Panic buying

[teaky]

21 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Around here, milk has become a scarce item - both in the village shops and the supermarkets.

 

Yet TV reports today that dairy farmers are pouring milk away because it is not being collected from farms.

 

Something wrong there!

We live in the next county and, ironically, our milkman obtains his milk from a dairy in Herefordshire.

 

In case it is any use to you: https://www.bartonshamfarm.co.uk/

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Baby Deltic said:

I have a 16kw "whole house" standby generator, stocking up on a few extra bulbs would make sense.

[cctransuk]

Well - the Government priority list has certainly gone out to the supermarkets !!

 

Over the past 24 hours, my wife has been contacted by Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda; all keen for her to patronise them via a Priority Delivery slot.

 

It's nice to feel wanted!

 

John Isherwood.

[midlands]

9 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

Well - the Government priority list has certainly gone out to the supermarkets !!

 

Over the past 24 hours, my wife has been contacted by Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda; all keen for her to patronise them via a Priority Delivery slot.

 

It's nice to feel wanted!

 

John Isherwood.

heh, I knew it would catch on eventually.

[newbryford]

18 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Another week passed and supermarkets are still struggling in my neck of Surrey.

 

no milk, cheese, deli meats of any kind, very little alcohol and no chocolate, no oranges, strawberries...

 

But as side that they seem to be filled up on other goods supermarket was finally about 3/4 full.  Had my first celery in 2 weeks today. 
 

Butchers has come up good though.. steaks, pork, lamb etc.. its all there... its been bacon and sausage for a few weeks.

 

In short its getting better, still though I hear the local big supermarkets had 3 hour queues today, so i’m sticking to my philosophy of the smaller stores.. no queues there, though i’m missing Halloumi cheese, olives.. no source for them in a month.

 

I saw the BBC article about milk... I find it odd as the local stores in my area cant seem to get it and are still limiting to 1 bottle per customer visit, occasionally as today, running out... there must be two sides to this story..

 

 

Is it a southern thing?

Here in NE Lancs (just outside the Blackburn/Accrington/Burnley ribbon)

I must admit there's been a few empty shelves on some days - mostly tinned and pasta - but beyond that, I've always been able to get what we need.

Even at 5.30pm on my way home from work when I sort of expect that the shelves would be raped clean.

 

I have only queued to get in once - when I was getting fuel at a local Co-op/petrol station -and that was only about a half-dozen folk.

 

[jjb1970]

Not just Lancs, here in Milton Keynes the supermarkets are well stocked. The only thing we are struggling with is been sprouts.

Edited April 10, 2020 by jjb1970

[rockershovel]

I think the reports of big queues, are very much a “time of day” thing. I typically go during the day, or evening after 7pm and haven’t yet encountered long queues anywhere - never more than half a dozen or so. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

14 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The only thing we are struggling with is been sprouts.

 

It's not all bad then?!

 

Mike.

[rockershovel]

4 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

It's not all bad then?!

 

Mike.

 

I struggle with sprouts at any time

[jjb1970]

I love bean sprouts, I can eat a plate of them, good with things like laksa too.

[tomparryharry]

8 hours ago, melmerby said:

Just had an e-mail from Aldi stating that all restrictions on purchase numbers come off next week as the shelves are well stocked throughout the day and they will be extending opening hours.

 

Interesting. However, does that mean that we will still have to queue to get in?  I assume that will be the case. 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

Well - the Government priority list has certainly gone out to the supermarkets !!

 

Over the past 24 hours, my wife has been contacted by Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda; all keen for her to patronise them via a Priority Delivery slot.

 

It's nice to feel wanted!

 

John Isherwood.

We live in hope then....

[melmerby]

20 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

 

Interesting. However, does that mean that we will still have to queue to get in?  I assume that will be the case. 

Yep.

Social distancing and queuing is the order of the day.

[Baby Deltic]

43 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I love bean sprouts, I can eat a plate of them, good with things like laksa too.

A plate full of sprouts is Laksa-tive.

[Rivercider]

25 minutes ago, tomparryharry said:

 

Interesting. However, does that mean that we will still have to queue to get in?  I assume that will be the case. 

My impression is that, despite whatever the weather might be, queuing outside in the fresh air is much preferable to congested aisles, and then a longer queue for the checkout inside.

Numbers are restricted in the store where I work. This morning was obviously not a typical bank holiday, but after the initial opening queue came in after the 08.00 opening there was then no queue (in contrast to yesterday).

 

cheers

[adb968008]

I got halloumi cheese today, tons of it...local Turkish deli has so much of it they were selling them in bags of 4, got my olives, oranges, strawberries too. Its close to the station, but as no one rides trains they've gone quiet.

 

Drove past sainsburys, car park half closed with a queue around 50-60 deep snaking around it.. 5pm today.

 

I think the problem is population density in the area, people dont want to venture to the larger out of town stores (Purley way in our case used to be the mega-draw for the populous for a 15mile radius at least). I think people are staying closer to the smaller stores in the various villages of Zones 3-6. However with So many people in the London suburbs, no longer commuting & eating lunch in London daily, plus having kids at home too its making the more local stores much busier than they used to be, and storage not being designed for the demand, they are running out very often.

 

Although ive not now been into London since end of Feb, (ive been a “home office type” since 1998). i’m guessing those supermarket “locals” around Bank, Liverpool st etc are probably over stocked but deserted.
 

whilst its slightly more expensive local grocers, butchers and then the reasonable local Asian,Polish and Middle Eastern shops seem to be the best equipped.

I spoke to one guy at the butchers, he said it was a 90 min queue to get into his local Tescos.

 

speaking to my mother near Bolton, her stores are wanting for nothing throughout this so far, everything is there on demand, “ever since the war” in her words (and she means WW2), but then in her village, an 8am-6pm working day, plus a 1 hour commute either side was never part of its culture either, unlike this area of London, so supermarket demand there is probably unchanged.

 

I do suspect hundreds of thousands of Londoners will be reevaluating the commute vs work from home following this, as will many of those locked up in Londons blocks of flats maybe looking for something more open and remote after this is over.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by adb968008

[Hroth]

17 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

I think the problem is population density in the area, people dont want to venture to the larger out of town stores (Purley way in our case used to be the mega-draw for the populous for a 15mile radius at least).

 

It might also be that folk are concerned that they'll be pulled up by over-enthusiastic rozzers wanting to know why they're so far from home.  Anything over four or five miles might be viewed as suspect!

[Butler Henderson]

15 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I think the reports of big queues, are very much a “time of day” thing. I typically go during the day, or evening after 7pm and haven’t yet encountered long queues anywhere - never more than half a dozen or so. 

Would have agreed until Thursday evening; was going to go to Aldi c 7.30 but a queue around the car park - could it have been Thursdays Special Buys everyone was after? So went to Asda instead and walked straight in, no sign of their claimed cleaning station and somewhat annoyed that the staff member controlling access to the store was stood right next to a trolley bay,  as with the local Aldi and Waitrose could quite easily have been wiping trolley handles. In store the problem arose quite quickly of staff ignoring the 2m rule so I did partially panic buy in buying in triplicate items that I can only get in  Asda in order to avoid having to go in the place again for some  time.

Realising what was sold out in Asda, notably the only toastie bread I can eat, and the fact  I would have to get it either on Good Friday or Easter Monday I went to Morrisons early yesterday morning and had to queue for half an hour to get in. No cleaning of anything taking place - collect trolley from car park said a big sign. Not having a pound coin I fortunately found a unlocked trolley. In store staff were better behaved than in Asda but I was slightly bemused at three staff members individually stocking different parts of the same aisle, two opposite each other. They had a queue in store for the checkouts weaving through the clothing section. The problem was getting out of the store as exiting customers clashed with those coming in due to the queue of incoming customers being across the store front rather than across the front of closed kitchen showroom next door.

M&S this morning seemed to have abandoned cleaning self service tills, no else locally seems to be doing that anyway; I watched someone using a self service till in  Waitrose, they had a problem so a staff member corrected the issue using the screen, used again by a the customer and the another customer directed to it

[spikey]

8 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

... Realising what was sold out in Asda, notably the only toastie bread I can eat, and the fact  I would have to get it either on Good Friday or Easter Monday I went to Morrisons early yesterday morning and had to queue for half an hour to get in ...

There is only one toastie bread you can eat?  Sorry, but I'm not familiar with "toastie bread", so I'm now wondering what's special about this particular one.

 

(Yes, I know I should get out more or perhaps get a television, but I can't do the former for the time being and I don't want to do the latter.)

[rockershovel]

I’ve noticed the same issue with self-service screens. Ridiculous. 

[kevinlms]

5 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

Would have agreed until Thursday evening; was going to go to Aldi c 7.30 but a queue around the car park

I had to queue for the first time to get into my local Woolworths supermarket here in Oz on Thursday evening.

 

It took all of 90 seconds to get in and the trolley handle was freshly wiped, because it was still damp! Hand sanitiser offered and taken. I did wonder how many hours they have been using the same cloth, to clean the handles, but I guess best not to think too much about that!

[Reorte]

27 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I had to queue for the first time to get into my local Woolworths supermarket here in Oz on Thursday evening.

 

It took all of 90 seconds to get in and the trolley handle was freshly wiped, because it was still damp! Hand sanitiser offered and taken. I did wonder how many hours they have been using the same cloth, to clean the handles, but I guess best not to think too much about that!

 

The first time I went after they'd started doing all of this they gave everyone a cloth to wipe the trolley with and a bin for them. The second time they were wiping thr trolleys themselves but I didn't notice if they were reusing cloths. But if the cloth is sufficient to disinfect anything it wipes surely nothing's going to be lingering on it anyway? Then it's just a case of whether they're lasting long enough or not.

[Butler Henderson]

9 hours ago, spikey said:

There is only one toastie bread you can eat?  Sorry, but I'm not familiar with "toastie bread", so I'm now wondering what's special about this particular one.

I have a medically diagnosed allergy to wheat so I cannot have normal bread but only that made with rice flour etc not wheat flour. There is only one such toastie bread available as far as I am aware and locally to me it is only stocked by Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys. I make my own bread for sandwiches but to date I have failed to make one that toasts successfully.

 

4 hours ago, Lantavian said:

 

I don't touch screens directly. I use a key. Ditto lift buttons.

Hadn't thought of a key, had been digging out the drawers looking for one of those touch sticks for mobile phone keypads. Subsequently a issue with normal tills occurred me, putting the next customer bar on the conveyor. Then again there is the freezer and possibly fridge doors, and the hand scanners that some people use.

[Reorte]

2 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Hadn't thought of a key, had been digging out the drawers looking for one of those touch sticks for mobile phone keypads. Subsequently a issue with normal tills occurred me, putting the next customer bar on the conveyor. Then again there is the freezer and possibly fridge doors, and the hand scanners that some people use.

Those bars weren't needed the last time I went to Tesco, they had a queue down one aisle and a member of staff sending people on to the next free till. Most seemed to realise that they could pick whatever they needed in that aisle whilst in the queue.

[pH]

3 minutes ago, Butler Henderson said:

Subsequently a issue with normal tills occurred me, putting the next customer bar on the conveyor. Then again there is the freezer and possibly fridge doors, and the hand scanners that some people use.

 

Some of the supermarkets here have removed the dividers. You just leave a space, and the checkout person will ask to make sure where your groceries end and someone else's start.

 

About fridge and freezer doors - I take a wipe into the store and use that on handles.