Shopping

[occupied99]

Well so much for Tescos advertised special hour for elderly and vulnerable from 9-10am. I got there this morning for 9 as did many others. The shop was full of people who had been shopping. There was nobody on the door monitoring things and no evidence of this time being for elderly and vulnerable. I heard a lady remonstrating with a member of staff who just said we'll we've been open since 6! Exactly so how did they plan on making that hour restricted and how were they planning on making sure there was actually food to buy. Ok some shelves were ok but no potatoes at all, no eggs, no toilet rolls. There were very limited supplies of cheese, fresh meat, bread, coffee. The veg section in the freezer cabinets was virtually empty, just a few Yorkshire puddings, chips, sweet potato wedges. Even the cat food shelves had been raided, mostly the expensive stuff left. So it looks like it will be back to plan A on Monday, get there for 6am and be prepared to queue outside and camp out in the aisles if the shelves haven't been stocked with the things I want. The other thing was the self scan wasn't working so I had to go back to the old queueing at the checkout and unloading my shopping into the conveyor belt then into my bags. The one good thing was that at the checkout they had a line in the floor to stay behind so that people weren't too close together. Of course we had all been closer than that in the queue!

That's what I was wondering,I thought are they going to make an announcement that people had to leave over the tannoy so the vulnerable people could have their time,it seems unworkable I have seen photos of queues of people outside the stores with many people waiting to enter,it must be a scrum when the doors open.
My friend has just popped to mine and showed me that he had managed to get fresh fruit from Morrisons

 

[jennifer1967]

went to tesco about 8-30 and got most of what i needed and the book i was waiting for so i couldnt get cheese but i got my book everything is ok in my world!!

 

[RosettaT]

I'm thinking of cancelling my Tescos order for next week as most of the items I require are out of stock as the last 2 deliveries have been. My order was reduced from £49.00 to £26.00 and then they had the cheek to add £4.00 delivery. I can do without what is left really as they are mainly things like herbs, air freshener etc but I'm not inclined to pay delivery for them.
I rang Tescos on Thursday to ask what they were doing to help the vulnerable and they said specific opening times and more delivery slots but that's no use when everything is out of stock and you can't drop back in 4 times a day. Lots have said many aren't taking note of the times for the vulnerable.

 

[occupied99]

I'm thinking of cancelling my Tescos order for next week as most of the items I require are out of stock as the last 2 deliveries have been. My order was reduced from £49.00 to £26.00 and then they had the cheek to add £4.00 delivery. I can do without what is left really as they are mainly things like herbs, air freshener etc but I'm not inclined to pay delivery for them.
I rang Tescos on Thursday to ask what they were doing to help the vulnerable and they said specific opening times and more delivery slots but that's no use when everything is out of stock and you can't drop back in 4 times a day. Lots have said many aren't taking note of the times for the vulnerable.

That's what I'm worried about,if I picked a date and it happened to be a month away from now which it may well be,you might get the delivery with hardly anything in stock and what you did have at home would be depleted

 

[Louise7]

There's a new BBC news item about the Government urging people to act responsibly when food shopping but I fear it will land on deaf ears: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51989721

I woke early today so ventured to Tesco's as it opened. Big mistake. I've never seen anything like it - the way some people were behaving The store opened one door first and it was clear that they were letting in key workers, who were showing their ID, but those at the front of the long main queue 'kicked off', with one woman loudly protesting that she had been queuing since 4am and why should others go in before her? When the main door opened people went running in and it was like a bad version of supermarket sweep with people piling things into trolleys seemingly without even looking at what they were buying. Absolutely awful. I was able to get some fruit & veg and fresh fish and there was also plenty of Quorn & veggie options available. I was out of there in 20 minutes as the tills were still empty because of the rampage that was going on but I'm not going back there again - will stick to the small local stores and manage with what I can get. Mum's care home went into lock down yesterday and we are in the process of selling her house. Her next door neighbour is 92 and I have offered to get her some shopping if I can but it's not going to be easy

I did see sign on the door of a charity shop this morning which raised a wry smile though - "Sorry, due to panic buying customers will be limited to just 20 items each"

 

[jennifer1967]

That's what I'm worried about,if I picked a date and it happened to be a month away from now which it may well be,you might get the delivery with hardly anything in stock and what you did have at home would be depleted

the shop managers need to read all the problems that have been written about on the shopping topic of the forum there doesnt seem to be any joined up thinking

 

[Ramblingrose]

My parents are self-isolating so I have to go shopping for them. I am also their paid carer via the direct payments scheme so I still have to go inside the house to help them. There's nothing else I can do being the only child. My mum is the one with dementia and keeps asking when they are going out. If we have explained the situation once we have explained countless times and two minutes later it is forgotten. What does upset me is the selfishness of some shoppers after trying to buy about three items yesterday. Shame on them.

 

[silkiest]

I have hated shopping this week. Trying to get food that 3 elderly people (2 with Alzheimer's) who are extremely set in their ways will eat is very difficult. Ive lost count of the number of shops I have been in - this cannot be good for the spread of infection.
My husbands friend in Italy says only a certain amount of people are let in the shop at any time and they are limited to baskets rather than trolleys to reduce the amount anyone can buy at each visit. This sounds a more sensible solution than people taking one or 2 trolleys and filling them with whatever the number limit is of whatever they can find.

 

[annielou]

We decided not to take mum with us to supermarket today as knew would be busy and not much left which would confuse her more than normal. We were glad we didn't when we got there as it was quite chaotic with lots of empty places and mum would have been more confused than normal. Lots of things were missing and we had to think of different things to make meals with to usual which will not be easy with mum who doesn't like lots of things and prefers to stick to same few things but also wants us to all eat same.
Quite a few things were limited per customer so as we were shopping for mum as well as us we had to split between us. There were no loo rolls, only a few packs of own brand tissues, no sanitary towels pantyliners, no paracetomol, no handwash, no potatoes, there was loads of fresh stuff missing, only a few bags of pasta, barely any tins, hardly any bread none of ones we normally buy, no teabags, not much pop or alchohol not that we were buying that, no bleach or disinfectant or antibacterial spray or wipes, barely any biscuits, mum has 3 hobnobs for breakfast and they had none but luckily hubby found some at local coop.
We were also glad not took mum when we got back as she was doing little coughs and told us she had a cold and hadn't slept much last night. She didn't mention it when we called before supermarket but has been coughing since came back. I hope it is just a cold.
We didn't know about it before we went and hadn't touched her and neither of us have any symptoms today but are with her everyday.

 

[Duggies-girl]

Well all of our charity shops are closed now for the foreseeable as I found out after I had carefully bagged up all of dads nice clothes for them. I finally decided to take them to the clothes bank at sainsbury's as I can't keep them in the car and they have to go somewhere.

Some clever person has seen fit to dispose of what looks like a magazine rack in the clothes bank and now it won't open or close so I had to drive to the leisure centre that is also closed but does have a working clothes bank so the clothes are now gone. Dad had some nice clothes and I hope they are of use to someone.

I have had to put all of dads nicknacks which I had carefully packed in boxes of bubble wrap in his garage for now but I can't keep them in there forever.

It's very disheartening.

 

[MaNaAk]

I finally bought eggs and I have just cooked egg curry with my dear dad's recipe. I wonder mum and dad would have thought of this. I miss them so much.

MaNaAk

 

[nitram]

I wonder mum and dad would have thought of this.

It could bring back memories of

a dozen eggs outside of your egg ration if you were lucky enough to find some.
Part of lend lease.

 

[Moggymad]

I hate shopping at the best of times. My partner is so sick of the madness he is getting quite anxious about it & is refusing to go. For the last 3 weeks neither of us have seen any toilet rolls at all. I refuse to join in with the panic buying & find my normal shopping list is getting longer & longer due to unavailability. I suppose if I was prepared to travel around various shops at ridiculously early times I could find a few more things but I just can't drag myself out to do that. What I can't get I will do without.
I live in a village & our local shop doesn't have much stock. The butchers didn't have any chicken or mince of any sort, mostly just sausages & is moving on Monday to new premises some distance away.
As someone above has suggested I think not only should items be restricted in number I also think the big trolleys should be chained up & only baskets & small trolleys used.
I did manage to get 2 boxes of paracetamol from a chemist the other day that had just had a delivery. One box was for 70 + yr neighbours isolating who were worried about pain relief. Chemist did need some persuading for me just to buy 2.
IMO shopping is high risk given the numbers of people. The retail park (no food stores) that my partner passed on the way home from work today was rammed with cars. Seems around here not many people heeding government advise to avoid unnecessary social contact. My neighbour is a nurse. There are people in our main hospital with the virus.

 

[Spamar]

For those of you who need lots of paracetamol, you do know you can get it in prescription?
I have arthritis, pain every day and I sometimes take 8 per day. Impossible to buy unless you shop every day.
As an aside, just being allowed a basket is not good. I need a trolley to assist me to walk. Without it, not capable of shopping. Please be aware of other types of illnesses apart from dementia ( and I know all about that one, OH having had it for 10 years before he died.

 

[northumbrian_k]

I went for my usual weekly shop yesterday morning with some trepidation. If there had been significant queues or too many people I was determined not to go in. Social distancing is much easier at my local convenience store. In fact, Aldi was quieter than usual, with plenty of car parking spaces and not many shoppers. There was a good supply of fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, bread and dairy products. I got sardines for the dog but there was no other tinned food other than a few unbelievably bashed rejects. The alcohol shelves were half empty. Even the double the price half the quantity toilet roll was gone, not that I needed any. From my conversation with the lad at the checkout it seemed that there had been scenes of mayhem and the worst of human nature. It seems that I was lucky to be able to get everything I needed. I was so flushed with my success I went for a bike ride along the deserted lanes of Northumberland in the afternoon.

 

[Andrew_McP]

This is a useful read to help understand what's going on. It's not as bad as it might seem, though I realise it can seem pretty darned bad when you see the worst examples via social media.

Why stockpiling is not the crazy, selfish behaviour that it seems

You can find out a lot by asking people questions, but big-behavioural-data is much better when trying to work out what is actually going on, especially in situations where so much is changing and everyone is looking for the most plausible conclusion (and willing to jump to one) when the images they

www.linkedin.com

 

[annielou]

Managed to get some toilet rolls today, we drove past some people with packs of toilet rolls walking away from a nearby frozen food shop so hubby pulled in and went and got a pack, not our normal kind but least we've got some now. Its took us 3 visits over the weekend to 3 different shops instead of our normal 1 visit to 1 shop so we've had to go out more than usual when we're supposed to be going out less.

 

[Moggymad]

A neighbour called today to offer us a couple of perfumed toilet rolls! Her sons wife does reflexology & a customer paid her in toilet rolls as she had been given a large supply of the perfumed kind which she can't use. He then off loaded some to his mum who then kindly gave 2 to me. She is in need of milk so tomorrow I will try to get some for her in exchange. This could all get quite interesting!

 

[cobden 28]

Ive got an Asda delivery due tomorrow evening and everything I irdered is available. Went to the pet shop this morning to stock up for my menagerie so they'll definitely be OK for a few weeks now.

I have the internet at home and regularly shop online, not just for groceries, but I'm worried about my elderly widowed Mum (89) who lives alone 30 miles away from me and doesn't have the internet or a mobile phone. I used to travel up once a week to do her grocery shopping for her but won't be able to do this any more; my car is due to be sold tomorrow as it needs more repair work done on it than the car is worth and I can't afford a newer vehicle. Haven't been able to get through on the phone to Mum to tell her I cant do her grocery shopping any more; Mum is deaf as a post and refuses to wear her hearing aids so trying to get through to her on the phone is entirely a matter of chance as to whether she even hears the phone ring - so I've not been able to tell her as of tomorrow I wont have a car.

Problem is, how will Mum manage to get her groceries now? She walks with a Zimmer frame so is unable to get to the shops herself and there's nobody who can do her shopping for her.

 

[Bunpoots]

Hi @cobden 28

Try emailing the online shop and asking if they are doing priority delivery for people in your mum's situation. I believe some online grocery retailers are. Let us know how you get on.