to wonder if cucumbers are an essential purchase?

[MadameMeursault]

Woman walked out of Tesco in front of me carrying 2 cucumbers only! Wtf?

I walked out of the local Spar with only a large Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. Didn’t expect to get judged for it! Was also hoping for eggs, flour and yeast but they didn’t have them in

I saw an elderly man leave Morrison's with only a lettuce... he looked quite pleased with himself but I still cried.

(Bad PMT)

Maybe she has pets

Maybe did a two week shop and this was all she ran out of

Maybe she bought a small essential item (tampons, medication etc) that fitted in her pocket and two cucumbers

Maybe this was missing off her weekly shop

Maybe the forgot them and went back

Theres many reasons why someone might buy 2 cucumbers. I think the fact shes buying 2 suggests they are fairly important to her.

Also absolute bs can you carry 2 weeks of shopping for a family of 4! I can carry a weeks shopping for me and DP. But you'd need like 8 pints of milk! Thats already 4kg and we havent even got any tinned tomatos/tuna/beans, a bag of potatoes etc. Let alone our 2 cucumbers!

Also i can only really carry 4 carrier bags a distance, 6 at a push. 2 weeks shopping for 4 people is at least 8 bags, youve only got 2 hands! Even if you have a trolley its not gonna be big enough. At leats make your competitive lockdown believable

Getting annoying this what is essential bit..people aren't buying easter eggs as not essential. I had to walk down that aisle in shop cheaper than I ever seen them picked up some for when I get to see grandkids.Had to stand in line down the video .toy aisle waiting for a till, picked up some colouring pens while standing there so I can swear everytime I go over the line in my adult colouring book.it's all about sense which the majority of us have.

YABU, maybe she got the rest of her food elsewhere and they didn’t have any cucumbers

I wish people would stop policing what other people buy

YANBU. I went to Tesco - it may have been the same branch - and there were no cucumbers left. It is panic buyers such as the woman you saw who are depriving us all of our cucumbers. I managed to buy paella, chorizo and patatas bravas and someone had the cheek to accuse me of hispanic buying. Mind you, the man in front of me had an enormous sausage and a couple of juicy plums, and the woman behind had two massive melons.

My Gosh, so bloody nosey leave the poor woman alone.
Also where does it say some items are essential and some aren’t, is there a list somewhere of different items deemed to be essential as I’ve been following the information closely and I’ve not seen such a list. What I deem essential may be different to what you deem essential.
All this bother about other people’s shopping is overbearing and boring now

If it's anything like our shops half your list is missing.
I deliberately ordered a Monday am slot thinking that the stock update on Sunday evening when the shop was closed would be accurate.
My order still arrived with unsuitable exchanges and missing items that had been available at check out at 2355 on Sunday night.
Couldn't get a butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower or green beans for love nor money this week.
Last week it was chickpeas.

My DS loves cucumber (no idea why as it is the most boring food imaginable) so we would definitely be buying some if we went to a supermarket

Darling you can’t have Pimms without cucumber.
Just because we are in lockdown there is no need to let standards slip. It’ll be eating peas with a knife next and then anarchy.

Depends on delivery availability from Love Honey really!

My 19 month old is obsessed with toddlers, especially during active teething. They're pretty essential in our household.

YANBU I'm actually quite shocked by the responses to this question. It perhaps illustrates where the UK is relative to other countries and why it's likely that stricter measures are going to be necessary to flatten the curve. It's not a question of whether a cucumber or any other food is essential, but whether it's necessary to go to the supermarket just to buy a couple of items. I'm in France. If I was caught coming out of a shop with just two cucumbers, I would be fined by the police. It would not be considered reasonable to have gone to the shop just for a couple of items. Staying home to save lives means just that.

It's not a question of whether a cucumber or any other food is essential, but whether it's necessary to go to the supermarket just to buy a couple of items.

Right on. Unfortunately it seems people just do not get it. Every time you go into a shop you are exposing yourself and others to risk.

Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been one cucumber, or half

Perhaps she needed medicine, that could have been in her bag and the cucumbers were bought as she was in there as they’d run out. Who knows? I know I won’t get my supermarket shop done on time this week as my keyworker job is crazy busy so had to use the garage for a few bits to keep going today. There are lots of reasons people may need to get a few essentials, money, work, desperation. We need to be supporting each other and not testing each other apart, demanding that our NHS are given full PPE along with care workers and other key workers, not calling each other out on shopping trips when we have juices what’s going on in their lives.

Not if she had already had it.
None of us know the context. Maybe she had done a full shop and realised she had forgotten cucumber

Gin and Tonic

who gives a shit

If people had accepted to show a little of common sense, a little bit of respect for the NHS staff who are begging people to stay home and would love nothing more than staying home themselves, we wouldn't go there.

Amen to that. Reading this thread is making me lose all hope in humanity… "DH had to go out for a jumbo bag of chicken dippers because none came on the shopping delivery." FFS.

One of my husbands friends was out for his hour long walk today and was passing a shop on his way home. Thought he would get something to cheer his wife up as she is struggling with stress from work situation, lockdown, poorly relatives etc. So popped in on a whim and bought a bottle of Prosecco. 5 minutes later was stopped by the police in the street and given a £30 fine for non-essential shopping trip.

@DrMaryMalone so if he had bought a packet of Imodium alongside with it would be be fined ? I don’t get the rules. What about a loaf of bread and some Haribo? Milk, eggs and crate of cider ? Genuinely would that be ok or is it the presence of the non essential item that gets you the fine ?

They were essential for my teething toddler last week when we couldn’t get calpol.

That said, I wouldn’t go to a supermarket just for two items, I’d stock up on whatever I needed for the next few days at the same time.

Cucumber is essential for G&T. Maybe she's run out of limes...