To think that people don't seem to have noticed that the shelves are empty. ?

[Finknottlesnewt]

I have just popped into my local co-op (decent sized supermarket not a corner shop) . I wanted a chicken to roast, some Maris piper potatoes and some frozen peas... nothing. In fact no frozen veg. No pork as a chicken substitute. Salad potatoes but nothing I could roast.

I went to Tesco and got the last chicken. Also successful with Potatoes but no frozen peas.

I am not after unicorn tears. I mean it doesn't get much more normal than chicken spuds and peas. ! Tesco had NO fruit and (much to the consternation of many in the queue) only about 4 packets of cigarettes - none of which were the variety people were after.

Am I just living in a very badly affected area (rural southeast) .. or is anyone else starting to find this worrying ?

Blimey! I’ve not seen anything like this in North/West Yorkshire.

The only thing I haven’t been able to get is squash, weirdly.

I'm in the east and couldn't get any chicken or broccoli the other day. A lot of shelves were empty.

I haven't noticed anything, west of Scotland

I've noticed. There's food, just not the exact food you might want. It's a whole mind shift when I go shopping now.

I popped to lidls last weekend and it was so empty. Not just 'waiting for restocking' sparse, but huge gaps with just no produce. The first time I've properly noticed it.

It's similar in suburban Edinburgh tbh. I used to write a shopping list if DH was going to the supermarket. Now I write a wish list with lots of possible substitutions. He often tries several different shops too and still problems.

No issues in London or Sunderland this week. My Tesco order comes from the warehouse rather than a store but not too much unavailable

Not happening here

Yeah I've not seen any empty shelves at all in the three different supermarkets I've visited the last week or so, and there were no substitutions or compromises on our online delivery that arrived today. Are you trying to stir up panic?

Hmmm.
I havnt noticed anything will go tomorrow to check again

I've only noticed shortages in the evenings. Not surprising as often a lot of stock arrives overnight/early morning. Try going earlier in the day if you can.

@geminiflanagan

I popped to lidls last weekend and it was so empty. Not just 'waiting for restocking' sparse, but huge gaps with just no produce. The first time I've properly noticed it.

Yeah my local lidl was similar

It's pretty bad here too - even when items are available, there are only a few of each thing so they run out. There are many shelves which have boards on stating that this product is out of stock - not handwritten notes, solid printed cardboard things clearly intended for longer term use.

But people voted for this.

Well stock is often low in the evenings.

There are gaps (fizzy water), but we're awash with badly butchered and stored chicken here. They'd have a job to give it away.

No gaps near me

I've seen photos, but I haven't experienced this in London.

No issues in Cardiff.

I have been noticing things I need are out of stock a lot in London. Had to go to four shops to get Huggies Wipes for example and the three that didn’t have them always do normally

I get my shop delivered, it's usual all there, and the delivery times are always street work, so 6 pm 7 pm etc.

Op I’ll be interested in whether other people have had this experience, I haven’t.

From my experience (I shop in a mixture of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Marks, Waitrose) some shops seem to have a whole empty section but are ok with the rest of the shop. So Sainsbury’s ran out of bottled water one day and Waitrose ran out of chocolate. There was a big empty fridge section in one shop too but I can’t remember which one.

So far I’ve managed to get most things I need.

In the south east too.

Yup, myself and my Husband have definitely noticed shortages in our local supermarkets these last few weeks.

I usually do my shopping online and have noticed a few more substitutions than normal but then I went to Morrison’s the other day and it appeared fully stocked.

No issue in south london. We did have empty shelves during the first lockdown, been fine since.

Some in Wales but not glaringly obvious.