Can’t get food ANYWHERE

[GaaaaarlicBread]

Husband and I don’t drive , my husband is however, currently having lessons and close to passing but that’ll be a couple of months away as his lessons have been cancelled .
Anyway besides the point, we have two supermarkets by us. An Aldi and a Tesco (Tesco is 40 min walk though and buses have been made less regular now). Neither store have any food, no exaggeration . I have been after work to aldi and husband has too (he finishes late so we thought they might have restocked but no).
We tried to order online last night- Ocado have suspended online shop as they have too many deliveries- Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s, Iceland and Co-op have zero slots until end of April. What do we do? Seriously? We have frozen bits from our last shop but nothing to last us more than a week.
I’m pregnant , so being extra cautious about going out other than work, my husband works shifts and we literally can’t get anything . We have loo roll , shampoo you know normal toiletries but food we have a bit of milk left , and a few tinned things and cous cous etc. A few people on here might say ‘why have you left it until you have nothing’ but we have been trying and trying and it’s getting worse because people are selfish and bulk buy unnecessarily. We both work for the nhs so work long days and this is just ridiculous .
We ended up buying nappies etc for baby even though I’m not quite half way through the pregnancy yet but every single shop is out of baby essentials too so we thought sod it we will get some in case it’s still like this in 4 or so months time.

Any ideas what we can do? Please be kind .

Sainsbury's have announced they're doing an nhs priority 30 mind 7.30-8 every day

Lots of grocers and butchers will deliver just now. Tailoring boxes to your food needs. Don't know when the loo roll situation will ease.

All I can say is I am glad we have potable water from the taps, there is a lot of countries even within Europe that do not.

As for the government, they are doing a fantastic job. What are they supposed to do, send numerous people to police the aisles of the supermarkets? This is down to people being idiots, not the government. Just glad we are out of the eu, a lot of the measures they are taking would be illegal within it, now we can just tell them to get stuffed.

Don't forget people, this will be over one day, and things will go back to normal, although the world will take a long time to recover economically and I believe China should be sanctioned or forced to actually join the 21st century rather sticking to their preferred methods.

On another note, not a lot of people know this, but the co-op deliver apparently, and very quickly too.

Don’t know if you qualify as vulnerable as you are pregnant. If so Sainsbury’s have emailed to say customers can register with them as vulnerable and get priority delivery slots. Any of their customers already identified by them as vulnerable should get an email telling them about this (we aren’t but are on their general email list).

Our local taxi company are offering to pick up groceries for those who cannot, might be worth asking yours?

I have underlying health conditions, so I have to go into self isolation for 12 weeks. I have been into the stores every day for the last week but I cannot get any food. I haven’t been able to get any meat, potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, milk, tinned or frozen veg, soap or toilet roll. I have tried all the shops in my town and visited two other towns with bigger shops - same story, shelves stripped bare.
I had an online delivery slot for this afternoon, but when I went to check at my order, there were out of stock of everything apart from onions and garlic!
Not sure how I am going to feed myself and two daughters for the next 12 weeks and getting rather scared.

Where in the country are you @Suzypoo10 are you SE London? If you are PM me.

Why should China be sanctioned? They did a really good job of keeping it controlled. I am not a China fan - they have 1m in prison camps etc - but I don't think they have managed the virus too badly.

@CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate I am in Wiltshire, although I grew up in SE London!

It's a pity @suzypoo10 as I'd gladly give you some of what we have enough for a week or so until you could get some help. I have heard the facebook groups by area are good. Maybe try see if they have something in your area.

This is really shit where people who are vulnerable cannot get help! The govt needs to do more. If I had not dragged myself out really early for 2 days I'd have got nothing from the shops. And the extra stress and forcing myself to be really active made my condition flare up terribly.

We shouldn't be out. The govt needs to be consistent. Either we vulnerable should SI in which case get priority for delivery, or go about putting ourselves and others at risk. Which is it?!

My heart really goes out to you. Hope someone can help

It's worth keep checking the supermarket delivery slots as more slots are opening up at random times as they get more staff in and / or people cancel delivery slots they made in a panic.
Yesterday our local Asda was fully booked for the week except for Wednesday when they had about 1/3 of the delivery slots available that weren't there when I'd checked the day before

@xenia

Racism from @JaneEB I think

@JaneEB
Donald, is that you?

On friday I did a big shop for basics on Traidcraft.org. They have ethical loo roll, soap, pasta, oil, rice, peanut butter etc (or at least they did on Friday). They are a bit more expensive than supermarkets but they are ethical. I'm struggling to find fresh food, that's more tricky.

Have you family friends that can help?
Tried FB?
Our village has a FB page with lots of people willing to help and get supplies for vulnerable people.

Or what about signing up to gousto?

No I completely agree with JaneEB. They have a lot to answer for I am afraid.

@GaaaaarlicBread
If you are able to get to a big outdoor market? We went to wellesbourne market yesterday specifically for the meat van, our shops are so low on meat we spent £100 to fill our frezzer. I dont feel guilty either because im not stock piling from a shop.
Normally they have someone with sacks of potatoes but he wasnt there, there was a sign for the farm to go get potatoes though.

Before anyone jumps on me about going to a busy market with cv going on, it wasnt busy and we got the meat then left straight away.

There was people there getting £100's worth of meat, its such good quality too

The big supermarkets are opening certain times for NHS staff...check online at your nearest store for details.

Have you got a neighborhood Facebook page? We have one just set up for our town. People are posting similar stories and other people closer to them are picking shopping up for them and delivering, especially for NHS staff and vulnerable people or those self isolating. Some local restaurants are also selling their excess stock and advertising on there. We have a few local milk vending machines in the area which seem less busy than supermarkets, generally the smaller corner shops seem to have more in stock near us.

Morrisons/Tescos and other supermarkets are offering help to NHS staff but you will need to show your id. they are opening at special times just for NHS. Still no joy go speak with a manager.

Lots of companies are doing NHS deals. McDonalds Pret Dominoes. Free drinks and at least 50% off anything else.

Well they were, however Pret and McDonalds are closing and our local Dominos aren't participating in that deal altough do offer 50% off for NHS all year round

Does your local town have any independent retailers? Our indoor market has a butchers and a greengrocers and they are going above and beyond to home deliver. Other independent shops are doing the same. The local fb pages are coordinating deliveries too. Step away from the supermarkets and there is probably a couple of options. Good luck.

If anyone still has issues, go on twitter or facebook and search for your independents. Cafes here have fruit, veg and bread+basics, stalls and shops are doing delivery boxes and pubs are doing takeaway and some delivery too. I am sure your local newspapers are giving them mentions too. And if not, ask the reporters on Twitter