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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Banning Easter eggs a step too far

320 replies

VivienScott · 30/03/2020 14:30

I’ve just read that some officials are cracking down on shops selling Easter eggs as it’s non-essential. Isn’t this all going a bit far now? Easter eggs aren’t essential but a chocolate bar is? Feels like some people are letting a minuscule bit of power go straight to their heads.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52090441

OP posts:
JustInCaseCakeHappens · 30/03/2020 15:49

If any supermarket tried to make me justify everything in my trolley, they'd very quickly lose my custom.

and do you think they would care because...?
ANY supermarket offering a delivery slot nowadays will be inundated with customers, whatever their social, environmental, feminist or non-feminist position Grin
And losing 1 punter who is throwing their toys out of the pram is the very least of their worry. Sorry to break it to you.

milveycrohn · 30/03/2020 15:49

I have bought Easter Eggs for my two adult DS. (Well, I have not actually been out of the house, I got my DH to buy them, having told them the ones I wanted).
In fact the Times (which day?) ran a 'Best Easter Egg' feature. No I am not buying any of the really expensive ones from various exclusive shops, but wanted one better than the children's ones.
I am going to get my DH to drop them on their respective doorsteps. (a few minutes drive each), when he next goes to shops, just before Easter.
Bought them in advance, in case they sold out, as I expect everyone to be buying them.
I presume these restrictions will still be in force, so will not be spending time with DSs, so an Easter Egg seems to be the next best thing.
I still wonder if this is another way of transmitting the virus.

zigaziga · 30/03/2020 15:50

Huh? But hardly anything I buy in the supermarket is essential ... in the sense that I could cope without any biscuits at all... or, I don’t really need 5 different types of fruit do I? Shampoo isn’t essential. I could live today without any convenience food but I still buy it.

If chocolate eggs aren’t essential (obviously they aren’t but they are a food stuff and food generally is) then there should be some just basic list of food we are “allowed”. Nothing fun. Nothing outside of the bare minimum to live.

Srslydontgiveacrap · 30/03/2020 15:53

Surely you'd tell the police to get stuffed? No one can stop you legally buying something in a shop wtf

people are losing the plot

mooboy · 30/03/2020 15:53

@Zaphodsotherhead your manager is an arse. Some people are addicted to coke - I think Mr Trump might be one of them - coke is an essential to some people - especially the people who don't drink water.

zigaziga · 30/03/2020 15:53

Making special trips to buy one, that's what the problem is.

See I get this but this is the case with anything. Bread, rice, eggs, carrots...

If you nip to the shop just to buy carrots I could question whether carrots are really all you are planning to eat for the next few days or if in fact you have other food at home and just felt you were missing carrots in which case the carrots aren’t essential at all.

So maybe people should be banned from just going to the shops for less than 3 items full stop of something..? If we’re going down that route ..

ifonly4 · 30/03/2020 15:55

I've heard of two people in our town receiving fines as they've been caught leaving Asda with just Easter eggs or a corner shop with just beer, as it was a treat not an essential shop. If you're including them as part of a main weekly shop with lots of healthy essentials, then you can't blame people we're going to need a treat at Easter.

P1nkHeartLovesCake · 30/03/2020 15:55

I agree with the previous poster I wouldn’t shop in a supermarket again now or when this is all over, if I had snotty shop assistants telling me what I could and couldn’t buy. My own government has NOT given a list of what is essential food and drink wise, so Mary on till 5 certainly isn’t going to.

People have absolutely no common sense. Besides, haven't most people got their Easter Eggs in already? Bloody things have been in our warehouse since Boxing Day I’ve got common sense thanks but I don’t buy Easter eggs on Boxing Day, I buy mine a week or so before you know easter..becuase Easter eggs are generally eaten at Easter it’s kind of in the name.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 30/03/2020 15:56

Who has said they plan to make special trips just to buy Easter eggs, or shampoo? Why are people making up their own scenarios so they can condemn them?

LemonSqueazy · 30/03/2020 15:57

One person's non essential high sugary drink or packet of jelly babies is a type 1 diabetic's essential way of getting some fast acting sugar into them for hypos.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 30/03/2020 15:58

I mean, I bought 2 different types of cheese last time I went to the shops. Could I survive on one type of cheese only? Yes, of course I could. Is there any good protecting people from coronavirus related reason why I shouldn't buy 2 different types of cheese in one trip? No, but some people seem to be hoping for WW2 rationing type conditions for no reason that I can make any sense of.

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 30/03/2020 15:58

So maybe people should be banned from just going to the shops for less than 3 items full stop of something..? If we’re going down that route ..Confused

well, yes. That's the current guidelines! What part of stay home unless absolutely necessary and avoid going shopping as much as you possibly can is so hard to understand?
If people cannot accept the rules, there will have to be a clear ban and fine.

it's a pity to treat the entire population like children, but it seems common sense is long dead and people need to be forced to do something, they can't manage on their own.

China had a better way, people were not allowed out full stop and officials were delivering food. Is that what people want?

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 30/03/2020 16:00

Who has said they plan to make special trips just to buy Easter eggs, or shampoo? Why are people making up their own scenarios so they can condemn them?

supermarkets workers who see what people are buying...

JudyCoolibar · 30/03/2020 16:00

On "Born to be Different" the other day, one of the children with a stoma was saying that flat diet coke was one of the best things for flushing the tubes used, and was recommended by her doctors. God help her if she has to be publicly interrogated by supermarket staff about why she is buying coke.

EvilPea · 30/03/2020 16:02

This is really boiling my piss. If you are going to 1 shop to buy essentials and pick up something like a bunch of flowers, a new mug, a pair of pants, an easter egg. What difference does it make?
Your not making a different journey, your not going to a different shop. Your still seeing the same people.
You are in fact helping the economy that bit more, as well as making the lockdown a little more bearable for you and your kids .

We have a local independent garden centre, they have a food hall and pet shop so are able to stay open. Some people are absolutely slating them for being open, but the food hall is a million times nicer for older people to shop in, its more spaced out, theres no queuing to get in and its in the middle of the town so people can walk to it. If they happen to pick up a pot plant whilst there, or a few strawberry plants whilst there, in a shop they were already in, is it an issue? It is a life line for the old people locally, the same ones who cannot order something on line, who are better off not on the buses at the moment.

GabsAlot · 30/03/2020 16:03

no i cant see it for a change though the specials aisle in my tesco was very quiet-full of easter eggs

MarginalGain · 30/03/2020 16:03

Currently polls show 95% in agreement in the UK though

Five days ago they did. I think it would be pretty silly to take this support for granted.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 30/03/2020 16:04

China had a better way, people were not allowed out full stop and officials were delivering food.

That is not what happened even in Wuhan. One member of the household was allowed out to shop for food etc every X number of days.

BiarritzCrackers · 30/03/2020 16:06

I feel there would be a market for T-shirts printed with the legislation, so that police stopping you in their roadblocks and trying to 'advise', would have to point to what section of the Act exactly they believe themselves to be acting under - left boob, just below navel etc.

Except that manufacture of the Ts wouldn't count as 'essential'. But they would sell like hot cakes (hot cakes also not essential).

Madein1995 · 30/03/2020 16:06

And while police forces are fanning about with drones and social media and banning Easter egg proposals - 2 women have lost their lives at the hands of a current or ex partner since this lockdown began. 2 women since last Monday. One case was in South Wales where a man killed his wife, and another in England where a mum of 3 was killed by an ex partner I believe.

Drones and social media warrioring are clearly very important

ShootsFruitAndLeaves · 30/03/2020 16:06

As usual, it's easier to blame the police and pretend you are better than anyone so rules don't apply to you.

Rules apply, it's just a lot of people don't seem to know or care what the rules actually are, and are instead treating guidelines (or their personal interpretation of them) as rules.

Making special trips to buy one, that's what the problem is.
Since when is an Easter egg (or shampoo) essential? You add it to your monthly or bi-monthly shop. You don't make a special outing for one.

Who on earth shops monthly? Do you live in (3 items per person) cans of soup or something?

I love it when people are trying to pretend they don't understand obvious rules and police reactions.

Obvious rules? Rules aren't merely 'obvious', they are either rules or they or not. Obviousness doesn't come into it.

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 30/03/2020 16:08

If idiots haven't been going for unnecessary shopping trips, all the DIY shops around here would have stayed opened for emergency repairs.

People screaming about their human right to buy an Easter Egg are the reasons why we'll have more and more restrictions.

It's rather embarrassing if you think about it. The general public is too dumb to self-behave. But we knew that already.

Marriedtoapenguin · 30/03/2020 16:10

If purchased in isolation you're being a twat. If you're buying along side essentials then there isn't a problem.

Nice to see though that during a global pandemic there remains the urge on here to blow everything far out of proportion.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 30/03/2020 16:10

Well, the police don't enjoy going out on domestic violence calls. They do apparently enjoy policing people's food purchases, or arresting teenagers for not telling them where they live.

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 30/03/2020 16:10

ShootsFruitAndLeaves

Who on earth shops monthly? Do you live in (3 items per person) cans of soup or something?

Are you playing dumb or trying to be funny?

You know the advice is to shop as seldom as you possibly can. Does someone needs to put in writing how many times a month that is? Can't you work it out all by yourself?

The stupidity is the reason we are in this mess.