Panic Buying

Nipped over to Tesco’s this morning for some bran flakes and tonic water. Only two cases of Fevertree tonic water on the shelves. Either staff are concentrating on restocking elsewhere or booze is the new item to horde. Queues for the tills were insane and I’ve noticed that people are peering into other people’s trollies to see what they have bought. o_O

A new annoyance. As the till queues were so long, ‘people’ were taking trollies filled to overflow to the basket/limited item checkouts. Seems waiting ten minutes was beyond them. I watched one idiot heaping loads of stuff on the scales after scanning them. Everyone in the queue was cringing as she stacked stuff ever higher. To add to this muppet’s stupidity, she was doing all this one handed while yapping on her phone. :banghead:
Yep, the stuff did end up on the floor...
 
Last edited:
I was talking to one of the shelf fillers at my local express 2 cages of loo rolls, yesterday, gone withing the hour!
Apparently more due tomorrow ... and the same result is expected ...
 
I went for our usual weekly shop yesterday, I ended up visiting 2x Aldi and 1x Sainsburys, all within a 2 mile radius. The first Aldi store was totally cleaned out of fresh meat, fortunately I managed to get some mince and a couple of chicken breasts at the second Aldi. Sainsburys had some pork & more expensive cuts of beef but no chicken or mince.

None of the 3 stores had liquid soap, hand sanitizer, or any painkillers, One Aldi had a limited supply of 6-pack toilet rolls, the other 2 stores were picked clean. There was very little rice or pasta available in any store.

All three stores were full of people going round and round staring at empty shelves, it was quite depressing. However I saw very little evidence that people were filling their shopping trolleys with other stuff.

My son & his girlfriend who are still self-isolating after returning from Italy 10 days ago managed to get a home delivery of food from Asda but half the things they wanted were out of stock.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
I've not stockpiled, but my theory is this:
If we go into complete shutdown, with factories closing, production ceasing and no deliveries to shops etc etc, then we may be in the sh!t, and will then need all the toilet rolls we can get our hands on. By then it will be too late. :)
Click to expand...
If we go into full lockdown ... none of those things will happen.
Italy is in full lockdown, but people can nip down the shop and buy bog roll and pasta.
The UK population is just overfilled with selfish bastards.
 
Cobra said:
f*****g Muppets ...
BTW aren't we supposed to be avoiding large crowds / gatherings ?
;)
Click to expand...

I know, you couldn't make it up!

Cobra said:
I was talking to one of the shelf fillers at my local express 2 cages of loo rolls, yesterday, gone withing the hour!
Apparently more due tomorrow ... and the same result is expected ...
Click to expand...

In some cases, they're not even making it from the cages to the shelves!
 
Marc said:
In some cases, they're not even making it from the cages to the shelves!
Click to expand...
Indeed it seems that Tesco 24 hrs stores will be closing from 10pm - 6am ( according to the news earlier) to allow the staff to actually re-stock the shelves before the locusts arrive ;)
 
B&M, pretty much all dried food gone, we like mugshots for work. Our preferred dog food gone but thats no suprise, plenty of booze and everything else. Aldi not too bad, coffee we like gone, nearly all cereal gone, plenty of cat food(meat) but no biscuits. but get to the till and told we can only have 2 cans of cat food:mad:

We haven't bought any more than we normally do, some people havent got the brains they were born with.
 
Ocado now offline until Saturday!

Access temporarily closed to Ocado.com
Like all supermarkets, we are working round the clock to keep up with high demand and make sure all of our customers get what they need at this time – especially those more vulnerable and in isolation.

As a result, we have made a decision to temporarily close access to Ocado.com so you will not be able to edit an existing order or book a new delivery for the next few days.

This temporary closure will allow us to complete essential work that will help to make sure distribution of products and delivery slots is as fair and accessible as possible for all our loyal customers.

We are fully booked for the next four days. If you have a delivery booked for Thursday or Friday, cut-off times for editing these orders have already passed, but your driver will still arrive as expected.

Customers with an existing order booked for delivery from Saturday onwards will be contacted later this week with details of how to edit their orders. We will reopen the website to all customers from Saturday.

We are very sorry to cause any inconvenience. We’re managing a simply staggering amount of traffic to our website right now and more demand for products and deliveries than we can meet. Our first priority has to be to keep our service up and running and to play our part in feeding the nation.

I'd also like to take this chance to thank our amazing drivers and warehouse staff who are working tirelessly to deliver groceries to as many people as possible in these uncertain times. Their dedication and hard work is truly amazing.

Thank you for your patience and understanding at these unprecedented and challenging times.

Melanie Smith
CEO, Ocado Retail
Click to expand...
 
I guess few of you are aware of this but a controversial piece of legislation, IR35, was due to come into effect in the new financial year and has been shelved (there must be a pun there somewhere). I wonder if that's because a lot of contract staff said they would retire/terminate their employment if it came in, and these might well be web designers/programmers/IT people etc. Wonder how the likes of Tesco/Waitrose/Aldi would manage without these people? Coincidence or something deeper?
 
Well it looks like ime old;)

We live in a large Victorian terrace house, the one next door has been let into single rooms for about 5 years now young and single residents, just found a note through the door to say if we needed anything to let them know and they would sort it for us.

Just shows even if a lot are selfish not everyone is.
 
Nod said:
Got a couple of months' worth of coffee in the cupboard/under the bed - comes direct from Tassimo when they're doing special offers.
Click to expand...
Very handy if you're playing hide n seek and fancy a cuppa.:)
 
For pet food I have been using zooplus.co.uk for a number of years for branded food and never had any issues. They are reporting slow delivery due to demand but show stock levels of most items on a brief browse.

(they also have zooplus.com, but this doesn’t take card payments).
 
I'm sorted now. (Apologies if its already been posted)

Screenshot 2020-03-18 at 19.07.35.png
 
Seems it's not only food that sold out, been trying to get an iunder counter freezer for and older neighbour
so they can get a stock of food, everywhere is giving 21-28 days delivery, waiting for srock to come in
 
Gremlin said:
Seems it's not only food that sold out, been trying to get an iunder counter freezer for and older neighbour
so they can get a stock of food, everywhere is giving 21-28 days delivery, waiting for srock to come in
Click to expand...

I have 18 but they are all full :exit: bloody panic buying
 
Well technically, chicken soup is not the same item as tomato soup...
 
Eggs also seem high on the panic buyer's list, none in Lidl or Tesco superstore. In fact, virtually nothing left at Tesco - canned goods, frozen foods, flour, sugar,cereals, even cleaning materials and pet food all gone. The only sections looking normal are the fruit & veg and the booze.
I wonder how many know about storing eggs, and will learn the hard way regarding a rotten one
 
kennethwfd said:
I wonder how many know about storing eggs, and will learn the hard way regarding a rotten one
Click to expand...
I was wondering the same too.
There is of course something called a "Stored product pest"
Rice weevil flour beetle to name two..
These have the uncanny knack of finding food ;)
Either on an industrial scale, but I've also dealt with them on a lower domestic scale ;)
 
MatBin said:
I guess few of you are aware of this but a controversial piece of legislation, IR35, was due to come into effect in the new financial year and has been shelved (there must be a pun there somewhere). I wonder if that's because a lot of contract staff said they would retire/terminate their employment if it came in, and these might well be web designers/programmers/IT people etc. Wonder how the likes of Tesco/Waitrose/Aldi would manage without these people? Coincidence or something deeper?
Click to expand...

Much more likely that the inland revenue are all 'working from home' and this was going to require a massive amount of staff time to implement. Every contractors case would require checking.
 
From the CEO of Tesco, by email ..About bloody time too !!!
( my bolds)the only slight concern is the 9-10 am shopping for vulnerable people. Are they kicking everyone else out? Or just opening at 9? on those days?
Oh and I feel that it was rather nice of him to email me personally (y)
:D

It is fair to say that we find ourselves in uncharted waters. COVID-19 is bringing a change to the UK and it’s clear that lots of things are going to have to shift around in order to help us cope.

At Tesco, we have been doing everything we can to keep business as usual, but we now have to accept it is not business as usual. In the last two weeks, we have seen significant and prolonged increases in demand across all of our stores and this is leading to shortages in some products for some customers.

Reacting to the latest government announcements, we have to plan on this situation being the new normal and we will do all that we can to make the food you want available, but we need your help.

In order to protect the core shopping essentials, we are going to implement some changes in our stores. The changes are designed to simplify what we do so that we can provide more of what people need in a clean and safe environment. We ask for your understanding and your support.

>From Thursday 19 March we will start to implement the following changes:

  • To ensure more people have access to everyday essentials, we are introducing a storewide restriction of only 3 items per customer on every product line, and removing multi-buy promotions.
  • In order to allow Tesco colleagues to focus on stocking shelves, helping to provide the essential groceries you are looking for and to avoid waste, we will close all meat, fish, deli counters and salad bars.
  • To be able to ensure our stores are clean, that we can replenish stock, and allow our colleagues to rest, we will change our trading hours with all stores closing at 10pm.
  • To ensure we are doing everything possible to reduce the risk of infection for both our customers and colleagues, we will be introducing some distancing measures at the checkout and, to make it swifter, invite customers who can, to pay by card.
  • To help free up slots for the more vulnerable, such as our elderly customers and those who are self-isolating, we are encouraging customers who shop online or choose Click+Collect for their grocery home shopping, to prioritise shopping in-store where possible.
  • To ensure our more vulnerable and elderly customers can shop in-store, we will prioritise one hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning between 9-10am (except in our Express stores) and ask that you respect this.

Tesco store colleagues can't work from home and a good number of them will need to respond to personal or family challenges connected with dealing with COVID-19. So we would please ask that you understand the challenging environment in which we are all working. If you do go in-store and want to say thank you, then I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

So, if you could help us by limiting demand of essential items and allowing us to focus on the core needs of our customers – we are confident that we can continue to feed the nation. We are delivering food daily to our stores, but this is a very challenging time and we will only get through this if we work together.

Thank you for your support.
Dave Lewis
Tesco CEO
 
Cobra said:
From the CEO of Tesco, by email ..About bloody time too !!!
( my bolds)the only slight concern is the 9-10 am shopping for vulnerable people. Are they kicking everyone else out? Or just opening at 9? on those days?
Oh and I feel that it was rather nice of him to email me personally (y)
:D

It is fair to say that we find ourselves in uncharted waters. COVID-19 is bringing a change to the UK and it’s clear that lots of things are going to have to shift around in order to help us cope.

At Tesco, we have been doing everything we can to keep business as usual, but we now have to accept it is not business as usual. In the last two weeks, we have seen significant and prolonged increases in demand across all of our stores and this is leading to shortages in some products for some customers.

Reacting to the latest government announcements, we have to plan on this situation being the new normal and we will do all that we can to make the food you want available, but we need your help.

In order to protect the core shopping essentials, we are going to implement some changes in our stores. The changes are designed to simplify what we do so that we can provide more of what people need in a clean and safe environment. We ask for your understanding and your support.

>From Thursday 19 March we will start to implement the following changes:

  • To ensure more people have access to everyday essentials, we are introducing a storewide restriction of only 3 items per customer on every product line, and removing multi-buy promotions.
  • In order to allow Tesco colleagues to focus on stocking shelves, helping to provide the essential groceries you are looking for and to avoid waste, we will close all meat, fish, deli counters and salad bars.
  • To be able to ensure our stores are clean, that we can replenish stock, and allow our colleagues to rest, we will change our trading hours with all stores closing at 10pm.
  • To ensure we are doing everything possible to reduce the risk of infection for both our customers and colleagues, we will be introducing some distancing measures at the checkout and, to make it swifter, invite customers who can, to pay by card.
  • To help free up slots for the more vulnerable, such as our elderly customers and those who are self-isolating, we are encouraging customers who shop online or choose Click+Collect for their grocery home shopping, to prioritise shopping in-store where possible.
  • To ensure our more vulnerable and elderly customers can shop in-store, we will prioritise one hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning between 9-10am (except in our Express stores) and ask that you respect this.

Tesco store colleagues can't work from home and a good number of them will need to respond to personal or family challenges connected with dealing with COVID-19. So we would please ask that you understand the challenging environment in which we are all working. If you do go in-store and want to say thank you, then I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

So, if you could help us by limiting demand of essential items and allowing us to focus on the core needs of our customers – we are confident that we can continue to feed the nation. We are delivering food daily to our stores, but this is a very challenging time and we will only get through this if we work together.

Thank you for your support.
Dave Lewis
Tesco CEO
Click to expand...
We got a similar one from Sainsbury's
 
I do feel that the media should be stopped from reporting on this - can't help feel they are fuelling the fire; any one else agree?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top