Panic buying...

[NorthernSky]

the supermarkets should be limiting it to one item per person (not 3) on essentials, like the toilet paper and hand wash.
there is still no hand wash and the like in my supermarket.
the panic buyer will buy all 3 even if they don't need them, and they will do it every time they go to shop
i've been pretty restrained myself, no bog rolls bought for 4 weeks now

 

[CanucksTraveller]

There is still no hand wash and the like in my supermarket.

And that one is still confounding the bejeesus out of me... there's no handwash in any of the supermarkets near me either, and people always looking or asking when it's next in... (I only look out of bemused interest). Yet the shelves are full of shower gel, soap, washing up liquid, and it's widely known that any soap kills the virus, with messages to that effect all over the TV all day long. Do people need telling the same thing more than 20 times before it sinks in? Use a bit of shower gel!

 

[mjr]

Getting it delivered is no different to going to their stores. They have still got shortages there as well. The only difference being you substitute for an item that isn't in stock.

That's always been the case.

They don't substitute now. It's just marked farking "missing" on the receipt. This is in addition to all the stuff you can't even order because it's "out of stock" when you key it in. It clearly doesn't tag some stuff as bought when you go through the checkout and I know this because when I've gone shopping because I can't get a collection or delivery slot, I see workers having to pick some stuff back off the shop floor - and our local Morrisons is probably one of the last supermarkets built with a half-decent-size warehouse space at the back, full of racks of cases of stock that you can see in summer when they leave the collection door open.

It is different to going to their stores in that it minimises time away from home, in compliance with government guidance - or at least it would, if you didn't have to then visit another 3 shops to fill in the gaps.

Two local supermarkets are doing 24 hours. Restocking when closed to the public, but that side of things seldom seems to get mentioned. The shelves don't restack themselves, and orders don't pick themselves.

I've no idea what hours they're now working, but the big six here all cut their hours to 8-8 at the start of lockdown, provoking even more panic shopping, especially with the large number of shift workers at factories and the hospital who work 8-4.30 (so can only shop after everyone else has emptied the shop) or 10-6 (so have 2 hours to shop, take it home and then get to work to avoid being in the same boat). Some have now extended to 10pm again but I lose track of which ones. I don't think any of the 24x6 shops are back at 24x6 again yet.

For example the entire range of household cleaning products was out of stock at Tesco but present at ALDI. Yes it is very difficult to manage the huge range Tesco offer, what I'm reporting is my local experience that one company is managing the situation well and another appears to be failing badly.

Encouraged by the above, I rode to Aldi today on the way to collect a click from Morrisons, in the hope of filling in the items that were "out of stock" or "missing" on today's order. The queue was across the car park, probably about the same length as Sainsburys and half the length of Tesco (I ride past both on the shortest route to the other stores).

So I went to Lidl, which is two streets from Morrisons. 3 person queue to enter. I was pleasantly surprised that they were short of choice on a few lines but had everything I was trying to buy, except for bread flour.

Panic buying is certainly lead by customers but when items which one would not expect to find missing or very low on stock it stimulates this further.

Amen. The bog-roll rush and the problem with not enough flour being packed in 1.5kg retail bags are well-known but I do not understand what the flipping problem is with keeping tins, jars and bottles in stock, yet those have been routinely missing from Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons since the lockdown started.

My shopping has noticeably increased in cost over the last few weeks.

Same here, but it's because the open market and a number of the small shops have closed and I'm paying more for worse from the supermarkets. Partly they closed because people don't want to queue at 5 shops instead of one supermarket, but I've also heard that the supermarkets have been gazumping and also their buyers started showing up again at the wholesale markets, outbidding the small shops. I suspect there may be a day of reckoning over the gazumping if it happened, but any restitution will be too late for some small traders who have shut down temporarily and furloughed workers, as well as their customers.

 

[mjr]

And that one is still confounding the bejeesus out of me... there's no handwash in any of the supermarkets near me either, and people always looking or asking when it's next in... (I only look out of bemused interest). Yet the shelves are full of shower gel, soap, washing up liquid, and it's widely known that any soap kills the virus, with messages to that effect all over the TV all day long. Do people need telling the same thing more than 20 times before it sinks in? Use a bit of shower gel!

At the height of the panic, soap and shower gel had gone here too. Shampoo as well! Washing up liquid is rather harsh on my skin, which is brittle enough anyway (thanks, meds!). But the fantastic Natural Soap Company little shop in Wells-next-the-Sea will post you bars if you order online. A bit more expensive than basic supermarket scrub but you can have a little bit of luxury while you kill the virus: https://www.naturalsoap.co.uk/

 

[mjr]

Simple solution really, don't get your stuff picked and delivered for you. Revert to going and doing your own shopping. Don't like the result, don't use the supermarket again.

That wouldn't be following government advice and it doesn't really work because the stock isn't in the store either. "Don't use the supermarket again" is great but I'd soon run out of supermarkets because none of the them seem to have consistent stock.

The best places to shop are the farms and butchers but of course, they don't stock many household products or tins/bottles/jars, so it means visiting at least a nearby village's general store and having a restricted range. I can tell that supermarkets here are failing to serve because the queues at farms and butchers are about the same average length as at supermarkets despite their limited ranges!

So I alternate that with supermarket shops. It's rather frustrating.

Shop with the longest queue, locally, every day is Boots, with only a third of it actually open.

Boots and Wilkinsons in the town centre here have long queues, but the Boots shed on the edge of town is bizarrely still queue-free. Longest queue of all is usually Tesco, often stretching out the car park and up the side delivery road.

No panic buyers are failing us. Blaming the supermarkets for people buying 100s of roll of toilet paperis just shifting the blame.

They're both to blame, but I'm not a customer of the panic-buyers! I'm a customer of the supermarkets and by allowing bulk-buying and removing offers, they're chasing the almighty buck and it's all bockmist, instead of showing some loyalty to their customers.

Aldi and Lidl haven't proved anything of the sort. People see Aldi and Lidl as place go to first and then onto other supermarkets. The other supermarkets are expected to sell everything. Including food from Eastern Europe. Like Polish rapeseed oil and other eastern European food.

I feel that Aldi UK and Lidl UK sell a much reduced range compared to Benelux and Germany but of course I don't live there permanently so there are some things I look for here which I wouldn't buy during a short stay, so I could be misled. Have our German friends (@Andy in Germany or @Unkraut perhaps) sampled the UK version to compare?

I don't actually expect supermarkets to sell everything. I'd just like to know before collection/delivery day so I can buy it somewhere else without making another high-risk shopping trip. Reducing the minimum order value for collection would help with this, too.

And I think it's not that people expect them to sell food from Eastern Europe, but more that Sainsburys/Tesco/etc want to muscle in on the market of Raminta, Baltika and so on and try to prevent them opening more UK branches.

 

[mjr]

Do you keep a record of all your shopping purchases?

Yes. It's called a receipt. They give it us when we buy something. We keep it on a clip in the kitchen in case something is dangerously defective and we should report it.

The panic buying is not expected to lead to higher profits. The opposite is expected.

The supermarkets have completely farked up if they're selling everything on the shelves and still not making money, unless it's part of a plan to grab market share.

The year high for tesco share price was 260p its now 235p The stock market clearly doesn't think they are going to be rolling in it.

That may be more due to a mix of uncertainty (which stock markets never like) and a feeling that they're burning customer goodwill which could have long term consequences.

 

[classic33]

That wouldn't be following government advice and it doesn't really work because the stock isn't in the store either. "Don't use the supermarket again" is great but I'd soon run out of supermarkets because none of the ones offering collection seem to have stock.

The best places to shop are the farms and butchers but of course, they don't stock many household products or tins/bottles/jars, so it means visiting at least a nearby village's general store and having a restricted range. I can tell that supermarkets here are failing to serve because the queues at farms and butchers are about the same average length as at supermarkets despite their limited ranges!

So I alternate that with supermarket shops. It's rather frustrating.


Boots and Wilkinsons in the town centre here have long queues, but the Boots shed on the edge of town is bizarrely still queue-free. Longest queue of all is usually Tesco, often stretching out the car park and up the side delivery road.


They're both to blame, but I'm not a customer of the panic-buyers! I'm a customer of the supermarkets and by allowing bulk-buying and removing offers, they're chasing the almighty buck and it's all bockmist, instead of showing some loyalty to their customers.


I feel that Aldi UK and Lidl UK sell a much reduced range compared to Benelux and Germany but of course I don't live there permanently so there are some things I look for here which I wouldn't buy during a short stay, so I could be misled. Have our German friends (@Andy in Germany or @Unkraut perhaps) sampled the UK version to compare?

I don't actually expect supermarkets to sell everything. I'd just like to know before collection/delivery day so I can buy it somewhere else without making another high-risk shopping trip. Reducing the minimum order value for collection would help with this, too.

And I think it's not that people expect them to sell food from Eastern Europe, but more that Sainsburys/Tesco/etc want to muscle in on the market of Raminta, Baltika and so on and try to prevent them opening more UK branches.

You seem unwilling to take any responsibility for what you are not willing to do. Yet you're willing to lay the blame for all the "wrongs" being done to you, at the feet of the supermarkets. I'd go so far as to say you're being selfish, thinking only of the trouble caused to you.

With the limits currently in place, maybe your selfish attitude is why the shelves are never fully stocked. As your order is being picked, working within current guidelines, you reduce the number of staff in the warehouse of the supermarket, meaning there's fewer able to put stock out on the shelves for those who still do their own shopping. Maybe if they stopped their click and collect service for individuals, they could concentrate more on the deliveries and the shelves instore.

 

[mjr]

You seem unwilling to take any responsibility for what you are not willing to do.

Go on, what am I not willing to do? I've tried doing this all ways, from the Prime Minister's recommended "as little as you can. And use food delivery services where you can" and "minimising time spent outside of the home" to trying to buy from the farm gate and slaughterhouse butchery.

You seem unwilling to make the failing supermarkets take any responsibility.

I'm not thinking only of the trouble caused to me - I know I'm lucky in that I work flexitime and have a choice of vehicles - but I know that if I can't shop efficiently then it's really going to be hard for key workers and the vulnerable around here. I've been doing what I can, delivering to others, but it's difficult to supply others when we can't even supply our own household reliably.

With the limits currently in place, maybe your selfish attitude is why the shelves are never fully stocked.

My selfish attitude?!? I'm only buying what I need. I'm not buying shoot just because it's there for the first time in ages. Limits currently in place? Most of the supermarkets have lifted the limits now. This seems really unfair when they don't have enough supply to meet the demand.

As your order is being picked, working within current guidelines, you reduce the number of staff in the warehouse of the supermarket, meaning there's fewer able to put stock out on the shelves for those who still do their own shopping. Maybe if they stopped their click and collect service for individuals, they could concentrate more on the deliveries and the shelves instore.

Posters above and news stories lead me to believe that the picking staff are extra. As I've mentioned above, I can see into the warehouse where my collection order is picked from. There is still space in there for plenty more people. I don't think the number of staff is the problem. They can't put out stock they're not getting.

Also, if the click and collect was the problem, the branches which don't offer it would have stock and they don't either. It seems to be an organisational screwup.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I feel that Aldi UK and Lidl UK sell a much reduced range compared to Benelux and Germany but of course I don't live there permanently so there are some things I look for here which I wouldn't buy during a short stay, so I could be misled. Have our German friends (@Andy in Germany or @Unkraut perhaps) sampled the UK version to compare?

My main memory of Aldi in York was that it was much tidier than the German one. Last time I was in the UK was 2014, I think, so I'm probably not a reliable witness though...

 

[vickster]

the supermarkets should be limiting it to one item per person (not 3) on essentials, like the toilet paper and hand wash.
there is still no hand wash and the like in my supermarket.
the panic buyer will buy all 3 even if they don't need them, and they will do it every time they go to shop
i've been pretty restrained myself, no bog rolls bought for 4 weeks now

Plenty of handwash in Poundland if you have one nearby 👍

 

[Mike_P]

My Aldi now seems to have most of stuff in stock, bought a couple of handwashes last week. Sainsbury's on the other hand is a disaster although its usual state was one of none of some specific items at the best of times. Just had another email from them saying how wonderful they are... and there goes another flying pig.

 

[Notafettler]

As far as I am concerned anyone who moans about the supermarkets is simply selfish. We are not starving. Its pathetic what you are moaning about. We are not starving. What are essentials? It appears to be flour to bake. Soft toilet tissue. Get a grip YOUR world will not fall apart if the supermarket shelves haven't got everything in stock. The supermarkets have not let us down, we have let ourselves down. There are people dieing while the majority of posters only care about the supermarkets not being fully stocked and substitutes being delivered that weren't to your likely. Sad so sad

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Sad so sad

Get back into bed & get out the other side, might make you feel better

 

[Notafettler]

Get back into bed & get out the other side, might make you feel better

Is that all it takes? I would have thought a few bottles of cider would help!

 

[screenman]

I wonder if there are a shortage of HGV drivers, I know of a couple who got the letter and I only know two.