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 .

It wouldnt be a big problem to get a prioriy pass for nhs staff would it?

There shouldn't have to be...

@BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser
Speaking of which, I wonder how the flood victims are getting on. As if they didnt have enough on their plates.

Bet ya that none of the people stocking up stocked up on proper facemasks which we should all wear now anyway...

Arch! Ignore that. First part of the post disappeared.

@Porcupineinwaiting absolutely feel for them. It's just horrible combination of disasters, isn't it...

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Just got an email from Freegle this morning, they are trying to set up a system for people who can help or need help.

Might be worth a look.

www.ilovefreegle.org/covid

Right, try again. I heard that even before coronavirus, egg production was disrupted by the flooding.

If you get yourself on Facebook OP, I imagine there is a local community aid group. Some are for each road.

@Porcupineinwaiting aah. That explains a lot!

What the hell is wrong with British people??

I've been on enforced quarantine in the country where I live for 10 days now. Supermarkets are normal, nothing is missing or being stockpiled. Everyone is being respectful and kind.

Every 2 weeks I get a lovely reminder of why I left and why I'll never come back.

@Krong my family abroad is speechless when I describe what's happening here...

It's really stressful, I've been worrying all week about getting food in for the family. I was horrified how bare the shelves were in our town on Wednesday night (both Aldi and Sainsbury's).

I went at 7am this morning to Tesco and pretty much got everything on my list except toilet roll. There was plenty of fresh food, a decent amount of meat, dairy, even economy chopped tomatoes (which I didn't buy/need) even the odd bag of pasta lying around.

I'd suggest trying your supermarket as soon as it opens. If you are pregnant I think you have access to times for old/vunerable too.

I hope you get yourselves sorted.

I'm getting sick of the public's behaviour right now. We are running low on milk but cannot get any locally. I feel so sorry for elderly people who tend to shop every few days rather than do big shops.
Under normal circumstances the supermarkets are full and have enough food for all of us so there was never a need for panic buying. If everyone had shopped normally there would be enough to go round as usual.
I swear British people just love queuing and subjecting themselves to this nonsense judging by the images of people scrambling into supermarkets at 6am.

Hopefully is getting better. Just been to local suburban greengrocer for a couple of things and they had plenty of everything & anything. It was busier than normal but people were being sensible. Only eggs were being restricted.

It should be better now. People must have run out of space to store tins and bog roll in by now fgs

OP I'd very happily send you some food, but you live too far away, I'm in SE London. Unless I box it up and send by courier we won't be able to even meet halfway as I don't drive either!

At this point I'd put in a facebook request or phone one of the charities, Salvation Army perhaps? Or a faith based one.

I think it's bloody disgraceful and you should be a priority, plus you are pregnant and working in a risky situation...this really gets my back up! The whole thing has been managed very badly, it was hardly rocket science that people would stockpile to the disadvantage of the vulnerable.

As for the sick going to the supermarkets early, firstly many of the disabled and elderly struggle in the mornings. I have fibromyalgia and after 4 days of no sleep and severe pain I am not jumping out of of bed before 7 am without great difficulty.

Secondly, the queues in local places around here are truly ridiculous. A queue of 60 people would make you happy! My neighbour got up at 5:30am for the disabled morning, and when he got to the supermarket the queue was through the car park. Hundreds. He cannot stand for hours. He had to come home. Many of the disabled cannot stand in queues.

I have seen some heart breaking things. It's obvious that many elderly have no one to do a shop on their behalf.

NHS workers should get a priority pass OR priority deliveries.

I hope something works out OP[fowers]

You need to go earlier in the day. Aldi are rationing and had everything except loo roll when I went yesterday at about 1pm.

@GaaaaarlicBread I think you are just as bad as all the others. Why are you buying nappies when you have 4 months before your baby arrives? There are people that need nappies now and cannot get any. You are just as selfish and greedy as the people you are complaining about.

Can you try a click and collect service?

I agree that it is ridiculous and even more so for the front line staff that can't spend time queuing first thing in the morning as they have to go to work so they can save lives!

Even as a family of 4 with 3 cars/drivers it has been an operation to get fresh food for this week (and to buy stock food for a further 10 days if we have to self isolate, nothing special and only the minimum amounts), we don't want to panic buy or stock pile, just to be able to do our usual weekly shop, then scuttle back indoors.

Great that we are now giving NHS workers an hour to shop on Sunday, and that some effort has been done to help the elderly and that limits have been added, but I fear this is far too little and much too late.

My town has no shortage of newborn size nappies -its the 4s and above that can't be had. I've gone back to reusables. Which don't fit perfectly but are better than nothing!

but I fear this is far too little and much too late.

It is.

What do we have government for if they cannot better organise things like this in an emergency?

Bet they've all got their supplies though. Anyone seen any MP's queuing?

As usual too far removed from reality to have a clue what is going on.

I haven't experienced any of the queuing/bare shelf madness here, but I've only really gone to small shops.

People have been posting photos of our local big Tesco with queues out the door before opening, and empty toilet roll aisles. But I went to our little post office general store this morning and they had plenty of nearly everything.