Supermarket safety - get what you pay for?

[Pumpertrumper]

Just wondering if it’s my city is unique.

I’ve visited a few supermarkets over the course of covid, for one reason or another. There is a huge link between how ‘up market’ the supermarket is and how well organised/safe it was.

I very rarely shopped Waitrose pre covid but they are ace! Several staff on the door, all trolleys being wiped down religiously. Giant tenting and organised queuing system outside. Kept pretty quiet inside and everyone very careful.
M&S similar - little bit busier though.
Sainsbury’s- ok, good queuing system but bit too busy in some aisles. Good precautions at the tills.

Asda/Morrison’s - Total chaos! Asda doesn’t even have a queuing system and Morrison’s is obviously just for show. Both totally rammed, staff not caring. Shoppers elbow knocking distance of each other. No caution!

I can’t comment on Aldi/Lidl as haven’t been since covid (they are further away).

I know it makes sense an element of ‘you get what you pay for’ but I can’t help thinking it’s a bit crap that those who can afford to do their weekly shop at Waitrose get to be safer. I find myself going there more and accepting the extra £20-30 on our weekly shop as paying to feel safe.

Hoping it’s just my local city and not nationwide.

We do our main shop in a massive Morrisons, which has coped really well with COVID. They put in a queuing system for the tills, which was brilliant and ran very smoothly but they've taken it away now, which is a shame.

I had to go into Waitrose yesterday (only place that stocks galangal - OverheardInWaitrose is basically about me) and there was a queue to get in. I only waited about 5 minutes, and the shop was busy but not heaving. It is pretty well-organised.

I sometimes do top-up shopping in Aldi, and i have had no issues with them either.

I think it must vary between individual stores.
The worst around here is Tesco, it was jam packed today , no queues, no hand gel.

The best is ALDI, Morrisons are good too.

Me too, we live in Waitroseland (HO not far away, so surrounded by stores, all good on sanitising trolleys, handgel available, limiting number in store, etc ).
I only buy Essentials they are far cheaper than brands and IMO far nicer 9esp the baked beans) than any other brand/non brand.

Sorry but Waitrose essential beans are disgusting. The only cheap tins I’ve ever bought that had black beans in and were rock hard.
Asda basics are the best and pretty much every blind taste test confirms this.
Waitrose is horribly expensive on some things ( salad items and fresh meat) and a little more on others. My average shop is 40 items. Even a bit more - say 10p an item extra, soon adds up.

Hardly ever went to Tesco because they were absolute arseholes where I am.
Asda supermarkets- brilliant.

no Waitrose,Ocado or Sainsbury here.

I’m hardly ever at Lidls or Aldi so can’t say.

Local Coop also been fine- they have traffic light system in place to control amount of people in the shop,wonder why the others couldn’t get it as it works well.

Have been to Lidl, M&S, Tesco and Sainsburys, all pretty good with staff on door. People seem to be left to disinfect themselves nowadays and i'm not sure how to do that without touching the bottle everyone else has already touched, so I just use my own bag. The main problem I encountered, especially in Tesco, was families (not one adult with children, before I get lynched!)) and what were clearly small social groups of friends shopping together.
One family had brought their kid on a scooter! That definitely should have been stopped at the door.
I do see a lot of complaints about Asda overcrowding on social media.

Asda - Far too crazy like the seventh circle of hell..avoid it
Small Tesco - Busy but well policed and the staff are really nice
Waitrose- Ok , but I am avoiding it until they get rid of the rude bully boys on the door
Morrisons - Oh is there a pandemic ?
Lidl- Always a good experience ( except for their filthy hand sanitiser and trolley spray bottles) but I use my own
M&S - Only small but usually not too bad, quite a lot of staff talking amongst themselves when it seems it's getting quite full of people and always running out of sanitiser, spray and wipes
Sainsburys- only been twice since the pandemic, not too bad but have seen staff being very rude to some customers including a very elderly man

Out local M&S is awful but it’s due to the layout - it’s inside the clothes store so they don’t know how many are coming in for clothes or food, and it’s been squished into a small space so the aisles are narrow - it is just rammed in that one small space. It’s not really anyone’s fault but their Max number is clearly based on the size of the whole store.

We have Asda, Iceland, massive Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Lidl and Aldi. The worst are Asda and M&S .

The best is probably Sainsbury's which I would class as "in the upper middle" of the price range.

My Family has banned me from Morrisons as it's not safe enough.

We have Aldi, Tesco and Morrison’s locally. I choose Tesco because it’s the quietest. Aldi is like hell having a party at the moment.

@Poppins2016

*Plus... just so you know. The staff asked to clean the trolleys etc... have been taken from other departments. Leaving those ones short and without colleagues. Why can’t you all just bring your own fucking spray and sanitizer? Take some personal responsibility maybe?*

How do you know that people aren't taking responsibility? I (and many people I know) take my own sanitiser, trolley wipes, etc. I do everything I can to make myself safe that's within my control.

I agree that customers need to take responsibility. But so do stores. It's frustrating when stores let too many customers in at a time or when staff rush past at less than a metre. Responsibility and respect go both ways.

When you’re working in a supermarket, you aren’t given special dispensation to do anything slower / or with less efficiency. The customers make sure of that unfortunately. They nag and hassle us to get what they need, either at that very moment/ or always available to them on the shelves! We have to work fast - we can’t spend ages trapped behind a cage while ‘ Mrs Jones’ spends 10 minutes debating which biscuits to buy. We will be nagged at for having the cage out / and then again for not ‘ working it’ fast enough! I don’t even work on the shop floor : my poor colleagues that do though, are done in. I’m happy to hear you take responsibility for your own sanitizer & spray. In my town you’d be in the minority though... I was bellowed at last week for having the cleaning station inside the store ( raining / and other complaints) so it was about 10 paces inside the lobby. Poor bugger actually thought she’d catch something in that time frame / space.

Sainsbury’s and waitrose are the only ones I have really had to queue at, which means they are probably allowing less people in at a time, Asda has a good cleaning and anti bac station, Aldi and Lidl have been pretty awful the last few weeks with empty anti back bottles and no paper towel to wipe your trolly. I now take my own anti bac with me whilst shopping.

There's been high compliance everywhere I've been (small university city) but Asda in particular have been fantastic - clear programme of disinfecting all baskets/trolleys, hand gel everywhere, stock moved to make aisles easier to navigate, support for elderly/vulnerable people shopping alone, helpfulness from all staff. I'm not a natural Asda shopper but it's become my destination of choice.

Tesco is great, lots of sanitiser and staff around. I can't comment on Waitrose. The sound of the smug MC puts me off.

This is a point - our Sainsbury's have queues which means people avoid it as if the non-queue ones are somehow better!

Sainsbury's is the worst here, I'm not actually sure they're even bothering to limit numbers anymore! Have several friends who work there and it sounds like the manager's attitude is very much 'business as usual, just get people in and spending' so wouldn't be surprised.

Asda mostly ok, sometimes gets a bit congested by the final aisle but the queueing layout makes it hard to avoid, whatever they did they'd have one aisle that became a bit of a meeting point for queues and people walking around.

Not been in Lidl but always looks well organised when I've passed, even a couple of days before Christmas.

M&S - sanitizer at the door
Co-op - sanitizer at the door, staff that are in the way near the entrance but not stopping excess people going in.
Sainsbury - sanitizer at the door, customers directed to self checkouts. Customers lining up. Even before CV, understaffed,
Tesco and Waitrose - sanitizer at the door, customers lining up. Waitrose staff reminding other customers about the mask exemption.
Cosco - customers lining up, sanitizer before you walk in, everyone wearing masks or shields.

Only place that has been directing people to use the sanitizer has been Primark.

Boots haha, I've visited 4 different branches. Only thing they seem to have is the perspex thing around the tills. Staff at the doors handing out one of their promo vouchers that are also around the stores and given out at the tills.

Yes I know, boots and primark aren't supermarkets.

What is the point of wiping down trolleys anyway? Infection control theatre.

Similar here OP although the Aldi that is next door to my local waitrose has been excellent.

I have 3 M&Ss in my area that I use regularly and all have been the same in terms of queue management and sanitising things. M&S seemed to be on the ball even before lockdown, I remember being made to queue in mid March and being quite surprised at the time.

Asda has been appalling after a brief period of being organised back in April/May time. I used to go there all the time but avoid it now and go to Aldi instead.

Our Co-OP were good to start with but it's a free for all now with too many people, masks not covering noses, not following one-way system, no social distancing at all. I abandoned my shopping!

M&S yesterday was a nightmare. Numbers in were being controlled but nobody doing any distancing inside, including staff. Lots of elderly people shopping in couples and spending a long time deciding what to buy.
Tesco and Morrisons near us generally fine. Less compliance on mask wearing in Aldi when I went recently and lots of people not wearing masks in Asda when we went for our flu jabs.
Waitrose fine but again people still out shopping in pairs and debating the ripeness of the brie in slow motion- I try to respect people's space and not push past them, but it can be quite frustrating.

So in summary - more flagrant rule breaking in less up market supermarkets and more entitled behaviour in the upmarket ones.

Agree Morrisons is a shambles; both fairly local Morrisons have had Covid outbreaks amongst staff, one quite large in the run up to Christmas.

Big local Tescos appear to have given up on monitoring numbers and let's everyone just walk in now.

Why we only shop very very early in the morning or at night.

I shop at sainsburys and it's just like it was in normal times in my area. Carnage.

How snobby. Bully for you.