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 ?

I've noticed empty shelves in the likes of co op, the odd thing in Lidl but the main supermarkets here such as Asda are stocked as usual

I am Notts/Lincs border and there have been shortages for months here.

Shops have been having very little stock but spreading it out so it looks as though there is a lot. Things like shower gel, hand wash etc there is often just a row along the shelf with no items at behind. It has been like that since fairly early in the year.

I kept asking my sister in Essex if she had noticed anything but she said all the shops she went to were well stocked.

In the last couple of weeks it has got much worse. Shops like Wilkinson, Home Bargains, B&M all have very little shower gel, soap, hand wash, washing detergents, shampoo etc.

Sainsbury's wasn't too bad last week although quite low on fresh veg, bottled water, squash, lager, washing liquid and, again, shower gel.

Morrisons on Thursday was dreadful. Barely any veg, no salad items at all, freezers almost empty. It was really quite depressing

@BangingOn

I work in the industry and there is absolutely a problem, a big problem. There are huge labour shortages in agriculture, food production sites, warehouses and of HGC drivers. We have sites operating at 25% capacity due to staffing issues.

Several of the major supermarkets have significantly lowered the stock availability targets for their stores. I don’t think we will get to empty shelves everywhere but choice will likely be more limited as we get closer to Christmas and we will have to make compromises as shoppers.

Thank you. !

People seem to have missed my point. With the OP.

Posting that you have or haven't got empty shelves is kind of neither here nor there. There are without doubt significant issues. Just because you may not CURRENTLY have them doesn't mean they don't exist. You just got lucky.

The point of my post was the lack of reporting on what is , a significant issue.. as confirmed above by a poster who actually works in the supply chain.

Do you ever listen to Radio 4, OP? I think they've talked about this quite a lot on there, and Brexit has been mentioned as a factor every time as far as I can recall.

I keep waiting for our local supermarkets to impose buying limits again.

Multiple things unavailable for weeks, teen DS might kick his Pepsi max addiction though!
Yesterday last chicken, no tonic (only fevertree lime soda), no Pepsi max unflavoured, no lurpack, no disposable food caddy bags etc.

Err....this has been reported quite a bit OP. Maybe you missed the reports.

They can't report the same story every day. This morning they've been reporting on Christmas shortages, earlier this month they were reporting general supermarket shortages. It's been all over the place.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/business/food-shortages-brexit-covid-boris-johnson-b1917763.html%3famp

@Jumpingintosummer

I keep waiting for our local supermarkets to impose buying limits again.

Multiple things unavailable for weeks, teen DS might kick his Pepsi max addiction though!
Yesterday last chicken, no tonic (only fevertree lime soda), no Pepsi max unflavoured, no lurpack, no disposable food caddy bags etc.

Ooo pepsi max lime!

I do think with the amount of wastage supermarkets produce its a good chance in a shitty situation to really look at stock- do people really need 10 different brands of custard cream? Is filling the boxes up with fresh perishable items necessary when loads end up in the bin? I expect what will actually happen is that the companies with the most money will be able to offer more £££s to drivers and workers throughout the supply chain, and we will see some brands being more dominant.

@Finknottlesnewt have a look at The Grocer magazine online, it’s the food and drink industry magazine and they have a lot of very sensible reporting.

@Jumpingintosummer

I keep waiting for our local supermarkets to impose buying limits again.

Multiple things unavailable for weeks, teen DS might kick his Pepsi max addiction though!
Yesterday last chicken, no tonic (only fevertree lime soda), no Pepsi max unflavoured, no lurpack, no disposable food caddy bags etc.

I think the reason they aren't is that at the moment it's not essentials that appear to be short. No one needs Pepsi max (your ds may disagree). When it's loo roll and pasta it becomes more of a problem.

I do an ocado shop online and have noticed there is more unavailable than usual. There seems to an issue with all frozen potato products, for example.

Yes I’ve noticed I have to go during my lunch break if I want to get everything I need for evening meals etc. Which fortunately I can do because of the flexibility of wfh. I don’t know what I’d do otherwise, because everything is gone from Tesco and Asda if I leave it till after 5.

There is a global shortage of commercial CO2 gas which is affecting the meat and drink industry and anything that relies on dry ice.

There is a Europe wide shortage of (400,000) HGV drivers affecting the U.K., France, Germany and Spain. Brexit may be a small part of that for the U.K. but lots of migrants returned to their homes during the pandemic and haven’t returned. That includes other food industry workers. I know someone who used to be a hgv driver - he says you get paid so little for it these days it’s not worth it anymore. There’s also a backlog of HGV tests because of the pandemic.

On top of that there’s closures and blockages in Chinese ports which is affecting the global supplies of many things.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/world-third-busiest-port-partly-shut-due-to-covid-outbreak

I nearly descended into total panic last week when Waitrose couldn’t supply all the wine I’d ordered. Noticing lots more missing stuff and substitutions in my delivery.

I went to M&S in my nearest town the other day and couldn’t work out what was different. It was because all the fridges and shelves were fully stocked. I’d got used to our village Co-op which is looking more and more empty as every week goes by.

Yep we had no fruit juices bar orange, no blackberries for 3 weeks now, bottled water also seems to be an issue and my dd (asd & ocd) won't drink tap. Also weirdly there's only one brand of bleach available and it's the expensive one.

I'm not worried for myself because I'll eat anything but DD is very fussy (not her fault for the most part) and every week I'm dressing telling her what's not been available or what substitute has been given.

I appreciate this is first world problems but it is odd to experience it when it's never been like this in my lifetime

OP, the lack of reporting/attention from the government is staggering. This is quite an unfortunate (though predicted) consequence of Brexit that our dear Brexiting government’d rather pretend isn’t happening.

The labour market in the food industry is dire -1 in 8 roles are vacant.
People may still feel their local shops are ok but behind the curtain it is a fine mess. Shops prioritise high necessity, higher margin SKUs (e.g. no bottled water as there are more important items to stack the aisles with).

Those of us with SEN kids should think back to when the panic buying saw shortages of everything. My son with ASD loves the packet noodles and has a pack after school everyday. In March everyone bought them out. Now I never let my supply at home completely run down. Saying that they haven't sold out since. But theres no way I would risk getting down to one pack again. Everything else we can make do or do without.

A bit like if you need to buy GF and found that had been stripped clear. Sometimes it's not so easy to make do for specific items

The only thing I've noticed is ambient temperature fruit juices, and the smaller packs of toilet roll.

This is quite an unfortunate (though predicted) consequence of Brexit that our dear Brexiting government’d rather pretend isn’t happening.

Well they did say we can use imperial measures again so I suppose that makes up for the shortages.

The lack of reporting is probably to stave off panic buying.

@Flashinthepanini

The lack of reporting is probably to stave off panic buying.

What lack of reporting? It’s been on newspaper front pages.!

No food shortages in the supermarkets near me on the south coast but less choice of brand. I went to Morrison’s last week and they didn’t have small tins of Heinz beans but they had large tins in multi packs and had their own and Branson.
I work in retail in one of the shops mentioned for having less of an item on the shelf. We are doing this as we are now working with fill limits on a lot of items that are regularly shoplifted by swiping the shelf so where before we might have had a couple of full rows of one item we now put out less and Core to keep it stocked at the level decided. Example on air care we have an airfreshner that cost £10. The shelf can take 10 of each scent but we put out 4.

[quote worriedatthemoment]@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 [/quote]

Oh dear lord. Are people really this deluded? Brexit isn't a one day event like "we've left, it's done". FGS. It's an on going situation that will affect our lives for years to come. This is only the start of the issues we are going to have!

Who needs food when you can have a blue passport?(sorry...couldnt resist!).

@TooBigForMyBoots

This is quite an unfortunate (though predicted) consequence of Brexit that our dear Brexiting government’d rather pretend isn’t happening.

Well they did say we can use imperial measures again so I suppose that makes up for the shortages.

Yes, at least we can all buy our unavailable produce in pounds and ounces now!

I’ve not seen any empty shelves where I am (Berks) or had lots of things missing from deliveries. That’s Sainsburys/Tesco/Lidl.

@malificent7 I’ve got a new passport and it looks black to me! Even the blue passports were a lie