Should we allow separate transactions from the same family?

[UserXRay29]

So I work in a small supermarket and we're limiting essential items to two per customer. But daily, we're getting excuses and justifications why that's not enough for people.

Some people are shopping for large families, others are shopping for neighbours - and it really causes problems for staff because we don't know whether we should be letting people rejoin the queue to do a second shop. Where do you draw the line and how do people prove they're shopping for neighbours? As far as I know, they can't, and we'll just get more abuse for asking for proof anyway.

On the CV board, people are advocating DPs paying separately so they can get twice the amount whilst a post on AIBU is threatening to report a worker for flouting the restrictions and putting things through as separate transactions.

I'm usually easygoing - I don't ID people for booze or scratchcards when they're with their children. But this isn't really about loopholes, it's about making sure there's something for everyone.

So, back to my topic question, are we unreasonable NOT to allow this?

I dont know. I wish there was some use of common sense.

I think we're way past that point. Rules do need setting up but they need to take into account the different circumstances. For all those relying on the kindness of others to do their shopping because either they have symptoms or are in high risk groups, making it harder for people to combine those shops, means that there will less people willing to do it increasing the chance that people will flout the isolation instructions.

Then there are the people who can only eat/drink certain things. Ds is a pain with his hatred of water but at least he will eat a variety of stuff. When dh was the same age, he would only eat a particular type and brand of soup.

That's true Lyra it's a shame that soo many small shops have their fresh food outside by the roads.

I wasnt buying meat (freezer full because I order from the butcher and have just recently done that). I wasnt buying much veg because I grow my own so freezer is full of made up veg dishes and anything else I need I get from the farm shop.
My trolley really wasnt a panic buyer, selfish, hoarder trolley. It was just the snacks and cheese, milk, juice and some curry sauces. I dont use toilet roll (cheeky wipes), I don't buy washing powder (eco egg), I dont buy kitchen roll (bamboo cotton roll). I really dont buy loads of "in demand" stuff. But I wasnt allowed 4 different cheeses. I almost wasnt allowed crackers and rice cakes, and I had to put back a miltipack of crisps but next week I will he looking after several kids to help parents out. I just wish they could have actually thought for a minute instead of "no".

So what happens in countries where food is scarce and they are kids who will only eat or drink one thing?

Your kids don’t need milk tho, they’re not baby cows! lol!

Places have introduced limits for good reason but there are five of us. Four baking potatoes are no good to us, we need five. If this goes on we'll have to introduce proper rationing.

I think we do need rationing. But until/unless we get it, people will have to change their eating habits. If you can buy only a pack of four potatoes for baking but there are five of you, you’ll have to peel them and have mash instead. We’re already changing our eating habits, if only by eating a little less and being more careful with food waste.

alloutoffucks actually this is a real phemonenon.

Back in the era of Live Aid etc aid agencies used to distribute high protein, high energy food bars and people didn't accept they were food, and continued to starve. This has was also obseved during relief efforts during WW1 and when soup kitxhens and food banks distribute foods gifted to them which recipients are unfamiliar with. Its why aid agencies now distribute sacks of flour and rice or whatever is locally a staple, not high nutriant density emergency rations.

So what happens in countries where food is scarce and they are kids who will only eat or drink one thing?

The kids probably get beaten. No joke

Why do we need rationing? The current measures I heard were to deter panic buying and there is supposedly no issue with the food supply?

@anotherone That is a very different phenomena. Of course people will not eat something they don't realise is food. Often in places with famine law and order are in a very poor state and corruption abounds. So people will not eat something if they think it is very dodgy. Because if something makes them ill and they start vomiting, the vomiting alone will probably kill them. This is the equivalent of not eating berries in the wild because you don't know if they will feed you or kill you. Very different to just being a fussy eater.

Reminds me of someone I knew who swore her dog would only eat freshly rotisserie chicken.

@UsedUpUsername
The current measures arent working. Tha panic buyers are just going in again and again, each time buying the limit. So they still go home with mountains. Normal shoppers arent able to get their normal shops because of that.
The limits also mean a family of 6 have the same limit as a single person.

We need rationing. Ration cards allowing a certain amount per person per week, so they cant just go down to the shops every day and pile up their trolley and so larger families can get enough.

@UsedUpUsername Because people are flouting the 'current measures'. Rationing is a way to enforce the current measures.

The kids probably get beaten. No joke

Dh's parents tried that. Made zero difference to his eating habits. He seemed happy to starve after being beaten rather than expand his menu. We've tried reward charts, bribes and threats (not of violence) to get ds to drink water. We drink it. His little sister drinks it. His friends drink it. I've bought a variety of bottles to put it in. I've added fresh fruit. Nothing has worked. He takes a bottle to preschool full of fresh water. He brings the same bottle of fresh water home with him. The only thing he drinks at preschool is milk with his lunch.

I haven't panic bought at all but I plan to do a general shop tomorrow morning as usual. My elderly parents are self isolated so too is my sister and her family who have symptoms. Those two houses haven't panic bought either. I am a childminder (in Wales) and need food for three children daily. It means both DH and I taking separate trolleys and going to separate checkouts. If we can't get what we need we will have to go to several stores. So much for social distancing.

Dinosaur

To be clear, this is not what I think should happen. I understand autism. But this isn’t a concept in many third world countries and these type of children are seen as willful or disobedient

There are countries in the world where child mortality rates are horribly high. Where there's plenty of space in the stats to plausibly include some children who dislike the available sustenance sufficiently to make themselves vulnerable by undereating.

It’s a difficult situation. In the sw here and since Monday have had to visit 9 different shops and travelled around 50miles just to get a basic food shop for 5 of us, the shops are stripped bare, even the farm shop I went to this morning only had a small amount of eggs, green veg and lasagna sheets, no rice as they advertised yesterday they had.

It’s not sustainable if we have to go into isolation and surely I’m risking spreading it to a huge range of people over quite a distance because I’m having to go to so many different shops. (I don’t have symptoms btw)

Definately is not fair when 1 person can feed themselves for a week on the imposed limits and another family have to try muddle through, cutting portions, making difficult decisions and going without so their kids/working husband don’t go without.

We’ve already cut portion sizes, starting adding bulking ingredients like lentils to stretch meals, I’m not buying any treat food or puddings or extras like naan/garlic breads etc
I thankgod I semi prepped for brexit and bought three tins of Nido last year as there’s very little milk around here atm.

Something needs to be done fast as lots of people are going without, families, elderly and key workers, it can’t continue as it has this week, it’s almost at crisis point already.

I had a really well stocked brexit cupboard; which was obviously stocked up over a long period way before this all started so hasn't been part of the problem.
I've given half of it away because my neighbours just cant get what they need. I've given it away because I hope the shops and government get people under control, but if they dont and this goes on and on then my kids will go without because other people cant just buy normally.

The 3 item limit in Asda today even applied to bunches of daffodils! Me & my husband just went through the tills separately for other stuff. I'm disabled so usually my husband does the food shopping, but I'll have to go, too, for the time being. While we can do this, we will.

@Imstillskanking if that’s aimed at me, as I’ve said on other threads I hate the policing of people’s shopping and on a personal basis I’m not especially bothered what people buy.

What winds me up is this is what people wanted. They’ve whinged and bitched for days that supermarkets should set limits. Now they have, it’s still wrong. Next they want rationing; they’ll get that and it will still be wrong because someone will get a “better” ration than them.

Today I went to the shops and bought

2 large cartons of milk
2 loaves of bread
Parsnips
Carrots
Tomatoes
Apples
4 pizzas
7 large bags of sweets
Various magazines
1 bottle of wine.

I looked very selfish. However, only the bottle of wine was mine because I am shopping for 2 other families containing 7 children, mostly under 5, between them who are ill with this virus.

If I'd been told I couldn't have all those things I'd have gone to another shop to buy more because I get why we are doing this.

But I wasnt allowed 4 different cheeses. I almost wasnt allowed crackers and rice cakes, and I had to put back a miltipack of crisps but next week I will he looking after several kids to help parents out. I just wish they could have actually thought for a minute instead of "no".

They have thought though, and what you're buying is more than you need. When the cheddar runs out people will move onto goats cheese or whatever.

I agree with you. Our local shop was being stripped bare on a daily basis. Since the staff have implemented one loaf,milk & sanitizer per customer per day, its fully stocked again. The elderly people have access to bread and milk again. Those with a family can pop in on a daily basis, to make it fair for everyone.

I think supermarkets had to set limits.
The issue is that people think limits should only apply to other people, not to them. I accept that there are a few things I could not get as much as I wanted off. They were all things no one else seemed to want anyway. That is okay. I accept it for the greater good as it were.

Why do we need rationing? The current measures I heard were to deter panic buying and there is supposedly no issue with the food supply?

The current measures are making it difficult for families and those in isolation to get enough food.