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 ?

If people haven’t noticed it’s probably not a thing

@PTW1234

If people haven’t noticed it’s probably not a thing

No, probably not a thing in their area at present. But many of us have noticed, so it clearly is a thing.

@HarrisMcCoo

Loads of processed crap in the sweeties aisle, but could I find mini cheddar sticks? Could I heck. Definitely noticing shortages amongst certain products.

I’ve got a bag with a handful out of here you can have. We bought them to try and no ones keen

South West here and empty shelves have been really common for the last few weeks. Also petrol/diesel often unavailable, that never used to happen except the odd pump every now and then, now it's whole empty forecourts.

Yes definitely. We are in Devon. My mum is ill and wants specific things to eat as her appetite is low and certain drinks to try to take her medication. It's a nightmare trying to get what she will try on any given day 😕

This has been in the news several times and if you Google it there is plenty of logistics experts saying that we need to start getting skies in now for class to avoid having to go short closer to the time.

There has been plenty of cumulus nimbus and strato cumulus coming into the schools round here for some time. Not only that but mostly they are tall not dwarfs.

I generallly shop on line but I went to sainsburys the other day and was wondering why there were so many empty shelves. Absolutely no sparkling water at all

This is only going to get worse, and the shower of criminals attempting to pretend to run the country are going to gaslight it all away.
The standard Johnson playbook will be to do nothing, then have Covid cases rocket, then lockdown. Then blame the shortages of food and fuel and medicine on panic-buying, as opposed to his shitshow of a government.

Scottish Borders here.

We've been seeing shortages for months, worse in the last few weeks.

We have a large supermarket near, plus a Lidl.

No fizzy water for the last 2 months, I gave up and scrubbed it from the shopping list. Other juices too.
Burger buns.
Frequently can't get basic fruit and veg e.g. no cucumbers or tomatoes, and we don't even care about type (any would do).
Fucking sick of having no beans apart from Heinz brand ££s.
No mushy peas tins at all.
No mayo unless low fat.
No angel delight.
Can't even get wholemeal bread most weeks.
No Cornetto once creams.
We've stopped trying to use oven chips because you can't get them reliably.
Sudocrem managed to get the last tub last week.
Not had "no tears" baby shampoo for about 4 months, ended up driving to massive local city for it.

The list goes on.

I'm sick of making a shopping list and it's pointless.

Oh, cereal, no oats and no shredded wheat last time either.

It’s been like this for years at Sainsbury’s so haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, except Tesco didn’t have any chickens twice, which is unusual for them. Our local coop has had empty shelves a few times long before covid. No idea why.

@zeal

Always one that can't overlook an autocorrect fail isn't there? Because on a thread about food shortages that's really what matters. Keep up the Sterling job, maybe you can get a pedant medal 🏅

More concerned with the lack of certain medicines, or the only option being stuff a quarter of the size for four times the price of the original.

@fantastaballs

Well, correct the auto correct Lazy otherwise.

The shelves aren't emptying

I went to co-op (Wrexham)
Wed evening to get Thursday's tea. Food Shelves were extremely sparse. I wanted a chicken but only meat absolve were six steaks , nothing else at all and they were in plastic security boxes like perfume in Tesco's. Was really shocked. Only veg was potatoes and corn on cob. Had Asda delivery today and was okay just a couple of things out of stock that I needed but noticed several things I did not need said out of stock.

The shops are fine here in the NW but I did my online shop with Ocado earlier, there was pretty much NO frozen items
Randomly checked all sorts, pizza, ice cream, veg, chicken. 95% out if stock

@PTW1234

If people haven’t noticed it’s probably not a thing

It clearly is 'a thing' if stores are going to the trouble of printing and displaying 'We apologise for limited stock' type signs.

Lots of empty shelves here in NI. I usually click and collect, but quite a few items haven't been available. When I went into Tesco a couple of days ago for my mum's shopping, I was shocked at the empty shelves and fridges. But there wasn't an atmosphere of panic buying, so people must be resigned to things being scarce at the moment.

@PTW1234

If people haven’t noticed it’s probably not a thing

Not where I live, no but we have plenty of local resources.

We've all got really used to just-in-time deliveries, where what arrives is exactly what's needed because new batches of stock are ordered in real time as items are scanned through a till, and those new orders get fed back to manufacturers and importers instantly, so they can react right back down the line. So the goods keep flowing at a steady rate, with no slack in the system.

This is a system that's worked really well for us in lots of ways, but is very vulnerable to interruptions. Shops don't have the warehouse space they used to have - when they run out of something, the next batch is not in a warehouse these days, it's supposed to be on the next lorry - but the lorries aren't coming as fast.

So, if a particular superstore is getting only three weekly deliveries from a certain supplier instead of their normal five (or whatever), then some people who go in shortly after a delivery will see plenty of those products and think everything's fine. Others will catch the store just after one of the missing deliveries should have happened, and they'll see those same shelves empty.

The thing I'm noticing more is that companies that use to sell in the UK in a small way no longer do so. At all. Can't get hold of a scent I like, can't get hold of my favourite chocolate, can't order from a particular country's website and it turns out they're simply not selling here any more.

I'm in SE England too and our local stores have loads of empty shelves.

I've noticed it in London but not consistently

I’m in Glasgow and have noticed a few things missing but in general the shelves are full where I shop. Haven’t noticed any gaps in the fruit and veg sections.

Lacto-free milk has been a problem for a while now. My husband is sensitive to dairy so I have to shop around a bit.