Just back from grocery shop... very civilised

[lovemenorca]

Reading some of the threads about people shopping at midnight; the stress; the hassle; inconsiderate shoppers; drama with frazzled shop assistants; food shortages etc etc

I saw none of that. Not even a hint.

Waitrose.... it was busy but everything in stock, nice buzz about the place, limited queue, zero drama or stress. Sometimes I wonder if I live on a different planet to some mumsnetters!

Anyone also had pleasant shopping experience today?!

Northwest here

Got to M&S for 8am expecting craziness...it was quiet and I was out in 15mins. Then I had to wait 45 mins in my car for ALDI to open..was first one in and back nome for just before 10am...

Lots of stuff in both shops..

My Aldi had lots of empty freezers, the delivery of frozen turkeys hadn’t turned up a lots of the fancy Christmas desserts had sold out too.

I've been to Swiss, French and German supermarkets in the last three days. The French one was full of people shouting at crying children but that's pretty normal. The Swiss one was empty. The German one was packed with all the bloody Swiss - the exchange rate is horrific! 5 euros for a bag of Kettle Chips ffs.

I went to Tesco yesterday at 3pm. Was home again an hour later.
Parked easily, straight to a till.
Only problem was their fresh meat counter was closed so we popped to Waitrose for steaks instead.

Lucky! Just got home after nursery run and dashing into M&S for milk and breakfast stuff (and wine) and it was hideous.

Everyone seems to lose common sense at Christmas and just stands everywhere, not moving and blocking all the aisles. Plus dd ate her christingle orange while I was dithering 😂

I'm in Tesco car park waiting for dd its bedlam

I agree both Waitrose and our local farm shop were busy but no much worse than any other Saturday.

I think as Xmas is middle of the week it’s spread out when people are able to go shopping so spread between sat, sun, mon and tue, where as when Xmas is a Sunday or mon then it condenses it into sat and sun.

Yep. All cool calm and collected here too.

I went to Morrisons about half past 2, got everything I needed, came home, unpacked and put it all away, then went to the retail park. Matalan, M&S, Boots and Next all pretty much deserted. Got everything I needed there as well.

Judging by the somewhat frazzled appearance of the staff, it was considerably more busy earlier on.

Mine was awful.... stuck on Tesco car park for 35 minutes and then some horrendous woman called the shop assistant in M&S a fat C•••.. I literally lost my shit at her.
I'm all peopled out now

Yes. I was in our massive sainsburys today at 7 a.m and it was a pleasure. Not too busy. Everyone in a good mood. Have heard reports of people arguing over parsnips in Asda at midnight.

Been to Asda around 3. Was plenty busy but not horrendous. The worst thing was the bitchy woman working on the "scan and go" tills, but she's got a bad attitude all the time, I've seen her be rude to other customers before.

I did my big Christmas food shop yesterday in M&S.

It was very busy - collected my ore-ordered turkey etc within 5 mins of my time slot opening, and then I had to get a few extra bits in the food hall - again really busy, but shelves well stocked, loads of staff on the shop floor to help out, and I was round and through the checkout in 30 minutes.

Today I’ve had to go to 3 different supermarkets (dd1 has ASD and it turns out that me doing the food shop without her wasn’t part of her plan ) to pick up a few bits and pieces - was dreading it, but was able to park straightaway at each, go in, get what I needed and be back out within 10 minutes each time. I was utterly amazed, never known it to be so quiet and civilised.

Hello from Bavaria! Did the big shop on Saturday so today just had to pick up the turkey and a few odds and sods. Department store in city centre rammed with grumpy people. There was one guy moaning about the length of the queue, he circled the shop about three times looking for a shorter one, would have been quicker just to get in line. Local supermarket busy but good natured, still well stocked but out of Knödelbrot. Butcher very quiet though it took them a wee while to locate my order. All shopping for food and drink done now and just need to begin food prep.

Just done my shop now - it was really quiet!!! Unlike earlier where they said it was manic!

Whole Foods in the USA very civilized, Till's quicker than usual as they had more open.
A line at the meat counter but very organized and friendly.
No one panic buying everything.
Another Brit in front of me at checkout and we chatted about how much nicer than the UK it was.