Panic buying

[melmerby]

2 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
Looking at supermarkets websites just now.From tomorrow,Tesco has a slot from 9:00-10:00 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for the elderly and vulnerable and Sainsbury’s from 8:00-9:00 on same days.

That's useful news, thanks

I did pop in a Sainsbury's last Thursday but came out empty handed.

No milk, no fresh fruit, no frozen veg, but it was after lunch time.

 

 

[Butler Henderson]

9 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

The medical authorities tell us if you have a suspected coronavirus issue or need medical assistance then call the hotline. 

Actually the NHS is asking people to use the web service and only to call if online help cannot be accessed

 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Butler Henderson

[tomparryharry]

I'm off do do some shopping today, wish me me luck!

 

I'll try to get a loaf from Asda, some bacon from Sainsburys, some milk from Tesco, and from Lidl, a Peruvian road atlas.....

[Mark Saunders]

7 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

I'm off do do some shopping today, wish me me luck!

 

I'll try to get a loaf from Asda, some bacon from Sainsburys, some milk from Tesco, and from Lidl, a Peruvian road atlas.....

 

Its like the Christmas tin of sweets you can tell what is unpopular by what is left behind!

[Ian Hargrave]

5 minutes ago, melmerby said:

That's useful news, thanks

I did pop in a Sainsbury's last Thursday but came out empty handed.

No milk, no fresh fruit, no frozen veg, but it was after lunch time.

 

 

 
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.

[TheSignalEngineer]

29 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Australian supermarkets have been doing exactly that for over a week. In fact AFAIK the idea was started by a small country supermarket in Australia. 

I used our local M&S food shop last Friday. First hour wrinklies only, shelves almost all had some stock, main shortage was bread flour, but loads of bread. Manager on door deciding who got in, no more than about 20 when I went round.

This week it's Mon/Thurs wrinklies, Tues/Fri NHS etc.

[Matt C]

8 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!

 

But in most cases now they booked a delivery 2 or 3 weeks ago so are you happy to wait outside the Supermarket for 2 weeks while the staff pick orders placed 2 weeks ago ?  

[AY Mod]

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

to see who would read the entire post. If you made it, please copy, paste, sit back, and enjoy.

.....

I don’t normally post things like this, but it had me laughing so much. Hope someone else does too.

 

I don't have a problem with the joke but the phrases left in the quote make my skin crawl when I see them on Facebook (I really do not want to see proliferation of that phraseology on RMweb); there's no need to tell people they should share stuff - I think they know how to do that so it just comes across as needy attention seeking.

[TheSignalEngineer]

3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

“.. every smooth sheet..” HAHAHAHAOUCH...

 

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

[Butler Henderson]

  

13 minutes ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
Looking at supermarkets websites just now.From tomorrow,Tesco has a slot from 9:00-10:00 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for the elderly and vulnerable and Sainsbury’s from 8:00-9:00 on same days.

And which is bound to be abused as how can staff tell who is vulnerable or not. Got another email from Sainsburys today saying how they are dealing with the matter, great for NHS staff if they are actually free at the time or the elderly it seems but for anyone like me with a food allergy its just pray and hope what is on the shelves is safely edible. The supermarkets generally need to up there game, if something is out of stock and they are actually taking online orders offer a choice of cancellation, alternative (which is normally no go for anyone with a food allergy as they supply anything regardless of its contents) or to follow when in stock - you would not be happy if Hattons for example supplied you with a 71 when you had ordered a 85 but that is basically what supermarkets seek to do. And why can they not have some indication of approx. stock levels in stores showing - they know how much they have/had and how much they have sold and it would be simple to add after the quantity in store xx sold in the last hour. At some point in the near future I am going to have to trek across town in the hope that Sainsburys has some gluten free brown bread flour (I always make my bread, its not a CV9 thing, and one loaf is about is emerge from the bread machine) being the only local store that stocks it but it would be nice to know  whether the trip is pointless before setting out otherwise its online ordering of it which is expensive due in particular the postage. There seems to some local arrangement between the stores that if one of them sells a particular GF product the others do not.

On the subject of on line orders being picked off the shelf I can understand why that happens as the goods are moved in bulk to the shelves and then unboxed. Given on line purchasers have already paid for the goods it does seem unfair that they are not guaranteed to get then and it surely should be simple enough to have a record of how many have been ordered at the time of unboxing and to return those back to the store room which would be safer CV9 wise  for those collecting the ordered goods rather than wandering around the store.

Have yet to see any of stores provide any wipes or sprays at self service checkouts which are impossible to use even doing a contactless payment without touching screen where dozens of people already have. Some are more annoying than others by flashing up a message "card payments only do you want to continue" requiring a further touch of the screen when that could be resolved by the screen defaulting to a screensaver with Card Payments Only on it - Scan first item to continue and others requiring a further touch of the screen to get a receipt - suggest if they are giving the option it should be the otherway round.

  

[GWR-fan]

39 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Actually the NHS is asking people to use the web service and only to call if online help cannot be accessed

 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

 

  

 

 

 

Maybe that is appropriate in the UK as we do not have the NHS in Australia.  I am referring to the local situation as not everyone on this forum lives in the UK.

[kevinlms]

51 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

That's still online shopping for the vulnerable then. Yes, it would rely on some degree of honesty and there are people who'd abuse that but it should help.

Agreed, any anger should be directed at selfish hoarders, they are the ones who have created the problem. Most of the world has excellent supply chains and there is plenty of product, to be had if everyone did their normal shops and a little extra.

 

Fantastic if it's true, that online shopping and delivery is going to be reserved for those most in need.

I've read of people spending an hour on the phone (phone used because the website kept coming up as below the minimum), trying to get the minimum spend for a home delivery. It takes ages, because some of the selected products, suddenly becomes out of stock (while still on the phone!) and falls below the minimum again!

 

It's a vicious circle and reasonably able bodied people shouldn't be using the service.

[Baby Deltic]

A new trolley for Mr & Mrs Aerosol:

Edited March 22, 2020 by Baby Deltic

[woodenhead]

41 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

I don't have a problem with the joke but the phrases left in the quote make my skin crawl when I see them on Facebook (I really do not want to see proliferation of that phraseology on RMweb); there's no need to tell people they should share stuff - I think they know how to do that so it just comes across as needy attention seeking.

Those types of post are just like the old pass it on chain letters - it's just people spreading rubbish and some of the posts are so long.

I can't believe how many people still share them.

[Mark Saunders]

Currently unable to perform miracles as it was impossible to buy the five loaves!

[Jonboy]

@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.

[jonny777]

10 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Those types of post are just like the old pass it on chain letters - it's just people spreading rubbish and some of the posts are so long.

I can't believe how many people still share them.

 

I wouldn't even describe it as a joke. I didn't find it funny. 

[57xx]

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.

[Jonboy]

At our local Tesco admittance for the early shop is with NHS ID card only.

[Reorte]

4 minutes 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.

Did everyone in that queue know about it?

[polybear]

34 minutes ago, Baby Deltic said:

A new trolley for Mr & Mrs Aerosol:

 

....and an ideal shape so you can shove it right their.....

[polybear]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

I don't have a problem with the joke but the phrases left in the quote make my skin crawl when I see them on Facebook (I really do not want to see proliferation of that phraseology on RMweb); there's no need to tell people they should share stuff - I think they know how to do that so it just comes across as needy attention seeking.

 

Personally I didn't find it funny - about half way thru' reading it I was so wound up that I could imagine myself in deep, deep do-do if someone played a stunt like that on me in real life.

 

[jjb1970]

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. 

[MarcD]

Just got back from our local coop. Went in for cornflour, frozen spinach, toilet rolls and hot cross buns. I got the last 4 toilet rolls cornflour. all the hot cross buns gone and no frozen veggies. 

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:

 
Looking at supermarkets websites just now.From tomorrow,Tesco has a slot from 9:00-10:00 on Monday/Wednesday/Friday for the elderly and vulnerable and Sainsbury’s from 8:00-9:00 on same days.

I have found that first thing in the morning, isn't necessarily the time when the shelves are most full.

 

It depends entirely on when a delivery truck turns up, they for reasons that should be obvious, they can't be all overnight. One day last week, I was in the supermarket at around 4pm, when they roped off a section and brought out several trolley loads of fresh chicken, plain and flavoured. Only chicken, the rest of the meat section was bare. Next day, there was a fair bit of beef and pork.

 

The only way of knowing when shelves are going to be restocked, I suppose, is to have a shift of volunteers near the loading dock and send a text message to family & friends! Obviously you won't know what is in the truck, but you will know if its a standard truck or a refrigerated one.