Empty shelves in supermarkets

[EmptshelvesUK]

I must admit I’ve not really been out much these past couple of years due to health reasons but have in the last month been to several different supermarkets.

what’s the reason behind the cardboard advertising boxes where items should be on the shelves in Sainsburys and why in Asda are some areas of the store just empty of food, the biscuit (8 in a packet type snack bars) just empty, nothing, last two weeks exactly the same.

Is it delivery driver issues, or can they not get these products? Or the war in Ukraine etc etc, or is this all part of the Covid pandemic.

the shops are so empty where I live, M&S have boarded up half the shop due to lack of products. I can not get apple juice anywhere it’s been like that for months! I can’t decided what I want before I go shopping I just have to see what’s in stock now. Utterly depressing!

Am amazed to here so many people see nothing unusual !

I live 10 miles from VERY affluent Tunbridge Wells.. Sainsburys, Tesco, Lidl and Co-Op (Heathfield) woefully under stocked !!

... but then again, the denouement of the sunlit uplands of Brexit must NEVER be mentioned...

Lidl is bloody awful where I live. I went with a list of 20 items and only got 3. Couldn't even find a decent substitute for the missing items. No salad whatsoever, no cucumbers, broccoli, lacto free milk, eggs, etc. But then the Tesco over the road is fully stocked.

I have a small business (not food) and getting regular, reliable deliveries has become a most impossible since covid. Being unable to get staff is the most common reason given.

I also work a part time PAYE job along with a another small self employed job and I can't remember the last time we were fully staffed. The turnover is incredible.

Add in the issues with poor harvests and yields. I think we will continue to see issues for at least the next year.

Dorset....local Big Tesco had quick a few gaps !!!!

Usually I'd guess it's stock issues or the items have ran out before staff restock them

This is labour shortages and logistics snarled due to the upheaval of the covid lockdowns.

Brexit is quite a minor factor in this. It’s happening all over the world, not just in Britain.

@EmpressoftheMundane this is the line that Brexiters so love to trot out - that it's happening everywhere.

It's not.

I'm just back from the Netherlands. Stocked shelves everywhere we went. Also lower prices.

Own your consequences. It isn't just Brexit - but Brexit is making it much worse.

Loads of gaps in my local Sainsbury's for the last three days.

Shhhhh... NO ONE must mention the Brexit shit show ....

Tesco have the big displays of boxes of tinned Quality Street, etc.

I agree.

Just back from France and for the first time in forever (I lived in France as a a student 20 years ago!) the supermarkets in France were cheaper than the U.K. I always accept that supermarket shopping in France will be a bit more expensive but it certainly wasn't this year!!

Also all the shelves were fully stocked.

It has to be Brexit and the consequences - of which we were all so aware!! Ukraine isn't having as much of an impact on Europe as people would like us to believe...

No problems here - Sheffield. Everywhere seems well stocked most of the time.

@NoWordForFluffy if you're not adverse to Amazon, simple soap is often a good price on there
My dad accidentally bought about 48 bars when it was on offer so that's what I'm using!

No problem in my bit of London. Perhaps London stayed in the EU?

Or, perhaps covid disruptions are creating inconsistencies in retail stocking due to disruptions in global supply chains and labour shortages across the developed world.

How many years are we going to blame Brexit?

BTW, U didn’t vote for Brexit, but if being in the EU was all about cheap labour to make our lives convenient, maybe I was wrong.

We need to increase pay for working people and address our 15+ year productivity gap.

How many years are we going to blame Brexit?

You do know that the full impact of Brexit on international trade is yet to come, don't you?

BTW, U didn’t vote for Brexit, but if being in the EU was all about cheap labour to make our lives convenient, maybe I was wrong.

Being in the EU was all about seamless and smooth supply chains which we now no longer have. If you didn't know that, maybe you should read up.

I'm all in favour of dealing with the productivity gap. It will involve employers training people up and immense improvements in workers' rights - including dealing with ZHC. I can't see that happening though.

How many years are we going to blame Brexit?

Everything is getting either scarce, or more expensive. Everywhere.

But Brexit has given us a whole load of barriers and that will make it harder to get stuff into the country. To say that those self imposed barriers don’t effect the reality is nonsense. Of course they will, and they’ll make things harder to come by as the months go on as goods cannot freely move about, like they can across the EU.

I'll have a look, thank you!

That's probably down to excessive demand. The entire country is currently living off salad. Usually it's burgers and hot dog buns in this weather but everyone is too hot to even bbq their food (plus it's not currently encouraged due to fire risk)

@liveforsummer it's just as hot elsewhere in Europe and shelves of salad greens and other fruit and veg are full.

Yes, demand is high right now. But let's not pretend we haven't shot down our own supply lines.

Hampshire must be a parallel universe because there are none of the shortages described in any of my local supermarkets.

I’m obviously just a lying brexiteer though 🙄 (I’m really not).

Whatever I cat get in Lidl ( which is a lot if I go after midday - before then it’s got everything) I can get in Tescos. Yes there’s gaps in Sainsburys but it’s in other shops.

I have needed to change my shopping habits but Lidl is near my house and I buy petrol in Sains, Tesco is next to Lidl. It’s inconvenient but it’s not too difficult to get everything

I have online deliveries from Sainsburys and have had hardly any substitutions for months. I occasionally visit one of their stores and they seem fine too. West Sussex.

Morrisons is definitely the worst where we live (London suburbs). Their shelves have been pretty bare for over a year now. Every other supermarket seems to be pretty well stocked, so I presume it’s a problem with Morrisons supply chain. I also think they were having ownership problems?

It seems many supermarkets aren't able to restock in the day, if I go after 3pm there's empty spaces. went to marks, Waitrose and Lidl today, 5pm and there was hardly any fruit and veg left.
Not sure if its staffing shortages or delivery problems.