Islineclear3_1
Established Member
There are lots of specialist shops/areas where they can get what they need.
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Coronavirus virus fears causing panic buying
- Thread starter Deepgreen
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There are lots of specialist shops/areas where they can get what they need.
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RailUK Forums
Are they open late though?
I'm just thinking about people who work late, that's all.
trainophile
Established Member
I think that medic video has done some good, it took something like that to wake everyone up. OH went to Tesco this morning and got everything he went for except milk.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Eat something that fits that. The free from aisle is not the only place to go. Those of us who do have dietary requirements are well used to label-reading.
krus_aragon
Established Member
For several of them, the "special dietary requirements" section of shops has hardly been touched. I've noted in several stores, the people that cleared the shelves of UHT cow's milk weren't interested in the soy milk sat next to it.
Bantamzen
Established Member
Well our first foray out into the battlefields of UK grocery shopping since the crisis went into full swing was largely fruitless. Having made a last minute decision to not go to the local Aldi due to reports of long queue and short tempers, we withdrew to what we thought would be the more sedate experience of the local Co-op. And whilst the store was largely quiet, many of the shelves were empty or close to it, and roaming amongst them were angry people seeking out staff to shout at. In the end we manged to get enough provisions to keep us going, albeit at much more than planned & budgeted for. We can just about stand the extra cost, but I feel for those on much lower incomes finding themselves facing almost empty shelves with just a handful of expensive items left.
One of my daughters can't "just eat chips instead", amongst other things, like you suggested. Finding food that she can actually eat has been very difficult.
I have enough to keep me going until about next Wednesday - I'm really beginning to worry about turning up at shops and finding literally nothing on the shelves. This has got to stop - the government need to step in and start rationing if need be e.g. one item of each line and a max of 10 items each.
trainophile
Established Member
The trouble with that is if you take it too far it means people have to go out more often.
3rd rail land
Member
It's my concern as well. I have enough food to get me through today and maybe tomorrow as well. After that I will have to venture out and hope their is enough food available in the supermarkets in my area.
I looked a couple of days ago for online delivery slots with the 4 biggest supermarkets and there was nothing available in the next 3 weeks. Even if there were I expect a large percentage of the items I ordered would be unavailable.
SHD
Member
- Joined
- 18 Jul 2012
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- 459
I did my first shopping in lockdowned Paris today.
It was actually a nice experience!
As in Italy, no more than 5 customers were simultaneously present in the supermarket, which meant an ~1hr wait outside in pleasant weather.
A fast-track lane was available for pregnant women, healthcare professionals, and other vulnerable customers.
Very civilised shopping with all shelves fully stocked, even loo rolls. However, the marée (fishmongers') section was closed, as well as the charcuterie/traiteur/fromager (but plenty of pre-packaged fresh meat, cold cuts, and cheese in the relevant sections).
It was actually a nice experience!
As in Italy, no more than 5 customers were simultaneously present in the supermarket, which meant an ~1hr wait outside in pleasant weather.
A fast-track lane was available for pregnant women, healthcare professionals, and other vulnerable customers.
Very civilised shopping with all shelves fully stocked, even loo rolls. However, the marée (fishmongers') section was closed, as well as the charcuterie/traiteur/fromager (but plenty of pre-packaged fresh meat, cold cuts, and cheese in the relevant sections).
MDB1images
Member
- Joined
- 9 Jun 2018
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- 654
I actually think the panic buying needs addressing now.
People are not listening to the fact we have no shortages and too many workers are finding empty shelves so makes it seem there's an issue.
No easy answer but certainly restrictions need to come in now before it gets stupid.
People are not listening to the fact we have no shortages and too many workers are finding empty shelves so makes it seem there's an issue.
No easy answer but certainly restrictions need to come in now before it gets stupid.
What extra restrictions would you put in place and how enforceable would they be? The "3 max of anything" is about the extent of what you can do and is what's being done pretty much everywhere now. Short of having people justify everything in their basket there's no way to stop people who are stockpiling vs those who are just buying regularly, so you have to just limit the amount people can buy
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Morrison in MK this evening:
M&S next to the station is to close "temporarily"
- Fresh veg at a premium. No carrots, potatoes or hard veg. Little else except peppers, red onions and mushrooms ( lots of fruit)
- Very little meat but there was fish
- No Milk
- No rice, pasta or tins
- No bread
- No soap or soap based products
- Very little booze
M&S next to the station is to close "temporarily"
Makes you wonder what is going on - are people driving round from supermarket to supermarket stockpiling in each one? After today's financial / social distancing announcements this is the next thing the government needs to get a grip on and start to introduce rationing.
DarloRich
Veteran Member
The shelves are full first thing but empty quickly. i think it is just people who didn't panic buy 10 days ago are now worried about running out
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
They need to stop worrying.
In no country that's locked down has there been a food shortage such that people went hungry.
Bojo could do with making that point.
DarloRich
Veteran Member
Trust is the problem I think. Johnson talks about supply chains and farm to fork but shelves are empty. Lets see what comes out of his meeting with the supermarkets tomorrow. i wonder if there might be agreed reduced opening hours, rationing ( at least informally), reduced ranges and more supply chain corporation.
Reduced ranges could hit some businesses that don't need to be hit.
That said, there's some room for extra stocks of essentials in the now closed cafe areas now.
Elwyn
Member
I heard an interview with a retired senior executive from Sainsbury’s yesterday and he said that the various chains occasionally carry out emergency situation exercises. One of the things that takes up a lot of time in normal day to day work is resupplying all the dozens of different brands of similar products. That could be crisps (38 types) or sausages etc. In the emergency exercises they agree to reduce the variety and concentrate on core products. This means, for example, the sausage making factory can increase production because it doesn’t have to switch between different types of sausages. It just makes millions of pork sausages, all of the same flavour.
His conclusion was that streamlining (which is the various chains agreed approach) will increase productivity. Just you won’t see so many types of product on the shelves.
His conclusion was that streamlining (which is the various chains agreed approach) will increase productivity. Just you won’t see so many types of product on the shelves.
trainophile
Established Member
A bit like Aldi then.
Well I've been doing my Gran's memoirs which is 28? double sided pages at clearly more than 5% coverage and as such the supplied toner only lasted a couple of days!, should have just done a toner reset as it clearly still had more toner in it. Within 2 days I had already done a supposed 2,000 pages. hopefully the 9,000 page black cartridge should last me a while.
Oh and mine is still uses laser scanning rather than a strip of LED's, the LED's in my OKI always seemed a bit fragile, esp. as they were mounted to the toner/belt/drums/internal access door and as such you had to make sure the toner cartridges and drums were correctly fitted to avoid damage, plus if you knocked out one of the connecting cables it would blow a fuse on the main PCB causing the printer to go into error mode, don't ask me how I know that.
TrainGeekUK
Member
- Joined
- 15 Jun 2019
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- 109
I work for a major supermarket and the sole reason the shelves are empty is because the distribution centres cannot cope with the demand increase. They have insufficient resources there to pick the stock and also receive incoming deliveries from suppliers.
If the workforce at the NDC’s is reduced further, which by all accounts will happen, there is a very real risk that there will be a total collapse of the distribution network.
The empty shelves will continue indefinitely unless something drastic is done.
One possibility would be even store closures to then re deploy staff and stock into one location rather than two or three in the local vicinity, thus pooling all resources.
A mention in today’s Daily Telegraph that a supermarket in Denmark has prevented bulk buying of hand sanitizer By charging a premium price for multiple purchases. 1 bottle is 40 kroner (£5). 2nd or additional bottles bought in the same transaction cost 1000 kroner (£123). So far, no one has bought more than 1 bottle in their shopping!
Elwyn
Member
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And the way to do that is to suppress that demand by for example by giving every household in the country a card that only entitles them to one shop a week at a pre-determined time and location.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
How about restaurant/bar staff who have nothing to do and are being paid 80% of their wages by the government. Would it take too long to train them up as pickers in the warehouse?
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