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 ?

M&S this morning. No issues at all. Got everything I wanted and didn’t notice any empty shelves: popped into Aldi. Granted it was just for a few bits but didn’t seem to have any issue

Pretty noticeable where I am too in Northern Ireland. Quite a few completely empty shelves and fridges. Even the cereal aisle was looking pretty empty this morning. There are a few things I would regularly buy and have never seen missing before but they’re not available now.

My asda delivery arrived tonight with only one substitution - 2x2 pint if milk instead of a 4pint bottle. Fruit, veg, meat, snacks, drinks all what I ordered. About 3 weeks ago I had more subs and saw the shelves had less when I popped in but seems okay now here.

Same here in west London OP

North West. Noticed in local co-op the other day, rows of empty shelves and a note saying they were experiencing issues with deliveries. Its not my regular shop, so don't know how long its been going on for.
Usually use Aldi and that seems okayish, few items have been out of stock lately, but manageable.

I'm slightly mystified by the comments of ' no problem here ' and then the jump to ' therefore there is no problem' ..

There is a problem.

Regardless of wether YOU currently have fully stocked shelves.

Since posting this I have been looking at the internet's more reliable websites.

BBC world at one/farming today. ;
Agricultural producers and processors in despair about veg rotting in the fiends and the prospect of having to euthanise pigs at the farm because no workers to slaughter /butcher/package and deliver them.

Chiefs of Tesco Sainsbury's, Co-Op and Lidl asking the government to allow short term visas for European nationals to fill 70k urgent vacancies. Govt refused. Told to recruit from locals who don't want the jobs.

It is all over the Internet. Somehow I have missed it. Why is it not on our main stream news ? That concerns me. Yes perhaps a few people will hoard. Personally I am not greatly affected as have a veg patch full of more veg than we will be able to eat. I am more concerned about the complete broadcast media silence about this. It stinks of censorship.

Yes it's a problem in Bristol area - random items not available for a few weeks at a time. Apple juice, coke and other random items. It's the new normal.

Co-op has been bad for months. I had to drive for 25 minutes while on holiday in August to find a Tesco to get milk as all the small local co-ops were out. Hubby went to Co-op tonight and announced we would have to mix the blue milk with the red to get green as he could only get small cartons of each!

I’ve noticed it in our weekly shop too. Only Waitrose seems unaffected.

I've had terrible trouble getting my cat's pouches. He only likes one kind, and I ended up going to the supermarket three times a week just to see if they had any. One day they did but only three, so I bought two of them and left the other for someone else.

The other big thing I've noticed is drinking squash. My local ASDA has taken to filling the front of four and a bit columns of shelves with two types of squash that obviously they have more of. There is half a column of shelves with every other type of squash.

I haven’t noticed any shortages near me (North England).

Received email earlier today M&S are not doing Christmas food to order in Ireland this year due to ‘ current challenges in the food industry’

M&S stores in Ireland have been fairly barren for months now.

I'm slightly mystified by the comments of ' no problem here ' and then the jump to ' therefore there is no problem'

Maybe I haven't noticed it because I don't buy the products that aren't available, although I have noticed that lactose free milk sells out very quickly at out local Co-op. I don't buy sparkling water for instance.

Living in a farming community I can get meat and vegetables easily anyway, and apart from lactose free milk, I can honestly say that I haven't had any problem finding my usual groceries.

I wonder if part of the reason is that we don't live in a touristy area?

haven't noticed anything, west of Scotland

I'm wrstvif Scotlamd and most definitely have noticed, karge amount of empty shelves in my local Teaco and Lidl. It's random to, in Lidl they've had no cartons if fruit juice for weeks. Yesterday I forgot my bags and they had ran out of carrier bags to.

Where I live (Cambs) has had a lot of empty shelves. Sainsbo's had very little to none at all of squash, water, pasta and kitchen roll the other day, Tesco had no chutney. So of it was reminding me of how things were last March!

Lidls is bad here but tesco , asda and morrison seem not so bad and small co op also a bit light on some things

Very obvious here in the "excellent transport links" of the Midlands. No frozen veg on the last two visits; barely any sparkling water for a few months now; frequently no cucumbers or I find they have been stored badly and have partially frozen. Large sections of frozen ready meal areas have been looking empty. Not my thing, but it must be impacting people with care etc cooking for them.

It's been like that for several weeks (months?) on Friday evenings around here. Not starving to death, not exactly the Soviet Union. It will pick up in a few months as covid and Brexit settles.

I’ve noticed here in West Yorkshire, it’s subtle but things are definitely missing.

I’m in London; it’s not terrible here but I’m noticing some things missing. I can’t believe people aren’t being more angry and the media are being so silent about it.

The madness of Brexit. Utterly self-defeating.

I'm in SW Scotland and a couple of weeks ago the local Coop had barely anything on the shelves, they actually shut the shop for a few hours to restock everything when they did get a delivery. I've been to Aldi today though and no issues, got everything on my list

I'm in Leicestershire, I've not been able to get a chicken for about 6 weeks now. The other thing I struggle to get is come zero and mango juice.

Not having any issues getting frozen veg or fruit though

How can people not know about the hgv driver issue causing shortages etc its been all over the news , also affecting bin collections in many areas as well.
Other factors to but the hgv drivers seems to be having a larger affect

What’s your obsession with Trump?

@FlyingScott brexit happened ages ago and the stock issues are recent and to do with hgv drivers of which europe also is lacking some hgv drivers , its not all to do with brexit

It will pick up in a few months as covid and Brexit settles.
It's actually going to get worse for NI in the next few months. Because of Brexit. And I wouldn't be too sure that the EU workers who left the UK when Covid started will return any time soon.