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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find going to a supermarket an absolute ordeal

144 replies

Jellybean27 · 27/03/2020 22:13

God. Despite the social distancing, the few in few out, additional cleaning etc etc.
I found myself having a cry in the car afterwards. (Obviously whilst rubbing copious amounts of hand gel into my hands and avoiding touching my face until I get could get home and scrub fuck out of them for way more than 20 seconds)

My first time out of the house in days and it was seriously overwhelming.

Really need to sort myself out 🙄

OP posts:
PickAChew · 27/03/2020 23:17

We've been getting most of our fresh food from M&S. I'd been avoiding our local one, recently, as it was too busy and very stressful (BAP and struggle with crowds) but it's quite lovely, at the moment, and everything is very fresh.

I've seen that, like waitrose, they're installing screens at the checkouts. A wise move, since this isn't going to be done and dusted anytime soon.

Opendraw · 27/03/2020 23:18

My issue today was Tesco extra a very small staff tape in place all good. Except
Lovely staff were in every ailse stocking up impossible to keep 2m from them or avoid. Crosses at the tills where to stand yet the girl organising again not 2m away. They will be very lucky not to catch Anything :-(. I did tell a young file in the q to step back to the line.

Davros · 27/03/2020 23:20

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to M&S yesterday

ssd · 27/03/2020 23:21

Tesco have been brilliant in all this. Ds just told me staff are getting a 20% payrise through all this.

Opendraw · 27/03/2020 23:23

They certainly deserve my post was about their safery being so conscientious of keeping stocked

Lycidas · 27/03/2020 23:23

Went to M & S today, very quiet. Checkout took a little longer because they'd disabled some of the self-checkout tills (presumably for the 2 metre rule). All in all, not as bad as I'd feared.

Namechangedforthisreply7 · 27/03/2020 23:24

It was fine! Tesco today. Half hour wait outside, sensible distancing well policed, no stockpiling allowed! It was much more peaceful than usual! I’m grateful to be honest, they are doing an amazing job keeping us all safer.

MigginsMrs · 27/03/2020 23:25

My husband went to ALDI and said it was dire. There’s a few things we still need I am taking food to my parents’ tomorrow and they’re near a Waitrose, I might go there.

Original poster
Jellybean27 · 27/03/2020 23:28

Wasn’t a moan about the state of supermarkets. I’m hugely grateful and don’t think there’s much more supermarket staff can actually do.

Was more of a moan about my current state of mind 😕

OP posts:
MigginsMrs · 27/03/2020 23:30

Oh my husband said that the staff and supermarket were fine it was other customers all dithering around, not distancing, handling items that they weren’t buying etc

BreconBeBuggered · 27/03/2020 23:31

I found my trip to Morrison's yesterday quite calming. The queue to get inside was next to nothing by the time we got there, and I really appreciated the space all around me, though some customers weren't all that scrupulous about distancing.
The only gripe I had really was that it wasn't made clear which items were restricted. I was buying for 2 households and just bunged it all together at the checkout, only to find that some items were removed as I'd bought more than 3 in certain categories. The operator said I should have separated them out, which I'll do next time. ILs get through a lot of milk!

MurrayTheMonk · 27/03/2020 23:31

Today was my first time in a shop for 14 days. Only our local shop which is tiny and everyone was trying to avoid each other and anxious.
I hated it. Probably worse as it felt weird being out again but still... not nice.

Geraniumblue · 27/03/2020 23:32

Tesco felt very safe and calm. But yes, it was also weird. I work in a school too, though and a tiny class rattling around in a big school also feels strange and scary.

StarsThatTwinkle · 27/03/2020 23:32

I saw the queue at the local Tesco and it looked a nightmare length, due to the spacing, which is necessary of course but freaky, so I went to a smaller local shop. I don't want to do a supermarket again, unless I absolutely have to, can't bear the freaky atmosphere and queueing and all that, so I'm spinning out store cupboard stuff with bits from the corner shop for as long as I possibly can. Even when all this is over I don't think I will want to go back for a very long time. It's changed how I feel about it. It used to feel completely normal and now it isn't. I know that's not the shops' fault but I feel like I can't trust them any more and so I'll scavenge (as it were) for bits here and there rather than put my trust in one big supermarket basket (as it were). It's bad enough having the threat to life, virus, lockdown, economy etc without also worrying over whether you can get toilet paper or whether the stationery aisle is blocked off or whether the makeup counter is closed. I don't want to see it. If I could grow my own toilet paper to avoid going to the shops ever again I would Sad

amandalives · 27/03/2020 23:32

I haven't been to the shop since official lockdown but DH has and didn't pass comment on how it was. I'm torn as to whether I should go next time, partly because I'm curious and partly because I'm more hygiene conscious (I'v always used gel and washed hands after going shopping) but I am also nervous about putting myself at risk.

Crinkle77 · 27/03/2020 23:35

My local Tesco was fine last night about 7.30. No queues, spray for trolleys and hand gel available, nice and quiet and decent amount of stock on the shelves.

starlightgazers · 27/03/2020 23:36

I quite like being let out of prison!

Haha - I feel the same. I get cross in the shops no as nobody seems to get the sizing of 2 metres apart, either that or they don't care.

Teddy1970 · 27/03/2020 23:38

I went to Tesco earlier, it's a huge one, normally so busy but the atmosphere in the store was strange, everyone felt on edge as if something was about to happen. I felt like I was in some science fiction novel, it was very odd.

Namechangedforthisreply7 · 27/03/2020 23:38

Honestly, I don’t get the freaky stuff. It’s not freaky. It’s sensibly controlled shopping. Why is that freaky? I felt incredibly reassured at how slick it was.

People need to calm down. This is panic talking not rational thought. Panic is utterly unhelpful and is catching to those around you, esp children. You owe it to them to put your big girl pants on and woman up.

PickAChew · 27/03/2020 23:39

I get that @jellybean27 and autistic and highly anxious ds1 is righ there with you, having refused to leave the house since it was announced that schools were closing. I hope you can find some help with this, once the situation has calmed down a little.

It's interesting how many other autistic people are enjoying the experience, though. I'm just broader autism phenotype but, like others with autism/aspergers in this thread, enjoying the enforced distance.

TheUnquestionedAnswer · 27/03/2020 23:42

@RhubarbTea this is exactly how I feel. It started about 2 weeks ago for me when we were first told to practice social distancing. I have been so close to crying in public, so many times.

ViveLEntenteCordiale · 27/03/2020 23:42

My sympathies... not the supermarket but the chemist nearly killed me today. I have limited mobility and have a slipped disc so my back is agony atm, I had my stick but the barrier separating me from the counter was so far away that I couldn't reach to pass the prescription over (should have made a paper Dartmouth of it) and have now pulled something in my pelvis trying to reach without bending my back. Then of course I couldn't reach the card reader and he was behind a screen so had trouble passing me the bag - and worst of all I was in so much pain by the time I was even half way through that I forgot something and will have to go back next week! I will have to call in advance next time to see if they can have it ready for me to collect, and take my grabber on a stick! I keep crying because it will be like this for weeks (two more weeks lockdown announced from next Tuesday) and no chance of help with my back.

Not in U.K., we've been on lockdown longer but... smaller shops are better! Fewer people and proportionally better stocked. Small organic shop had loads of fresh fruit and veg and all the store-cupboard stuff I needed. Have made DH do the supermarket because of my problems - I couldn't wait outside for 20 mins. He's super speedy anyway! Our shop has been a bit eclectic and he had to go to a second one as no fresh milk in the nearest one this week, otherwise it's not bad, just a bit empty.

SanFrancisco49er · 27/03/2020 23:42

I went to waitrose at 12 today and there was a 2 hour queue around the car park, very well organised but long. I didnt bother, left it til 8pm and then went to Tesco which was virtually empty and really well stocked. Washed hands, took off clothes and put them straight in machine then had a hot bath and washed my hair. All in all a pretty decent experience but did worry slightly that I couldn't face anti baccing all the shoppping so it's all now in the cupboards as it is but there is a limit i feel!

Bluebell246 · 27/03/2020 23:43

Supermarkets at the moment are enough to induce a panic attack. I know the measures are all sensible and necessary but I find it really hard to keep up with all the rule changes and revised opening times and who is allowed in and who isn't. Add on to that the willingness of some people to act as enforcers and community judges and the growing acceptance of public shaming of people, and my anxiety levels are sky high.

StarsThatTwinkle · 27/03/2020 23:44

Namechanged "Honestly, I don’t get the freaky stuff. It’s not freaky. It’s sensibly controlled shopping."

Sensibly controlled shopping is necessary but it's absolutely freaky that it's come to this.

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