Empty supermarkets!!

[girlcrushonvillanelle]

Been to 3 different supermarkets this morning, had to pick to various bits.

All eerily quiet.

9am on Xmas eve I was fully expecting to queue for hours.

Car parks half empty, picked from 5 empty check outs.

Wow!!

I popped to asda for a skirt i really wanted. It was quiet and the clothing sale was great. Skirt was 75 off. Blouse 60% off and a beautiful dress was reduced to £3. I might be staying home, but i like to feel smart and wear new clothes for Christmas and New Year.

My mum always goes and buys frozen turkeys just after Christmas.
This year there might be even more for her.

I expect most people got shopping done earlier in the week, leaving it until Christmas Eve is a bold strategy and you'd have to be a bit flexible about not sticking to a list.

We went to Waitrose yesterday - had been to pick up meat from butchers and thought we'd see how busy it was or if worth waiting til later.

Empty. No queue to get in (they are strict and have been since March so it's not unusual to queue on a normal day). Everything in except maybe a bit low on sausage rolls.

And we got our favourite parking space

The scaremongering worked. The government will be shitting bricks when they need people to start spending again: people will be hanging on to their money because they don't know if they'll have jobs to go back to.

Home bargains was quiet too.!

This is the third year where I have been to my local Tesco or Sainsbury’s on Christmas Eve morning at about 10.30/11. There are always car parking spaces, the shop floor is well staffed and stocked with fresh foods. The staff are in very merry moods in Christmas jumpers and hats. Sainsbury’s had lots of fresh turkeys for 4-6 people this morning, which did surprise me. It’s definitely a good time to go if you’ve got nothing else planned.

I have not been into a shop since Feb due to Covid, but in the past I used to do a lot of my shopping on Christmas Eve- blissfully quiet shops !

DH went to supermarket today to do our Christmas shop for tomorrow. We always shop on Christmas Eve. We are in tier 4. Shelves were completely stocked, no shortage of anything. Got everything we needed.

I think that the weekend sudden lockdowns in many parts of the country prompted most people to rush out sun/mon when they realised they would be staying home and had now food in. Other areas probably also rushed out in case lockdown happens suddenly to them too. I normally do Xmas Eve 6am but I went Tuesday instead as DH got a self isolation notice and I was worried that if I got one from somewhere nobody would be able to go get the shopping.

Same here in Northern Ireland (Sainsbury’s & Tesco). I’ve never been on Christmas Eve before as I’m usually travelling, so I’ve nothing to compare it to. I did expect a lot more people around though.

I went to collect my pre ordered M&S groceries yesterday at 7pm, was dreading it after reading the thread about the abandoned trolleys. It was literally me and 3 other shoppers in the store, very socially distanced and safe. One fridge was empty (meat one I think) but I literally went for my gammon and colin the caterpillar christmas cake so didnt need anything else.

Next to M&S was an equally empty Smyths Toys, so I popped in to get a singing dancing alpaca (not sure why, I went in for a game to play at Christmas and came away with an alpaca!) Non-essential shopping so I expect to be flammed but I could see through the window it was empty inside.

I think a lot of people really want to avoid coming into contact with a sick person in the last few hours before Christmas. I forgot to buy sprouts, but there's no way I'm heading out just for one thing.

There's been a ridiculously long queue to get in my local Waitrose all week. I went in the evening to pick up a John Lewis order and there was no queue but the store was stupidly busy and there was hardly any food on the shelves.
Went to sainsburys just after 7:30 this morning and did a full food shop (had initially planned to be away from yesterday) and was home by 8:30. Most things well stocked and no queue at the checkout. By 9:30 the local traffic news said it was busy at the retail park. The lady on the toll said Monday and Tuesday had been crazily busy - back to everyone buying loo rolls sort of levels!

More people might have had deliveries this year?
It wasn't too bad yesterday , although many things were running low by 11 when I got there.

I went to B&M about 8:15 this morning. Absolutely dead! No one about!

@reefedsail

I went to Sainsbury's this morning for a few last minute bits and it was dead.

They had at least 6 marshals in the carpark waving people in with batons! They looked like right wallys directing people into an empty carpark!

I was a bit annoyed because I couldn't park in my very favourite space which was empty, but not where the marshal had in mind.

That's good to hear - hopefully it's the same near me. I have an emergency dental appointment this afternoon and I was dreading the travel and dealing with it being almost right next to a big shop on usually very busy shopping street.

I went yesterday at about 1pm. My plan was to go later in the day but I was bored and it was pouring with rain so I thought I'd risk a quick reccy to see how bad it might be. I thought I'd be heading home pretty sharply but couldn't believe that the carpark was half empty so dashed in. The store was incredibly quiet, lots of stock on the shelves and no queues at the tills.
Got everything I needed, plus a few more bits as I felt I had enough space to browse a little, and was back home within the hour.

Quiet in Lidl yesterday and Sainsburys today. The small turkey crowns at £9 had all gone though. I'd been thinking of getting one for the freezer. I love turkey.

Bet the gutter press are still going to be running stories and old photos of empty shelves though.

Glad everyone got what they needed and had a peaceful shopping experience

I've just got back from Tesco. I prepared my 7 year old that this would be long and tough and busy. There were half mile tail backs there yesterday. Today we went straight in, not a single other person in the scan and shop area, and came straight back out. Oh, and got everything I needed!!! I'm rather glad I was far more disorganised than normal this year.

I've been to my local Tesco and it was no busier than a normal day. Mountains of fresh food too that will probably go to waste.

We did M&S and Lidl Tuesday morning - both empty. Just nipped into Spar for bread and it was heaving!

I've been to Aldi and Tesco today and I have never seen them so quiet. Thanks to flooding, it took me longer to get there than my shopping did! DP has gone into the city to get a last minute present and he says it empty as well.

I'm very surprised as we go into Tier 4 on Boxing Day so I presumed people would be out shopping while they could

Was it full of men shopping!