour  there was some unpleasantness and aggression going on by "individuals" **   who felt it was their right to clear the shelves.  Hopefully that will be sorted.

Local e-mail group has started reporting on experiences at different supermarkets at different times, not too much stock but fewer queues and emptier car parks so perhaps it's getting better.  Help group round here as well to shop for those who can't get out.

Hope situation gets better for us all.

 

** insert description of choice here....

Was in my local shop who were ‘rationing’ to hear that the local warehouse that they use have let the public to buy items in  ‘outers’. As a result they will not be getting anymore stock. The shop ensured that an outer of twelve would be split between twelve people. I can’t understand the wholesalers policy.

Stange times,

Robert

[ejstubbs]

Quote from the Times business section today...
“In normal circumstances supermarkets determine how much they should order from their suppliers using algorithms based on the previous day’s takings.  However, one supermarket boss said that the bulk buying by shoppers had rendered those systems useless. ‘The buying behaviour bears no resemblance to anything any ordering algorithm would have expected.  We’re not giving numbers to suppliers, we’re telling them, “if you can make it we’ll take it “‘, one supermarket chief executive said!

[midlands]

45 minutes ago, melmerby said:

One thing that seems to be a problem with home deliveries and was mentioned on the lunchtime briefing is that home deliveries are picked off the shelf not from stock before it hits the shelves.*

 Morrisons pick their home delivery items from central warehousing not shops, one would presume the same warehouses that supply the shops. And afaik picked at night shift.

Edited March 21, 2020 by midlands

[pH]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

If it's not green and moving of it's own accord, I usually eat it.

 

My brother-in-law attended a formal banquet in South Korea. You would not have eaten the seafood course. 

 

It was on a bed of red cabbage, which contains an acid/base indicator compound. As it moved across the red cabbage, it left a different-coloured trail.

[JohnDMJ]

 

 

46 minutes ago, melmerby said:

One thing that seems to be a problem with home deliveries and was mentioned on the lunchtime briefing is that home deliveries are picked off the shelf not from stock before it hits the shelves.*

That means the products are put out and the public have their share before the pickers make up the home delivery orders.

Seems a bizarre way of doing it.

 

* all except Ocado that do it from a warehouse.

 

I was going to mention Ocado but then re-read the post. However:

47 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Just imagine Hattons et al getting a delivery from Hor/bach/dap putting them on the shelves for personal callers to take their pick before fulfilling pre-orders.

 

Two out of three ain't bad!

[Steamport Southport]

4 minutes ago, midlands said:

 Morrisons pick their home delivery items from central warehousing not shops, one would presume the same warehouses that supply the shops. And afaik picked at night shift.

 

Morrisons use Ocado though. 

 

Unfortunately they missed a trick, they should have called it Van Morrison...

 

 

 

Jason

[railroadbill]

Morrisons worth a try then, if delivery slots available. Tescos pick home deliveries from shelves. We've got our first Tescos delivery due tomorrow, ordered 1 week ago. order has already dwindled...  We can't book another slot with them, system always says none available.  My daughter, who always gets home deliveries from Sainsburys, having 2 small children etc can't now book a delivery either.  She's an NHS key worker so no time to go chasing round loads of shops.

We shall see.

[newbryford]

Did the required panic buying of paint at the DIY shed earlier.

We're now the proud owners of two tins of paint and a pack of brushes (I stockpile rollers as a matter of course)

As an aside, I panic bought 4 new LED tubes for the slightly dim fluo fittings in my shed, as it's likely I'll be spending more time in there in the coming weeks - provided I'm not using the above mentioned paint,

TBH, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be, given conversations earlier in the day whilst I was practising social distancing outside doing something recommended by the Governments Chief Health advisor. 

 

On the way home from the essential paint collection, a visit to Tesco as we actually needed food and a few other provisions.

Time of arrival - 4pm Saturday. Not looking at all busy - probably because of earlier raiding parties,

As Mrs NB and Junior NB did the real shopping, for amusement, I wandered around looking at which shelves were empty or full. 

Some items of note:

I admit to not looking down the TR aisle as our as yet unopened 9-pack will suffice for a few days.

Plenty of eggs - of the chocolate and Creme variety. None of the chicken type.

Bread - virtually zero white bread, some brown/wholemeal and loads of bread with seeds and other lumps in.

Flour - all gone. I expect lots of entries for GBBO next series as everyone has been practising (not)

Loads of flowers for Mothers Day - nobody was stocking up on them as the panic buyers must have no parents.

No onions - except of the red variety, plenty of other fresh produce except potatoes and low stocks of oranges.

Very little meat - minimal chicken and plenty of the pre-packed stuff - especially the "Tesco Premium" range. Which is really quite good compared to some of the water-and-other-chemical-filled cheap stuff)

Plenty of milk, but very little cheese.

Specialist foods - e.g. Asian and Polish - empty (Blackburn has a high population of both)

No beer or lager - except for a few bottles of "real" ale - but that didn't worry me.

What did was the lack of vodka - except for a couple of premium brands. (Lucky I stocked up last night at my local Spar)

The same was true of gin and the tonic shelves were completely bare.

Whisky - reasonable stock.

Red wine was low stock, but white seemed OK

Soft drinks - not too much full-fat Coke, but plenty of Diet (yuk) stuff.

Not a single bottle of flavoured water and s*d all cordial.

Cat food (we have 3) totally empty. (We don't normally buy any as we have a monthly repeat order from Amazon)

Gluten free and other "free from" shelves - full.

Crisps and snacks. Plenty of cheese n onion left......

Other foodstuffs - interesting to note that some more esoteric flavours were still on the shelves, standing out like the last kid being picked to play footy in the school yard

Lentil and Bacon soup for example.

I wonder if supermarkets will note this and realise that there is minimal demand for some products/flavours as they haven't been hoovered up by the brainless hoards.

 

There were others, but these were the ones I remembered.

Although we missed out a few items of our normal shop, we aren't going to go hungry.

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by newbryford