Panic buying

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

An interesting development at the small village CoOp I'm currently using.

If one of the staff gets the virus the shop closes so all the other staff can self isolate.

 

Mike.

[kevinlms]

10 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

Why is it inevitable, the stores could be arranged with a one way flow and if staff need to contraflow for stocking purposes that bit closed for the duration. At normal times most stores seem capable of rearranging their aisles to force customers to have to look for what they want in the hope people will buy other things as well so why not now when it would be socially appropriate.

Some supermarkets have narrow aisles, larger stores are much more generous and plenty of rooms for 2 trolleys to pass easily. Much easier to use common sense and pass each other quickly.

[kevinlms]

I reckon they should bring back the stocks for these sort of crimes!

 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/man-charged-with-stealing-hundreds-of-rolls-of-toilet-paper-from-sydney-supermarkets-20200328-p54er9.html

[rockershovel]

8 hours ago, Rivercider said:

Tesco no longer stock the plastic wrapped 4 packs of beans, to reduce single use plastic,

 

cheers

 

Presumably it’s entirely fortuitous that four cans costs more than a pack of  four? 

[Rivercider]

31 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

Presumably it’s entirely fortuitous that four cans costs more than a pack of  four? 

Dunno. I only buy the things. Stacking bananas on shelves is my area of expertise!

 

cheers

Edited March 28, 2020 by Rivercider
Additional info

[spikey]

9 hours ago, melmerby said:

I registered with Ocado some days ago but a couple of days later got an e-mail saying they wouldn't serve new customers.

So why did they let me register?

 

They did it to annoy you.

Edited March 28, 2020 by spikey
the inevitable typo

[jonny777]

11 hours ago, melmerby said:

I registered with Ocado some days ago but a couple of days later got an e-mail saying they wouldn't serve new customers.

So why did they let me register?

 

Because they were greedy at first, and saw new registrations as guaranteed extra profits, and then demand exceeded supply and they just started running around like headless chickens not knowing what to do. They were full of themselves when they thought they were in for a bumper sales year, but since the lockdown meant everyone could be online at once they have clammed up completed and are desperately trying to keep their online system collapse a secret (and yet us long term Ocado customers can tell they have a massive problem which they are failing to cope with). 

 

They are now trying to cover their incompetence (that is what I firmly believe this is - because other food retail outlets seem to be 80-90% back to normal) by suggesting they are closed to their most loyal long term customers purely because they are concentrating on those who need food the most, evidence for which seems in very short supply. 

 

Heaven knows what the senior managers of M&S are thinking, as they watch their £500m investment partner thrash around in a swamp of their own making. 

[Jonboy]

Are Ocado still under capacity from the fire that took out one of their warehouses last year?

[jonny777]

5 minutes ago, Jonboy said:

Are Ocado still under capacity from the fire that took out one of their warehouses last year?

 

I have no idea, but there were dire predictions in the media that all orders would be subjected to restrictions around the country. I am not supplied by that warehouse (Andover I think it was), but if I had not read of the fire I would have had no inkling that anything had happened. 

 

I had no missing items or substitutions after that event, even though I was expecting some. 

[Paul.Uni]

I have mentioned before that I work in a DIY store. I thought I'd let you know about the changes that have happened. The following is correct as of yesterday afternoon.

 

The store has not reopened for customers to enter and purchase items. It is unlikely to do so in the near future.

 

Customers can purchase essential items only from the website and collect them from the store car park during limited hours, my store is operating this system Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm and normal Sunday store times. It is taking up to four hours for orders to come through the system due to the high demand.

 

There should be a system in place for trade customers from today. I don't know the details.

 

If in doubt, please call your store first.

 

This week has been the toughest and most bizarre (for want of a better word) that I have worked.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Paul.Uni

[Hroth]

14 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Secret to defrosting is to put it in a saucepan of warm water. Much better than leaving it out on the worksurface or putting in the microwave at low setting.

 

I've just checked by defrosting a bottle of milk.  The best way I've found is to put the frozen bottle on the top shelf of your fridge and let it defrost slowly.  When you do it depends on how fast you go through a bottle (I use the "2 pint" size), but in general that will defrost in about 24 hours. And it should be as fresh as when you put it in the freezer.

 

The problem with using heat to defrost it is that it reduces how long the bottle will keep after defrosting, it'll tend to sour quite rapidly.

 

[woodenhead]

48 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

Because they were greedy at first, and saw new registrations as guaranteed extra profits, and then demand exceeded supply and they just started running around like headless chickens not knowing what to do. They were full of themselves when they thought they were in for a bumper sales year, but since the lockdown meant everyone could be online at once they have clammed up completed and are desperately trying to keep their online system collapse a secret (and yet us long term Ocado customers can tell they have a massive problem which they are failing to cope with). 

 

They are now trying to cover their incompetence (that is what I firmly believe this is - because other food retail outlets seem to be 80-90% back to normal) by suggesting they are closed to their most loyal long term customers purely because they are concentrating on those who need food the most, evidence for which seems in very short supply. 

 

Heaven knows what the senior managers of M&S are thinking, as they watch their £500m investment partner thrash around in a swamp of their own making. 

Sainsburys is only allowing online ordering from a list of registered vulnerable people at the moment so it's not just Ocado who have cut back on whom they supply.

 

The people who need to stay indoors for 12 weeks are those most in need followed by the elderly and vulnerable  so it shouldn't be surprising that ordering has been restricted.

 

I went out to the shops yesterday, with limits now set on what you can purchase shelves are beginning to show signs of recovery and I got food to go several days into next week before I venture out again.

 

I agree the supermarkets handled the situation badly to begin with and did look to be profiting on the dramatic increase in demand for some products which is shameful, but on the other hand, I doubt many companies have prepared for a pandemic situation - even internet giants like Google and Netflix have had to throttle their services given unprecedented demand for online activity.

[woodenhead]

22 minutes ago, Paul.Uni said:

 

Customers can purchase essential items only from the website and collect them from the store car park during limited hours, my store is operating this system Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm and normal Sunday store times. It is taking up to four hours for orders to come through the system due to the high demand.

 

 

Is an 8x4 sheet of 9mm ply cut into 12cm strips an essential.

 

It's certainly essential for me to complete a loop 

 

On the serious side, it is good to see that DIY companies are finding a way to serve people, there are still leaks to fix, wires to replace etc under a lockdown

[jonny777]

The difference with Ocado is that you can't even see what delivery slots are available (or not) until you reach their website, and this is where they have put their restrictions. 

 

In order to see if they have any delivery slots available you have to join a queue of 4 to 5 hours minimum, which has a habit of crashing half way through and returning you to the back of the queue. This is even the case if you have booked a date in advance, you still have to wait for 5 hours or more just to see if it has been cancelled and re-allocated to those 'in need'. There are no emails from the company to say 'sorry, we have given your slot to someone else'. You are completely in the dark until you reach their order page and remember there maybe upwards of 100,000 trying to do the same thing at the same time, as they are all just as poorly informed as I am. 

 

[Baby Deltic]

[DIW]

12 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Try this .....

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-litre-Isopropyl-Alcohol-Isopropanol-99-9-Cleaning-Multipurpose-5L/114154542678?hash=item1a94241656:g:TMsAAOSwPf1ebQKd

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

 

12 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Some of these cheap IPA deals seem suspect. (see feedback - there are similar others)

As I only use about 5litres per 3 years, I still have over 2.5 years to go.

 

12 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

I've used these suppliers before, and have just re-ordered; I recalled that my IPA container is getting low.

 

Nothing to lose - if they don't deliver, Paypal will refund me.

 

We'll see !!

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

 

Off-topic alert  

 

I ordered one of the IPAs when I had read John's second post; this morning I had an email from the vendor to tell me that the goods have been sent, and another from Ebay to tell me that they have taken down the listing, which includes a link to their refund instructions. So if it turns up, that's great; otherwise I'll be getting back my money anyway.

Ebay have removed the vendor from the site now. I wish that they were as quick to removed some of the buyers who gain a dishonourable mention in the Ebay threads.

 

 

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, DIW said:

 

..... this morning I had an email from the vendor to tell me that the goods have been sent, and another from Ebay to tell me that they have taken down the listing, which includes a link to their refund instructions.

 

 

 

Me too - we'll have to see whether we get the IPA or a refund; either way, no loss.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Baby Deltic]

[57xx]

37 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I agree the supermarkets handled the situation badly to begin with and did look to be profiting on the dramatic increase in demand for some products which is shameful,

 

Really, where have they been increasing prices to profit from the unprecedented demand from idiotic panic buyers?

 

If you want examples of profiteering, you need to look at the medical supply companies who have marked up their ventilators by 400%. THAT is profiteering/price gouging in a global crisis.

[Source]

[Baby Deltic]

5 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Me too - we'll have to see whether we get the IPA or a refund; either way, no loss.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

I use cans of Servisol IPA spray available from Rapid Electronics. Good for spraying your hands and packaging.

[Baby Deltic]

Just now, 57xx said:

 

Really, where have they been increasing prices to profit from the unprecedented demand from idiotic panic buyers?

 

If you want examples of profiteering, you need to look at the medical supply companies who have marked up their ventilators by 400%. THAT is profiteering/price gouging in a global crisis.

[Source]

Hopefully customers won't forget and will take their trade elsewhere once this is over.

[Butler Henderson]

Whether a previous comment I made was "stupid " or not but the issue of personal safety from CV19 in Supermarkets is highlighted on the BBC web page, and no doubt others,

"Supermarkets can provide an "ideal setting" for virus transfer, says Prof Sally Bloomfield, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "Many people are touching and replacing items, checkout belts, cash cards, car park ticket machine buttons, ATM payment buttons, paper receipts etc... Not to mention being in the proximity of several other people."  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52040138

At least Waitrose was taking matters far more seriously today compared to Sainsburys on Thursday with very very limited numbers of shoppers in store such that meeting another shopper was a relative rarity and enough alternative routes existed to maintain the 2m separation, compared to an inevitability, and the lad controlling access was disinfecting trolleys as he passed them to customers.  Not sure whether it was a result of the elderly and venerable first hour access but parts of the store were still devastated and there seemed to be a large number of staff on toilet roil purchase watch. Outside people were standing a c.4m apart so allowing people to pass between if necessary and it took around 25 mins to get into the store, cold and windy but at least I got in before the rain started which would have been very unpleasant. Did hear one shopper saying they had been to Asda where the queue was enormous and I suspect will get worse when it rains as it has a large covered car park for people to shelter in.

I did nip into M&S for some food allergy safe hot cross buns where the food hall remains open easily as has its own entrance and the checkout operator was donned with vinyl gloves and a mask, and was hoping to pick up a couple of magazines from WHS but they did open for another hour (10am) so ordered online with free postage instead.

[melmerby]

42 minutes ago, Baby Deltic said:

I use cans of Servisol IPA spray available from Rapid Electronics. Good for spraying your hands and packaging.

That's the only IPA they still have!

[Reorte]

44 minutes ago, Baby Deltic said:

I use cans of Servisol IPA spray available from Rapid Electronics. Good for spraying your hands and packaging.

 

How concentrated is it? Too concentrated isn't effective, needs to be 70% to be at its most effective, whereas when it's sold for electronics cleaning it's more likely to be 99% (which is more effective at cleaning electronics).

[woodenhead]

44 minutes ago, 57xx said:

 

Really, where have they been increasing prices to profit from the unprecedented demand from idiotic panic buyers?

 

If you want examples of profiteering, you need to look at the medical supply companies who have marked up their ventilators by 400%. THAT is profiteering/price gouging in a global crisis.

[Source]

They didn't profit from excess prices but they all let people run riot within their stores to buy as much as they liked when it all kicked off, the shortages were from allowing this not from any real shortage of supply.

 

They didn't anticipate what would come next or if they did they did not worry themselves as each sought to get the most out of fast restocking before the others.

 

The only things in this country in short demand at the moment should be medical capacity and medicines - the rest was caused by panic.

 

We're in the middle of a pandemic and we still have all our luxuries that people in real dire situations in the middle east don't have - running water, clean sanitation, electricity, heating, homes, IT, media and most important of all access to memes.