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 .

I work within a Tesco store and they have been restocking through the night....if you can get there at 6am i think you would get most of what you need.

Another recommendation for poundshop if you need snacks, tinned food etc, it’s better than nothing? They are saying delivery is up to 10 days though.

You in a place that starts with G?

60 people... that's probably 6 people each aisle once they get in?

Can you suggest that your NHS workplace use their existing wholesaler (presumably they buy in food for a canteen etc.,) to buy in essential suppliers for a staff shop? Most NHS workers doing long shifts must be facing the same challenge of getting to stores when there is something on the shelf.

I've seen pictures of massive queues at 6am at my local supermarkets and this morning I popped into my local asda at 9am and heard one of the staff members saying there had basically been a small stampede this morning!

However by 9am I found it to be quite busy but not overly so and a decent amount of stock. I think 9am-10amish might be a good time as a lot of people are still working so are going really early. By the end of the day they are probably struggling to restock shelves. If you can get to the Tesco for that kind of time it might be a bit better? Alternatively ask friends, the reason I went this morning was to grab eggs for a family member - and by 9am there weren't many packs.

I am in the East Midlands and still coming into the city for work. Arriva are only cutting some services from Monday and that's mainly the buses around school/college times. Everything else is running normally. If you can get the bus to Leicester the shops are fine and stocked. Some of the big supermarkets are out of stock of loo roll. pasta and tinned goods but the small independent traders (loads in the back/side streets in the city centre) have plenty of fresh produce, milk, loo roll etc

Try Amazon Pantry?

Corner shops are still well stocked I am finding.

Also our local big asda was better stocked today than it has been all week. There was NOTHING in it on Wednesday I think the panic buying is slowing down a bit.

Are you sure there aren’t any milk deliveries in your area? I have a milk delivery and they also do groceries and household products.

Could you try your local milk man? We usually have milk from ours but have just added bread, eggs, juice and bacon to our usual order for tomorrow. www.findmeamilkman.net/#page-top

try neighbourfood.co.uk to see if they are in your area. Normally it's pick up but ours is doing local delivery in the circumstances - it's mostly organic /artisan type stuff but I did manage to order some (expensive) sausages and burgers etc but no delivery until next week.

It's really shit, i've not been to the shops in a week as we are currently in isolation. I'm able to be out at the weekend but not holding up too much hope of being able to get stuff. We won't starve with what we have but some stuff becoming a bit useless e.g. cereal but no milk and really nothing I can use to turn it into cereal bars.

If you need cleaning supplies try Splosh. Online and concentrated.

We have Go Local in our area. So local eggs, milk, bread, juice, veg. Do you have anything else local.

Our M&S is having some early opening for NHS staff etc. Has yours done the same?

This is a few days hump like xmas. People will calm down and it will get better. Most don't have cash for repeated bulk buying.

If you have an area nearby that is more ethnically diverse than suburbia try local shops there ie Chinese supermarkets boycotted by racists. Our small town butcher/deli used to do sandwich vans to offices. As more WFH & they've swapped over to meat, egg, pies etc delivery service within 5 mile radius. Again seen on FB.

No offence OP, but stockpiling things like nappies that you won't need for months and months makes you part of the problem.

There are no supply shortages. If people shopped as normal - no picking up extra bits just in case - there would be no issue.

One of the supermarkets near us is only allowing one item per customer so DH bought one almond milk and one oat milk as he wasn’t allowed two oat. Lucky I don’t have a nut allergy just a cows milk one.

People please don’t hoard this milk if you don’t need it. DH went to three shops before he could get any for me. I am sure there will be others struggling like me.

B&M seem's to be ok. Asda was a joke, the plague of locusts had stripped it bare.

It is not easy for people. Some could try just eating twice a day and no snacks and only drinking water which wuold do the health of the nation massive good.

On nappies we used cloth nappies when we had 3 children under 4 (loads of wasshing though.......) because in those days early 80s the disposables leaked and the nappies were cheaper. Similarly as a child we had a cloth hankie not tissues which is obviously also cheaper and does not cause problems in times of shortage (although I did have disposable sanitary towels! not like the old clothes people used int e old days)

I am lucky here - I went out yesterday first shop since last week and Waitrose had everything I needed although some shelves were empty and I heard an old lady being told to try coming first thing as the stocks were better. I think they are serving 7.30am for the old which is dreadful as that is the only time key workers can get food before work surely and they are the ones keeping us going. My son just showed me a picture of what had been a 24/7 tesco in Watford his friend took just before opening time and the queue was worst than those I saw in Eastern Europe under the communist block when shelves were there usually empty.

There are covid mutual aid groups all over. They're just getting up and going but our local once has a Facebook group. A few people have asked for help on there and loads of people offered. It also is nice to feel less alone. I would recommend looking at this. I'd help personally but I'm not nearby

I dont think now if the time to be switching to cloth hankies. Let's stick to use it an bin it, shall we?

Allot of stores are opening a hour early for NHS staff to shop.

We live in a student area. The shops here are ok.

I don’t think students buy in bulk.

But the government needs to get rationing sorted. It’s appalling that it’s gone on so long

we have been trying and trying and it’s getting worse because people are selfish and bulk buy unnecessarily

We ended up buying nappies etc for baby even though I’m not quite half way through the pregnancy yet

Oh, the irony.

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.

This is why the shops are empty.

If you don't need it now, please don't buy it. Leave it for the people who do need it now.

Tesco are doing a NHS hour on Sunday mornings at 9am (but you can’t put through tills till 10am.) just need to show your NHS ID.
Thank you for carrying on working for the NHS and on our front line while the arrogant fucks panic buy for no reason.