Supermarket absolutely rammed - what’s that about?

[WhitethroughtheFright]

We have a large out of town 24 hour Asda about 15 miles down from us. I use it maybe every couple of months as closer than going into the nearest city and more choice than local towns.

Yesterday I went and the car park was absolutely packed with traffic trying to get out. Every lane had a huge queue and they had staff on the roundabouts stopping the traffic. Unfortunately there is no way to see this before you get on the road going in so we were stuck with it. Inside there were huge queues by all the tills. I asked a staff member what was happening thing it was down to a half term or Halloween event. She said it’s always like this every weekend.
I have never seen it like that even at Christmas.
I was thinking that maybe the population around the area has expanded as the as the SE just gets busier and busier. But it was so ridiculously busy for 2pm on a Friday it seemed improbable .Just wondered if anyone had noticed similar?

Our localAsda was busy today. Could only get Ada essential fruit cocktail trifle and found it was absolutely delicious! Cheaper by £1 than the regular one.

M&S food was packed today. They had an amazing selection of Halloween themed food in there

There are two supermarkets near me, an ASDA and a Sainsbury's. I would never go to either on a Friday evening. The traffic is too stressful, and the car parks are a nightmare. My home town is so crowded I worry about the future. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up having to book time slots on the roads, and also to do our shopping. To make it worse, developers seem to think it's OK to cram new build estates onto every bit of scrap land. They've even hacked into my local woods to make room. It's bad enough now. God knows what it will be like round here when all those houses are finished.

If it wasn't for family ties, I would leave the UK and move to Canada or New Zealand - anywhere I could have peace and quiet.

No I get a Tesco delivery as I like to meal plan and actual shopping means I over spend.
But I do go into the big Asda for clothes and bits. Never seen it as bad.

So you do or don't normally go there on the weekend?

Surely the sales assistant has a better idea of what's normal?

Er yes? The point was the volume of shoppers not that’s it busier at weekends.

I am confused about you asking whether or not I shop at weekends. Of course I have been shopping at weekends at various points of the year. I don’t live in hole.
No, I don’t normally do shopping at the weekend. But of course I have been before.

At this specific store. I went in the pre Covid panic buying stage. That was crazy. But not as crazy as yesterday. And the fact the assistant says it’s always like this at the weekends.
Something would appear to be happening, which is why I started a thread to see if was just this Asda or not. Hope that clarifies what I want answering @runjy

How can a shop be busier without a change to the volume of shoppers?

I am confused about you asking whether or not I shop at weekends.

I wanted to know if you specifically shopped on Saturdays at that Asda. If you don't then surely the sales assistant has more of an idea that you? Plus do you ever think people who happen to be shopping at the Asda are just doing the same thing as you? Reminds me of those threads during lockdown,"I went to the park today & it was so busy", "I drove to work & roads were gridlocked". 😆

Some people on a Facebook group were discussing it and it was described as ‘it causes nothing but trouble’ ‘I agree, it’s trouble’ ‘it’s like liquid crack’ ‘I can’t believe parents are letting their children drink this shit’ and that’s all I’ve heard about it!

It seems there is no cost of living crisis and that people are still spending, possibly more than ever.

Yes it was clearly MUCH busier yesterday. Which was a Friday at 2pm not Saturday.

I asked the sales assistant because of course duh, they know more than me!
I assumed something had happened ( like a big Halloween event or maybe they’d be told to evacuate the building) because yes I have shopped there before. And. Had.Never. Seen. It. So. Busy.

Its nothing like those other threads. I’m not complaining, I’m surprised. Cost if living rising food prices, fuel costs.

So can you come up with an answer or are you just going with it’s busy cos it’s the weekend (which again was MUCH busier than I’d ever seen it even at Christmas).

Sorry that was for @runjy . Thanks to helpful posters. Not heard of the drink. Sounds bonkers.

It’s partly the Prime drink. Asda is the only place selling them in the UK (limited to 3 bottles per customer and stored behind the customer service kiosk in our local one). These drinks cost £2 each but are selling for loads more on eBay. Crazy.

Big Tesco in Lincoln was carnage. We were only visiting and intended to use the EV charge point but the car park was so hideous we went somewhere else.

Pay day yesterday.

On one of the very rare occasions I went into ASDA it happened that it was on the last Friday of the month. It was heaving.

Came out feeling very confused why everyone decides to go on that day when there are 30 other days in the month.