To remind people that the shops are only shut for one fucking day?!

[GlitteryHair]

Please, give me strength. Why do so many people panic buy, pile their trollies Sky high and get rude and stroppy with retail staff at this time of year? No, Armageddon isn't coming, it's Christmas! The shops are shut for a grand of one day, 24 hours later they will open again on the morning of Boxing Day. Please consider this when you are filling you're trollies with about 17 pints of milk and 20 loaves of bread or having a go at a sales assistant for ruining your Xmas. I wonder how people coped back in the days when the shops shut for several days?!

My Facebook feed is full of stories of people fighting over sprouts and having fights in car parks because they are so busy. I went passed my local Morrisons earlier and the traffic was backed up around the car park and onto the road.

Quite frankly if you leave it all until the last minute to do your shopping you are a knob who needs to be more organised next year, and honestly the sky will not fall in if you don't have sprouts on your plate come xmas day.

People need to getting a sodding grip!

The reason we're not having turkey and chips, turkey curry, or turkey on toast on Boxing day is that the majority of us in this house hate turkey and we never have it.

It's beef this year. It was duck last year.

It is hell squeezing round a packed supermarket with a massive trolly of stuff, and i would be willing to bet that most people who are out there doing it (right now as we read this thread) because they have to, for various reasons. Not because they're stupid.

And NOT because they thought - i really fancy leaving all my shopping till the last minute and going out and getting stressed and angry.

It wasn't too bad near us today at lunchtime, but we planned the trip with not quite military precision.

Wrote the list last night looking in cupboards and thinking about what we want to eat for each meal. Re-wrote it thinking about the order it is in the supermarket.

Then today, we did the following:

Asda round 1: Alcohol.
Back to car to unload and pick up bags.
Asda round 2: Food - for a week, because I am buggered if I'm going shopping before next Tuesday, preferably Wednesday.

Waitrose: For the bits that Asda didn't have (FFS, they'd run out of clover!)

Back home to unpack, threw a dozen eggs at the floor, back to shop to get replacements.

Waitrose are delivering the meat tonight (and a couple of other bits like christmas pudding and mince pies); if there's anything missing I can nip to the supermarket at midnight (when it should be nice and quiet) or at 8 am.

I like to do a really big shop a couple of days before Xmas quite simply because I don't want to be back in the shops on Boxing Day or really at all between Xmas and new year if I can help it. I want to chill out after the run up to Xmas not hit asda again!

I've never seen anyone loading their trolleys high with bread and milk either.

What I don't get is why supermarkets sell out of the most basic things. Surely they know what they need in advance. I couldn't get a turkey crown in morrisons on Tuesday which I found bizarre. No big deal as I went back this morning, but to avoid the rush today and tomorrow they could be more prepared. I can't have been the only one who had to go back. Asda had no full fat soft cheese last night either.

I think the key is probably ordering online!

The main issue isn't necessarily people going mad either - it's the fact that most people cool a huge meal on the same day which causes the problems.

No one needs to fill their cupboard with eight loves of bread, like I seen someone with today

I really wish others wouldn't make assumptions about what others need to buy to see them through Christmas. We have different groups of visitors on 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th and enough to do to clear up in between groups (maybe even get a sit down) without having to go back to shops. I could prep alot of it in advance but I'd need a bigger freezer and food shopping the week before Christmas isn't actually illegal!

Perhaps the woman with 8 loaves normally buys 2 but now has so many house guests she needs 8. Or for all you know she's making sandwiches for a big party.

I went today because I got paid today, I want fresh food and I work full time so finished at lunchtime today. It has nothing to do with panic buying. In fact I've bought only what we'll consume on Christmas day and will probably end up going again on boxing day for the buffet stuff.

You can bugger off if you think I'm going to the bloody supermarket on Boxing Day! What kind of holiday is that?
We're hosting guests on 26 and 28th. We're out at family on 25 and would love a day off on 27. So we've done a "big shop". It makes sense.

Most people don't want to go out during the Christmas period

We have a buffet of cold cuts plus a few other bits who the hell wants to go tesco on Boxing Day

Yanbu. We have a corner shop near us that's open on Christmas Day if we need it. so if we need a pint of milk then boom- sorted!

I went this afternoon mostly for fresh stuff as I was waiting to be paid.
They may only be closed one day, but they don't all get deliveries on Christmas eve. We went to Aldi late on the night before Christmas Eve one year, thinking that it'd be fine. They were out of most things we wanted to do Christmas dinner, and the checkout lady said no more delivery till boxing day. So anyone who turned up to Shop on Christmas eve would have been SOL.

lorelie the DCs want to peel sprouts etc- they see it as part of the Christmas 'tradition'. What started as a way of keeping them out of trouble whilst I did the prep (DP was working and even 2-3 yos can peel sprouts - even though they were often pea sized by the time they had finished), they view the same as putting up the tree ...or hanging up their stockings .
I have suggested year after year that we don't have a big Christmas Lunch - or we go out to their favourite restaurant (and the DCs don't even like roast dinners) - but so far they have resisted...

I ordered on line at the beginning of December our alcohol requirements for xmas. some how or other I seem to have drank it all. I had to go out today to replace it all!

Next year I might just do the same again and lots and lots of

The reason that the food bought by people hosting others isn't cancelled out by the hostee, is maybe because if you are hosting someone, you usually buy a lot more food than you would serve if it was just your family. You know, to make it seem a bit festive and generous.

If I'm just buying breakfast for the week, I'll get a loaf of bread, some milk, maybe a box of cereal. If I am having people to stay who will be eating, say, breakfast, I'll think "ooh, better get two loaves, um, no three, don't want to run out, and I'd better get brown and white because I don't know which they'll prefer. And jam and marmalade, and maybe they'll like honey as well, and I'd better get a choice of cereals. And I'll get fresh fruit and yoghurts in case they don't want bready things. Or what about croissants? And maybe they prefer Earl Grey tea, better get some of that, and maybe some fruit teas as well, and better get more normal tea and coffee just in case... and perhaps we'll have a cooked breakfast one day. Better get lots of milk, we don't want to run out of milk..."
And multiply for every meal that I am hosting for. People want to be expansive and generous to their guests at Christmas time.

Perhaps the woman with 8 loaves normally buys 2 but now has so many house guests she needs 8. Or for all you know she's making sandwiches for a big party.

Or may be she is spending her christmas making tea and sandwiches for the homeless. Or perhaps her family all go on a big Boxing day walk and take sandwiches. Or maybe she has told a couple of neighbours who can't get out that she'll pick up a few essentials. Or it could be that she was going to put them all in the food bank collection. Or she might run a hotel and her usual supplier has told her they can't deliver..................

As others have said, no one would be shopping today for shits and giggles. Perhaps people are because they are disorganised, but it doesn't make them nobs.

I have 15 people to feed on Boxing Day. I would quite like to give them nice, fresh food. I do hope you don't mind OP.

I haven't seen one thing on FB about this kind of thing, possibly because no one I know would get their knickers in a twist about someone else's shopping ..

Or people are shopping today because its their day off? They work in retail, or hospitality and today is the first day they've been able to get out. Or because like me they finished work on Friday and this has been the first time they've been able to get out because of other commitments.

Seeing as today was the busiest shopping day in the country a lot of people on here are calling the majority of the population Knobs.

So you may be totally organised, planned, and sorted. Yeah well most of us aren't perfect, and fuck me you sound dull and judgemental, bet you're great fun at parties.

I know shops are only closed for a day. Well, where I live they will actually be closed til Monday after tomorrow afternoon as here 26th is a public holiday and Sunday is Sunday. But even so who wants to be going out for food every day?

We have enough ourselves until the end of next week. I don't want to go food shopping until the new year.

I did a huge shop so that I can hibernate for as long as possible as myself and dh both have a rare week off together. Plus we are expecting a lot if visitors/guests to call over that period and would rather have enough of everything.

Plus we all eat triple the amount we usually do, is its Christmas innit

Yesterday was a nightmare...gave up and didn't bother...today cruised into the car park..popped in to Tesco ..bought the last few bits booze ...and didn't get all ragey doing it!

I have a few people expected..but nothing drastic..also had to wait for money for the last bit..ie fresh stuff but have been buying 2-3 items each shop for last couple months..that way it was less of a shock!

I notice that Next will be open at 6am on Boxing Day for the sale.
I would like to reserve the right to call people pitching up to shop at 6am on Boxing Day and causing some poor bastards to have to work a nob.

I had an overflowing trolley today, tomorrow we are hosting a big party for the children of the village and their families. That is being catered for however I will have a team of people working away in the day who will need tea, coffee, sandwiches etc.

We have 20 for Christmas dinner, 16 of which are staying until the 27th, we have an open house on Boxing Day. That is a lot of food and drink to buy. We always go away the last weekend before Christmas so we are not always in a posiTion to buy it early even if we wanted to.

Our supermarkets were quite calm, certainly the calmest I have seen them in a while

MN is the only place I see a good few people saying they've huge numbers of people to feed at Christmas, and speaking as if they make a variety of meals too. Really?!!! Yet during the year come all the posts about not having/wanting anything to do with family so its about their own little nuclear unit. The 2 positions don't "fit" hence I can't work out how so many suddenly have loads to feed at christmas, I probably only know 1 person in real life who is sometimes like that.

I think quite a lot of people DO overbuy but there truly is mass-denial and knee-jerk justification about it, thats just the way it is. So YANBU OP but I suppose you could bear in mind Christmas is big gluttony business over here so there's a big push for people to be wired a certain way

TBH OP I think you need to get a sodding grip. Why does other people's shopping wind you up so much? How does it impact your life?

Tonight, I did my usual shop for the week, I also got some additional treats; cheese and biscuits, alcohol, some sweet things and my trolley was indeed overflowing. I'm off work and Officially On Holiday for the next week and a bit and I'll be buggered if I spend any of said holiday in a damn supermarket.

Calm the fuck down dear. It's not good for your health.