Panic buying

[Paul.Uni]

DIY store update.

 

I haven't been furloughed.

 

The store now has some vans to do home deliveries.

 

The shelves of the seasonal offers aisle have had the stock removed and is now full of smaller click & collect orders, with 13 other aisles full of trolleys with the larger click & collect orders.

 

Head office has decided to add more items that can be ordered on the website, resulting in longer pick times, a lack of trolleys & boxes to store the orders and customers wondering where there order is. I'm glad I wasn't in the car park or the person answering the phones today. Those who were in over the weekend said it was worse than today.

[melmerby]

5 hours ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

Ikea introduced the one way system years ago!

Except in their Birmingham* branch where you could wander around how you wish. I thought it was a most relaxed store.

However they only stocked carryable items, the larger ones (kitchens etc.) on display had to be ordered for delivery. No carry out!

I actually thought the quality for the price was quite good, better than many others at the same price such as Homebase or B&Q, but obviously definitely not up to the standard of bespoke stuff.

 

*Closed to be replaced by the HMV "Vault" superstore.

 

[Baby Deltic]

23 minutes ago, melmerby said:

So it can't catch any pigeons..........

Among other things...

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

 

In a similar vein we are required to deposit our recycling in skips along the road - up to 100m from home. None of us considers an essential waste recycling trip of that distance to constitute daily exercise nor is it shopping. A reasonable person will dispose of waste in the manner prescribed rather than allow it to accumulate for what may be months. 

I wish we had recycling skips, the recycling centres have closed to the public.

[Gwiwer]

1 minute ago, melmerby said:

I wish we had recycling skips, the recycling centres have closed to the public.

 

I saw that and wondered if ours would be emptied.  So far they have been emptied more often than is normal.  Which is good because they are filling faster than usual with everyone home and getting stuff delivered.

[LBRJ]

We have a big brown wheelie bin for bottles cans etc and today was collection day.

On my midnight exercise walk last night, the amount of them I passed there were full to overflowing would suggest that my bright idea of "home alcoholism" being the best way to combat the current crisis is not just my sole prerogative - Buying share in cheap white wine could be very profitable

[roundhouse]

Our skips in the car park are being emptied. Guess which one was fullest - the one full to the brim with wine bottles! Never seen it like that in the years that we have been going there.

 

On another note I felt really guilty today walking out of the supermarket with 6 food bags between me and my other half. However most are for Mum as shes confined to her home so cant go shopping and cant get deliveries even as a vulnerable person as they tell her that she doesnt meet the guidlines despite being 87. Her food supplies have been getting very low hence a large shopping list. Luckily got most things but no flower or eggs. I did get the 6 easter eggs that she wants for an ex nieghbours kids. The ex anighbour has also been helping to get Mum items that I haven't been able to get. Managed to get real eggs from a nearby corner shop.

Edited April 6, 2020 by roundhouse

[Baby Deltic]

1 hour ago, roundhouse said:

Our skips in the car park are being emptied. Guess which one was fullest - the one full to the brim with wine bottles! Never seen it like that in the years that we have been going there.

 

On another note I felt really guilty today walking out of the supermarket with 6 food bags between me and my other half. However most are for Mum as shes confined to her home so cant go shopping and cant get deliveries even as a vulnerable person as they tell her that she doesnt meet the guidlines despite being 87. Her food supplies have been getting very low hence a large shopping list. Luckily got most things but no flower or eggs. I did get the 6 easter eggs that she wants for an ex nieghbours kids. The ex anighbour has also been helping to get Mum items that I haven't been able to get. Managed to get real eggs from a nearby corner shop.

I walked out of the supermarket with six bags for myself today.

[Mark Saunders]

1 hour ago, LBRJ said:

We have a big brown wheelie bin for bottles cans etc and today was collection day.

On my midnight exercise walk last night, the amount of them I passed there were full to overflowing would suggest that my bright idea of "home alcoholism" being the best way to combat the current crisis is not just my sole prerogative - Buying share in cheap white wine could be very profitable

 

The cheap wine bubble will burst and only leave a hangover!

[LBRJ]

3 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

 

The cheap wine bubble will burst and only leave a hangover!

 

The amount of Sauvignon Blanc flying of the shelves does suggest that someone, somewhere is certainly having a few..

I sometimes like to have a bottle with instead of  to accompany dinner but only the one, whatever time dinner is taken

 

There is also a shortage of Malbec, but thats not really my thing, unless Im actually having a drink as opposed to a loosener...

 

In other news, it all more or less back to normal stocks at both the local shops.....

[rockershovel]

Interesting comments there on how changing to a primarily on-Line model, changes how a shop does business and organises itself. I could easily see a general shift to on-Line ordering becoming established, quite quickly; once those changes have taken place, the business will end to justify the cost and disruption of further reorganisation later. 

 

Currys and PC World went down that route a while ago and it seems to suit them, particularly given that they were hardly proverbial for customer service anyway. John Lewis seem to be struggling with it, their customers expect higher prices to be reflected in stock availability - my good wife has largely ceased to shop there, because she sees no value in ordering something on-Line THEN going to the store to collect it, and that seems to be a common problem for them. 

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

Interesting comments there on how changing to a primarily on-Line model, changes how a shop does business and organises itself. I could easily see a general shift to on-Line ordering becoming established, quite quickly; once those changes have taken place, the business will end to justify the cost and disruption of further reorganisation later. 

Twenty years ago, when on-line / home delivery supermarket shopping was still new, I remember being caught out when explaining this exciting new innovation to an older relative, as I couldn’t understand their lack of surprise.  
They pointed out that home delivery was nothing new, as it was how they’d grown up - you’d take your order into the local grocer, and they would have the order brought round to your house on the appointed day.

The shift to us customers doing more of the work was the innovation in a previous business cycle.

 

(My mind is now off wondering how young Granville would have coped with delivering bulk  panic buys on Arkwright’s bike...)

[alastairq]

34 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

(My mind is now off wondering how young Granville would have coped with delivering bulk  panic buys on Arkwright’s bike...)

 

Bakfiets?

[melmerby]

I see that the Health Workers at the NEC Nightingale hospital wont have queue up amongst the ravenous hordes for their supplies as included is a dedicated on site Tesco just for them.

[rockershovel]

9 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Twenty years ago, when on-line / home delivery supermarket shopping was still new, I remember being caught out when explaining this exciting new innovation to an older relative, as I couldn’t understand their lack of surprise.  
They pointed out that home delivery was nothing new, as it was how they’d grown up - you’d take your order into the local grocer, and they would have the order brought round to your house on the appointed day.

The shift to us customers doing more of the work was the innovation in a previous business cycle.

 

(My mind is now off wondering how young Granville would have coped with delivering bulk  panic buys on Arkwright’s bike...)

 

Well, exactly. My late mother had a weekly drop from the Co-op in the 1960s and 1970s, and didn’t regard it as anything unusual. She sent her sheets and pillowcases out to the Co-op laundry, too (anyone who remembers what a 1960s washday was like, will understand this..)

[Pete the Elaner]

I went out for my weekly shop today. I usually pop out 2-3 times a week before the lockdown.

Most shoppers were observing the 2 metre rule & allowing room for others to pass. A few were buggering about pondering over things, blocking the aisles or on an apparent go-slow at the checkouts, but these were the exceptions.

 

Meat, rice & pasta were all in stock. I don't need any toilet roll, even though I've not panic bought it. I never understood this.

The only thing out of stock worthy of note was flour. I'll look for it again next week.

No flour = no pizza base (I always make my own).

Pizza may be my favourite food but if that's all I am worried about shopping-wise, things can't be desperate.

[melmerby]

25 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

Well, exactly. My late mother had a weekly drop from the Co-op in the 1960s and 1970s, and didn’t regard it as anything unusual. She sent her sheets and pillowcases out to the Co-op laundry, too (anyone who remembers what a 1960s washday was like, will understand this..)

My dad used to have his shirts and (separate) collars laundered, the collars came back in a cake type box and were stiff with starch.

Quite why he had stiff collars I don't know as he was often involved in industrial work and getting filthy as well.

 

[LBRJ]

Not only was home delivery a regular service, so was the "mobile shop".

 

Even in the mid seventies we had at least weekly visits from a green grocer, bakery, and a sort of general grocer (who sold sweets! )

Thats not to mention the more usual ice cream van, coal man, soft drinks lorry and fresh fish man.

 

Thinking about it, you didn't really need to go to the shops that often, not that they were very far away if you did.

 

[rockershovel]

40 minutes ago, melmerby said:

My dad used to have his shirts and (separate) collars laundered, the collars came back in a cake type box and were stiff with starch.

Quite why he had stiff collars I don't know as he was often involved in industrial work and getting filthy as well.

 

 

It would have identified him as a supervisor or auditor of some kind, a badge of office - like the foreman’s bowler hat. It might also be the mark of a particularly senior tradesman - I had an uncle who was a machinist at Marshall’s in Cambridge, who worked on assembly of aero engines and wore a collar and tie under his brown dust coat.

[pH]

11 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

The shift to us customers doing more of the work was the innovation in a previous business cycle.

 

Thelwell noted that, many years ago:

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/zgYqjzMbMDEqGfyr5

[spikey]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

My dad used to have his shirts and (separate) collars laundered, the collars came back in a cake type box and were stiff with starch.

Quite why he had stiff collars I don't know as he was often involved in industrial work and getting filthy as well.

 

All things being equal, a separate collar properly starched and ironed by a laundry stayed clean longer than a soft collar, the surface being smoother and less porous. 

 

Incidentally, our younger reader will probably be surprised to learn that it was still possible to buy packs of "paper" (actually card) collars in Woolworths as late as 1962.  And of course collar studs, both front and back. 

 

And that's got me wondering.  When exactly did coat-style shirts take over from the over-your-head ones? 

Edited April 7, 2020 by spikey
Pedantry

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

 

Meat, rice & pasta were all in stock. I don't need any toilet roll, even though I've not panic bought it. I never understood this.

The only thing out of stock worthy of note was flour. I'll look for it again next week.

No flour = no pizza base (I always make my own).

Pizza may be my favourite food but if that's all I am worried about shopping-wise, things can't be desperate.

Luckily the one thing we can get is flour from our local farm/quay shop......they bake their own bread and we’ve been getting flour in unmarked plastic bags (probably illegal etc but we don’t care).....and guess what we had tonight.....

 

PIZZA.    Sorry Pete.......

[Butler Henderson]

Nipped to my local Aldi at half seven yesterday evening, a queue of one, everyone socially distancing and got everything I wanted. Think I might have bought the last pack of chicken breasts and noticed a solitary handwash on the shelf. Sufficient eggs and milk for half an hour before closing.

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

It would have identified him as a supervisor or auditor of some kind, a badge of office - like the foreman’s bowler hat. It might also be the mark of a particularly senior tradesman -

He didn't have any "tickets" or proper rank but was the most senior of the engineers who installed & serviced core drying ovens.

I went with him once during school holidays to one of the car factories in Coventry during works fortnight, I was employed as casual labour and got some nice top up to my pocket money.

I assume I was on the payroll as Mr A.N. Other.

I also got pretty grubby!

[kevinlms]

On 06/04/2020 at 19:13, jonny777 said:

 

My problem with Arla, is that it is a multi-billion € Danish business, similar in size to French owned Danone.

 

Why we cannot have large scale UK-owned dairy businesses is a mystery to me.  This is why I try to buy as much Yeo Valley product as I can (it helps that they are relatively local). Rachel's Organic used to be British (Welsh in fact) but have allowed themselves to be taken over by the French. 

 

I can buy Tom Parker products via the milkman, but try not to buy any farm products (except occasionally New Zealand lamb) which are not British owned. However, it is not easy sometimes. Why is it that the Europeans can make a success out of things we Brits seem unable to do? 

Exactly the same applies elsewhere. How many businesses around the world are now owned by European giants, especially in transportation? The industries get franchised out because 'it is more efficient', yet in many cases, the owners are foreign governments!

Makes zero sense for one government administration, to somehow be more efficient than another! Fact is, it isn't at all!