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 ?

It would be a good idea if the Gov't could look at giving bus drivers the class 2 licence. That might get things moving.

I'm in the north east... all good here

All the local Lidl's in my area (city in Devon), have had massive shelf gaps for weeks now. It reminds me of how things were last year in lockdown! And like a PP, I'm really missing Lidl's tomato juice

@saleorbouy

A small first world problem, we're hardly starving just adapt your meal plans around tbe availability of food. Perhaps we'll get more in tune to the seasonal fruit & veg again in general we are so accustomed to everything being available. A chance to buy local , bet the local butcher has chickens.

Local butcher has closed down. It was more expensive and no parking. Nearest is the town centre now so I would have to pay for parking too. And I can't go during the week as I'm working By the time I've driven to town (£5 fuel, £3 parking) it's a bloody expensive chicken Local fruit and veg shop also gone, again was only open during the week so useless to me. Nearest is... town centre

Shopping locally is great if you have a nearby market with parking and time off to go when it's open. Or a town centre with a market and you live in town. I do buy from local cake shops and takeaways but food shop wise it's just not possible

No Probs here in Yorkshire. I've heard coop is having issues - go to another shop

@OverByYer

Even if there are little gaps. So be it. Adapt. We still have plenty.

Hardly the point! Its a backward step. It's worse than it was. The worry is this is permanent post brexit.

No issues in central London. Could get every single item from my rather long shopping list, a wide range of fruit, vegetables, meats, bread, and all other types of groceries.

@Zeal and that poster you accused of scare mongering posted pictures of the empty shelves like you asked her to for your "fact checking".

You accused her of lying and she wasn't. And neither is anybody on this thread - we are all saying what we have seen with our own eyes. If you choose not to believe it that's your issue, not ours.

It is variable across the country, you can't possibly say it's not happening just because you've visited a couple of supermarkets that were better stocked than ours. This is the reality of Brexit combined with Covid.

I was in a largish tesco the other day and could get everything I wanted. I didn’t notice any particular gaps. East London.

I have noticed that frozen vegetables and fruit juices seem to be a bit in short supply atm.

South Coast, haven’t been in shops but many more substitutions and refunds for online delivery. No petrol and diesel in lots of the petrol stations the last 2 days though nothing on local FB Page overnight so hopefully improved now.

Friend’s DC can’t get blood test, booked for 2 weeks time but warned they may not be able to be done. Gone from exercising loads to sleeping loads, short of breath on short walks and clearly not right. Garden waste deliveries patchy as redeploying drivers sensibly to keep the more essential waste collections going,.

London here too. Only thing missing from my local Tesco that I’ve noticed is sugar free red bull (the ones not made for giants)

I’m in Devon too. Massive Sainsbury is really struggling and has been for some time, yes Lidl’s have been pants too. We were putting it down to tourist influx but not so sure now. It’s massive shelves completely empty of one product across the ranges. Yesterday there was no sunflower or oil other than olive of any description. Second week of it.Ditto bin bags. Entire huge shelving unit empty. Pasta has been an issue for ages. All varieties bar very expensive premium 3x the price gone. Had no lasagna sheets for a long time. Thinking of asking staff when deliveries come in and make sure we avoid peak times.

We can accommodate for it to a point. Both work full time and not got time to drive round looking for items. People on lower incomes are going to struggle having to buy more expensive options and making multiple trips has a cost too.

@HemanOrSheRa

It would be a good idea if the Gov't could look at giving bus drivers the class 2 licence. That might get things moving.

I think the lorry drivers thing is a bit of a red herring.

The lorries are driving around half empty. The manager in the co-op I was speaking to yesterday told me that

And I know tow lorry drivers, who independently have told me there isn't enough work to occupy them

@MrsKrystalStubbs

I’ve noticed it in SE and I’m ok with it. Where I grew up (not Europe), you had to get what was available and make do. I also recently lived in Asia for a couple of years where food was very expensive with limited choice. UK consumers have been spoiled for years and it seems that is now over. We will all adapt.

Its true we have been spoilt for years

Its true that we still have enough to eat, even if there is less choice about what to eat.

But that doesn't mean we don't want to know what is going on, and how bad it is going to get, and why.

Especially as the "official" reasons are not explaining what I am seeing and hearing around me

It is not all down to lack of lorry drivers. I work for a very large retail company and it is a shortage all the way up and down the chain. It starts at getting the raw materials, to the people making and assembling it, to the lorry drivers, operations staff and then the people who put it on the shelves. The issues are at every level.

I’ve noticed it recently, our Lidl’s and local tesco have gaps in the shelves. We have a green grocery/florist though. He turned his florist shop into a green grocery during covid to help the community and seemed to be doing really well out of it, so carried on selling veg and fruit until the community didn’t need him.

I went to Waitrose in town (my son wanted to try a dragon fruit) and it was well stocked! If i was a rich person i would definitely shop in there all the time. It didn’t have Chinese 5 spice though, which was the 2nd thing i wanted!

I've noticed with toiletries mainly..got the last bottle of my shampoo a few days ago, had to look right to the back of the shelf. They haven't had the tooth floss I like for weeks and none of my favourite moisturiser this week. Grateful I haven't noticed any food shortages!

Yeah, seen it here too. And went to a nice medium sized chain restaurant last night, as we were seated they presented us with a receipt almost the length of my arm of drinks and meals that weren't available

Foodshortage,housing shortage,nurses/doctors shortage...this country is going to pots!when will the fucking Brexiteers realise their stupidity.

I've definitely noticed this. First in waves - fizzy water, orange juice, chicken but now generally across the shelves things I need are unavailable.

Big Tesco in Chichester. I go every day as I run a B&B. Every other day no milk in the afternoon. Often no or little chicken. Run out of most varieties of tissues for the past week. Often shortage of frozen veg. Other random things disappearing for a week or so and the returning - almost no granola for a few days for example.

There’s always a few things on my list that I can’t get but nothing drastic so far. It’s been known for years that our food supply chain is very fragile being heavily reliant on imports and just in time deliveries. This is the inevitable result of having no slack in the system to cope with unexpected events.

@JazzerMcCreary

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

Similar one - there was no fruit juice the other day when I went to Lidl, and not much when I went to Morrisons.

No other shortages though. I'm in Wales.

To answer the OP’s question, yes you must be living in a bad area- I guess the South East is pretty overpopulated.
No issues where I live at the moment.