To wish people would stop being such selfish fucking bellends.

[Soapytoad]

That’s it really. Everyone else has to KEEP going to the shops to try and find essentials because the fucking knobheads have bough and keep buying up everything.

How can you social distance when you have to constantly hop from shop to shop for basic food for your children?! I’m in the shops more now than I was before this shitshow started.

I couldn’t give a fuck if I got Covid-19, but I don’t want my kids getting it, ever. I have to leave them at home while I go out! I live rurally so no take away, no drliveroo, no community and only 2 towns 15 miles in opposite directions. Still no fucking toilet roll, still no basic veg oil, no hand sanitiser, no basic vegetables, no meat. My kids eat before I do do at least I’m losing weight now, and we have now discovered those birds eye chicken burgers approved by mumsnet. (They are amazing btw!)

Fuck off selfish people and stop putting everyone else at risk you fucking selfish, fucking boggely eyed cuntvid pisswesels.

Minty, how do you suggest Suppermarkets do that? Delivery and click and collect is very labour intensive for them. They are already working at full capacity. They only have so many vans and "someone" still has to do the shop, even if it's not you.

They do need to sort out all the people holding multiple slots though (if that's what's happening). Maybe they should cancel all the booked slots more than 10 days ahead and start again.

Locally here a couple of catering suppliers have started doing home delivery boxes, so that's something worth exploring in your area. As others have said all the food that used to be supplied to catering establishments is now being bought at the supermarket.

I just can’t understand why the supermarkets main priorities aren’t click and collect and home deliveries.

They are! I have emails from Sainsbury's every few days at the moment telling me what they're doing and they are really trying hard to a) increase capacity for deliveries and for click and collect and b) to prioritise elderly/vulnerable customers. The thing is that many elderly people actually LIKE to go to the shops normally to get out of the house, so many of them were not already registered with the supermarkets for home deliveries. The ones utilising that service in normal times tend to be time-poor, tech-savvy younger people, so they're trying to deny those people deliveries now while giving the delivery slots to people who are self isolating - many of whom were not previously registered with the supermarkets for that service - a mammoth job I would think and one that is pissing off a lot of their regular delivery customers!

I hope when all this is over op, you remember your new-found social conscience and join those of us who have been just as angered by the selfishness of others gathering resources for years. I’m thinking of those who have been buying up far more of that other basic need, shelter - the housing crisis caused by buy-to-let and second home owners - as well as the general reduction in employee rights and wages in recent years: all the demands that younger generations pay and pay again for resources the older generation used to take for free, and feel entitled to go on taking.

Honestly, a culture has been created where most people feel unvalued and unwanted except as wage slaves, working ever harder for less return, jumping through more and more hoops, scrabbling for the fewer and fewer crumbs that are dropped under the table while the excesses of the rich grow. Where realistically did our leaders think they were taking us but to a dog eat dog world? There needs to be a rethinking after this: a period of reflection, re-evaluation and above all listening and acknowledging of everyone’s concerns, not just those at the top after this.

If you transfer the 30% of food that is normally eaten out of the home into home-based meals that's a HUGE increase.
We are a family of four, including two large hungry teenagers and worrying about having enough food in the house to keep everyone fed is probably the thing which makes me most anxious right now.
I'm not stockpiling by any means, but I am much more focused on planning for the week ahead now.

Usually I do one major shop, and then one or two ‘bread and milk’ shops. I’m now only doing one shop per week, so that total has increased £20+ . Plus I have a son returned home, so that’s an extra adult to feed.

Spain and Italy have shorter supply chains in general, a lot of local produce so easier to keep shops stocked.
We don't. People buy a lot of processed food. Borders are closed, it's not just a case of depot to shop.
Factories have lost staff from Brexit, then more due to coronavirus as staff wanted to go home to their family in their home countries.
Stll more are now in isolation as they or a family member are ill.
Apply this to warehouses and freight drivers too.
Food manufacturers are running on skeleton crews in some cases, or closing altogether.
Panic buying doesn't help, but it's not the full picture.

I went to Waitrose late afternoon. Got everything I needed for family of five for a week, except loo roll. Some bits of the country seem okay.

All the supermarkets are fine where I live, except Tesco, which looked a bit bare last week. M&S was the best, there was virtually nobody in there, fully stocked and lots of yellow sticker sale items.

Have not done any stockpiling or prepping, but we are buying loads more, due to one extra person in the household (university student) plus all 5 of us having lunch and snacks at home instead of out and about. And not having dinner out, which ordinarily we might do at least once a week.

I agree.

As for Brexit, if EVER there was a time for “pulling together/global cooperation, it’s going to be going forward from this worldwide disaster. And we’ve shot ourselves in the foot again.

Shops seem to be better stocked now that they are controlling the numbers who go in.

What I found difficult to get my head round when I went was: how come people are happy to queue up in the car park leaving distances comfortably over two metres from other people, yet think that as soon as they get through the door the need for social isolation magically disappears to that it's fine to crowd people to grab what you want?

And, minor gripe: supermarket people, we love you, you're doing a great job and the way you had things organised was, mostly, brilliant. But do you think you could avoid blocking the aisles chatting to your colleagues when we're trying to keep 2 metres away from you?

anyone found throwing out food should be named, shamed then shot.

I have quite a small fridge, but you'd be amazed what I found at the back of it, and some stuff got thrown.
The "fresh" dhansak sauce, BB June 2018 was fine, but stuff that was beyond the sniff test, or covered in green mould, went in the bin.

Our local butcher price matches to Tesco. They are doing free delivery to vulnerable and self isolating otherwise you can pre order by phone and collect. The local Co op is also organising volunteers to take shopping to those who can’t get the shop plus we have a local group of volunteers who are organised and they say they have more volunteers than people who need them (yet). Definitely call around your local shops and ask what they can do if you are stuck for groceries and also contact local volunteer groups. People want to help others at this time. Please don’t be shy and be at home with not enough to eat.

We’re avoiding supermarkets. The worst places to be right now for so so many reasons.

Have had luck with local butchers and green grocers and a lot of local restaurants and cafes have started baking and selling bread for a few hours here and there which is lovely.

Also, a petrol station with an M&S food shop about 40 mins drive from us has been empty of people and fully stocked!

l work on a supermarket checkout.
Twice in the space of a week, l've had women have a go at me because l wouldn't let them have more than the allotted quantity of pizzas.
Our store's limit is three.
One wanted four "Because there are four of us!"
The other one, last night, had six. "l've got four kids! l'm not cooking four different meals!"
And both of them, almost word for word, "This is what l USUALLY buy! This is just a NORMAL shop for me!"
People need to realise that at present, there is no 'usual' or 'normal'.
l suggested that they could have three (big) pizzas, plus garlic bread, wedges, salad, etc, all of which we have very decent supplies of. They looked at me like l'd suggested killing a kitten.
Both of them chose to have a tantrum and threw the pizzas back at me, saying they'd "go elsewhere, then!"
l cannot comprehend how they don't realise that this isn't me, or the store where l work, just doing this to piss them off. lt's everywhere. And for good reason.
People are saying that they "must" have 8 tins of tomatoes, because that's what they ALWAYS have, EVERY week."
A friend of mine has just said to me, "We're still eating ok, we're just having to be a bit inventive. As an example, we had chilli last night, just without the chilli."
lf people don't have cookery books, and they don't usually cook from scratch, there's google. Look for ideas on there. lf you do cook, now's the time to be a bit creative and use what you have. lt won't be what you usually have, but nothing is just now.
l feel very sorry for people who are struggling. l'm in the same boat. l sit on my till and watch them put loo rolls out, then disappear. l don't get preferential treatment because l work there.
Last weekend l needed bread, eggs and a couple of tins of tuna. There were none. So l bought baking potatoes and some cheese. lt's a meal. lt's not an omelette, or tuna pasta, but it's a meal.
Until this is all over, none of us can have 'normal'. We will get back to that, but for the time being, some people need to stop being so bloody selfish and entitled, realise that the world doesn't revolve around them, and that other people don't have the luxury (and it is, just now) of a food stash, or a larder. They're the ones who don't have the money to do that, and who, for various reasons, can't buy a 'usual' shop of food that will last them for a week or more.

The world won't end because you can't have a pizza each. But the pizzas you don't have could feed someone else, or their children, who actually need it.

Thanks Weedsnseeds1. I found that information very helpful.

We used to do one shop per week, but since the supermarkets are rationing a lot of things to 2 or 3 items per customer, I’m finding I have to go out more. If you have several people in the household, it’s not possible to buy a week’s worth of stuff in one go

If you live near a bigger town or city, the out-of-town Chinese supermarket/wholesalers/Cash & Carries are well stocked with rice, tins, dried food, and household essentials. Also loads of fresh veg and fruit, meat and fish, although not always the same choice you'd get in a supermarket. We bought a medium sized sack of rice which will last us months. There were bigger ones. Lots of them. Their supply chains are completely separate from the supermarket chains.

These places are where the restaurants and takeaways get their stock from. Not just Chinese ones, there is a range of different cuisines represented. With the restaurants all closed the wholesalers are only to happy to sell products direct to the consumers (they always have allowed anyone to shop without any membership fee or anything like that).

In Manchester there is Wing Yip and WH Lung.

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras but if you’d read the rest of my post you’d see that I said social media is perpetuating downright bullshit. Some moron keeps posting the same pictures on my local community FB group of sweet little elderly people amidst empty shelves, and the same pathetic sheep bleat on every time about how shocking and disgusting it is and how they’re ashamed to be from “our town”. Those pictures are not of our local supermarkets; however many times the sane few try and tell them this they will not bloody listen. Where I live, the supermarkets are fine; reasonably well stocked and plenty to go round - not the barren wastelands they are purported to be. People are just too fucking stupid to go and find out for themselves, instead they believe the shite that some saddo has got nothing better to do than endlessly copy paste.

There’s a video doing the rounds of a group of ladies waiting for the yellow ticket reductions cart to appear in Tesco, which they then fall upon and strip bare. That video has been around for fucking years but hey, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good froth frenzy 🙄. Same with the loo roll video from the US - cue 500 “I’m so ashamed to be British” comments 🤦‍♀️.

YANBU OP. And I love your last sentence, what a fantastic rant!

gingersausage

But I'm not referring to those pictures. I work in the supermarket. I know what it looks like, what my colleagues look like, what the car park and shop front look like.

It's not a photo from 20 years ago from an Orlando Walmart. It's the shop that I work in. I can see the queues, the empty shelves.

with respect the delivery system is affected - the drivers, store keeper, import etc are made up of people & many are on lockdown thus sorting things out & sending them out is affected, & don't forget how much food we import & always have which is why there was rationing in ww1&2 & during the oil crisis in the early 70's - I can imagine that ports & transports are being held up because of cross national restrictions & farm workers/factory workers who produce & package food are also likely to be affected - it makes logical sense most countries in Europe are likely to have lockdown issues

In terms of delivery, I saw an article (can’t remember where) which said that only 8% of deliveries were online. I don’t know if that includes click and collect but whether it does or not, increasing that to cover everyone who needs delivery is almost impossible without including people who want it.

It would be better from an overall infection perspective to close the supermarkets and have everyone order from a more limited selection online with delivery in a particular area being covered by one driver going down the street but the infrastructure isn’t there and there is no way to put it in place.

Absolutely sickening ro see shops stripped bare through greedy selfish people who then throw it away unused in the bin.