Garden centres are more essential than off-licences during lockdown

[Fev11]

Supermarkets already sell alcohol so why on earth are off licences listed as ‘essential’ during lockdown?

Plants and flowers, whether growing in a garden or on a windowsill or balcony have long been recognised as beneficial to mental health. Unlike off-licences, Garden centres could easily be adapted to be fully outdoor spaces.

My heart goes out to the growers who are having to throw out all their stock, who unlike many businesses who will still have their stock to sell when this is all over.

I think garden centres/nurseries are more essential during lockdown than off licences.

AIBU?

GenericPlantBasedUsername

No. I don't want to be specific about location as I think I've already given away a lot of identifying info but we're in the north.

Could you employ a separate delivery company to do the couriering for you? Therefore the police would not be involved with you directly? I’m in London and people are still having flowers and luxury items delivered. If you wanted to get around it , you could include vegetable seeds or a tomato plant in every order?

I don’t see why they can’t do click and collect like the diy stores. It’s essential if the shops have no fresh veg which is happening frequently still. I have an allotment and I’m growing quite a bit already but I like to get some more difficult things started as plants at the garden centre so that we get things slightly quicker. The government are trying to stop us all wandering about but let’s face it if I’ve to go to three supermarkets for my shopping, I’m contaminating more anyways.

I love this thread. I thought my garden centre was closed, found their fb site and they are doing click and collects and deliveries. Very happy now!

The problem is for those at the bottom end of the scale with addiction they need to get alcohol from somewhere. They tend to use small local shops such as these.

I am long term sober. Been in a 12 step recovery program for 17 years. Believe me my drinking was lightweight when I decided enough was enough. I had begun drinking on an evening and was struggling to stop

My eyes were truly opened and I have learnt about all the yets. Some can go into seizure and would need hospital treatment putting more strain on the hospital.

Its preferred that they don't go near the supermarkets hence. Addiction is not a choice of life, it is classified as an illness by the medical profession, so if you wish to scoff remember it is a diagnosed recognised illness, by professionally trained people.

For anyone struggling with addiction or/and has someone around them whose drinking is causing a problem check out these 2 links

A.A: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/

Al-Anon for families of the drinker: www.al-anonuk.org.uk/

I have a local shop which is packed full of all the essentials I would need but I must admit I would to get some gardening gear.it will be nice for not only me but the kids to grow a bit and keep the garden nice....but at these times I am also thankful to get my hands on a glass of wine

You are not being unreasonable. As someone who already grew their own veg before this lockdown, I’m now having to grow less and buy more which is ludicrous given the supply chain pressures! I can’t buy seeds for love nor money, my local supermarket that usually has compost stacked high is sold out (I’m relatively rural so not a lot of options here). It would make sense for nurseries at least to be allowed to open with the option of essentials for fruit and veg growing at a time like this but as it is, my growing season looks like taking a tanking already as I can’t get the essentials to seed out. I appreciate much of the shortage is down to people jumping on the bandwagon which in the bigger scheme of things is a positive but for someone like me with a disability and agoraphobia whose garden is their only respite, it’s made my only interest nigh on impossible. Same goes for baking (I’ve baked my own bread etc for years but my already limited supply of flour is dwindling fast and I can’t get any for love nor money!). Hoping this finishes quickly so the ‘fad’ purchasers (including parents wasting flour on ‘educational slime making’ !) can go back to their usual Waitrose/Sainsburys/Ocado nonsense and the rest of us can return to our pastimes!

Our local nursery is open for deliveries only. The tensing staff are living onsite poor things to keep it going.
They’re charging £10 delivery which is pretty expensive for the North East, but if it helps keep them going I don’t begrudge it just now.
My only problem is the beautiful hanging baskets they delivered are too heavy for my existing brackets and obviously I’m not going to go shopping for any!

I agree would rather be able to buy some paint and some shrubs for the garden than alcohol.
I could be getting so much done at home but due to these things being non essential I’m sitting twiddling my thumbs

Garden centres could operate similar system to supermarkets. Limit number of people going in. Queue distanced. Gardening is a fantastic physical and mental activity. Just what people need right now. Instead £150million worth of plants are heading for landfill. 😢 And it’s possible for off licence to stay open if they operate sensible distancing.

I totally agree. At this time we all have the opportunity to dig up a bit of lawn and have a veg garden- brilliant for health and environment. It’s an appalling waste of a fantastic opportunity to get more people engaged in growing. I’m gutted I can’t get hold of seeds and plants at this time.

I agree ludicrous that off licences are open, but disagree that garden centres should be open. All these employees should be home and safe.

Offlicense does electric and gas top up service which most supermarkets like tesco and ASDA don’t . In my town I have tesco, Aldi, Lidl , Sainsbury and Waitrose but you need to go to the off-licence to top your gas and electric or pay other bills . (Paypoint) so it is essential

I think they are equally important and both should be on the essential list.

Fully agree OP 👍

Lovely13

Garden centres could operate similar system to supermarkets. Limit number of people going in. Queue distanced. Gardening is a fantastic physical and mental activity. Just what people need right now. Instead £150million worth of plants are heading for landfill. 😢 And it’s possible for off licence to stay open if they operate sensible distancing.

fatimashortbread

I think they are equally important and both should be on the essential list.

Yes. I agree completely. I’m worried for all the lovely people that work in Garden Centres and Florists losing their businesses. As long as they can deliver without personal contact I think they are V important for morale and should be allowed to stay open. In Holland they are incinerating tons of flowers which I find heartbreaking.

I read that garden centres couldn't switch to doing delivery’s as simply no capacity in the delivery chain. And they can’t have people wandering around as usual. So why not order online or over the phone and collect your order at a designated time? B&Q do this. You don’t set foot in their store and only 1 shop assistant brings the trolley to car which you load and leave. Us Brits love our gardens and the government must find a way to support them safely

Generic that is rotten that your DH had such a hard time.
Would click and collect/ telephone orders be an option?

People do understand that there will be teething problems and you aren't doing things the way you'd like but its a needs must situation.

Honestly the local guy put on his video included a plea for patience, family business, first time doing deliveries, he was going to do his best.
I think most people will be sympathetic to the scenario.

Not RTFT but offies are far more essential in that they are often placed in residential areas so are accessible to those who don't have transport or can't walk far.

Using small local shops takes pressure off supermarkets and reduce public transport journeys making social distancing easier.

supermarket delivery slots are very hard to obtain and a lot of people are infirm without being quite unwell enough to qualify as Extremely Vulnerable so won't get any help with food deliveries. some people may not have the money for a full delivered shop or even public transport to the supermarket if this has left them stuck financially so they need to have some provisions available locally.

The point is that they don't only sell booze, they sell some food, household items, basic medicines, phone, gas and electricity top ups. The bare essentials.

Garden centres are usually out of town, so a car journey away, especially as most garden centre purchases are quite large and heavy- plants etc. However nice plants are, a drive to the garden centre is not an essential journey even if it is to collect outside.

the difference with B&Q is that hardware may well be essential to fix something in the home. Ok, people are using B&Q for inessential stuff but we should really be making our own judgement calls about what is essential, shops can't police that.

if garden centres can organise delivery then yes, they can still trade. This is about people needing to distance themselves and stay indoors apart from absolutely essential trips, not how nice plants are compared to Special Brew.

I do sympathise with the hardships facing those in the horticultural industry, though.

As my Dh has suddenly found an interest in the garden, I would much rather garden centres than off licences. Anything to get him off the computer.

Alcoholics. Need. Booze. To. Live.

Proper alcoholics cannot detox cold turkey, as sad as that is. Lovers of cacti... Not so much.

Here in Australia, the twin peaks of Aussie fulfilment, i.e. Bunnings (DIY & gardening) + every bottle shop in The Southern Hemisphere are vital to the viability of this wide brown land. :o

Our local garden centres are delivering and are doing very well at the moment and thankfully aren't having to throw stock away

Wish ours would.

Our gardens are, for those of us living with physical and mental health issues, a total lifeline. There is so much research backing this that persons deriding our need for green things really need to stop as they are making themselves look rather silly, and heedless of our desperate needs.
Our local Gordon Riggs garden centre is also a grocers and greengrocers and petshop. If supermarkets and corner shops can open then so should they. We are almost capable of behaving sensibly. Even if these centres have to give away their stock out in the car park they should be accessible.
Good health and good sense to all.