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 went into Lidl on Wednesday and it was half empty, well probably more than half the food shelves because the middle aisle was full of the usual weird assortment of trainers/toys/power tools but hardly any meat, no rice, no poppadoms, no fizzy drinks the list goes on. Went into Sainsburys today, more stuff but still gaps.

I KNOW - I don't know why there isn't more uproar!!!

My Tesco/Sainsbury are terrible - I never manage to get my shop. Basics like chicken/cereal are out of stock...🤷‍♀️!

I've been to Sainsburys this evening. The shelves were well stocked. West Midlands.

Apart from Pepsi Max. But that's not unusual.

Coop very big gaps (South West). One thing that does worry me is that I haven't been able to get contact lens solution for the past couple of weeks (Sains). Boots were out of stock recently too bc of a product recall (contamination issue). Hopefully they'll have some soon but it means a special trip in for me.

It’s bad where I am and what is on the shelves is much more expensive than a few months ago.

We’ve just had our groceries delivered with Tesco : no chicken breast , no whole chicken , no red peppers , no crisps, lunch box snacks substituted with some random items. South West

I've noticed coop has hardly anything in stock the last few times I've been but Sainsbury's always stock??!

I thought everything looked pretty normal mid week. I went into three shops and got mostly what I wanted. Only tortilla wraps seem to be a bit sparce. However I dont have a set list right now as I'm running the freezer down. Which maybe is bad timing if stock is being held up.

Buying kids uniform.however is something I have noticed to be out of stock on a long term basis

I'm in Birmingham and I went to Sainsbury's last week and there were empty shelves everywhere.
Went next door to M&S which was fully stocked!

But people voted for this

Oh yeah, and they knew what they were voting for apparently 🤷🏼‍♂️

Co-op this week

Hmm photo didn't seem to post..

Yes I've been noticing a lot of shelves in supermarkets empty, in quite a few different ones. Even clothing stores. I went out to a few stores today looking for boots, was very surprised to see half the shoes are non existent, loads of shelves empty where the shoes would normally be.

I’m honestly not seeing this. Our Aldi was stocked like Christmas week today with the aisle width reduced by extra stuff.

I've noticed things are missing, and they are spreading out what they do have to fill the gaps.

From the supermarket we use most often:

Potato salad - that seems to have gone first and hasn't been in stock for weeks.

Dilute Juice - only one flavour in stock today, spread out over several shelves with just one bottle in each place.

Brand of washing powder we need as DH allergic to most other brands - that hasn't been in stock when we've visited for the past two weeks now. They claim they are getting some and it sells out, but even the price tag at the front of the shelf was gone today, and before it's just been covered by an out of stock tag.

Cat food - a handful of packs today, spread out to look like more.

Dog food - same as cat food.

I'm sure there's more but those were the things we were looking for today.

Amusing juxtaposition

Own branded stuff seems to be sparse in my local Asda. Not sure if Asda are doing less of their own products or if its low stock, but we're having to either rethink the meals or buy the more expensive brands that we wouldn't usually.

Not seen empty shelves though, just the odd thing that means getting something else instead.

Had been OK here in Durham, but when I did the weekly shop last Monday I noticed a few gaps on shelves and couldn't find a couple of things I'd normally buy. Not a huge issue - could either swap in a different brand or get a workaround - but not encouraging. Reminds me a lot of living in Russia, where going to the supermarket was always a bit of a game of chance; never out of food, but never entirely certain what I'd find compared with last week (and often sadly lacking in fresh goods that were actually fresh).

My local Aldi hasn’t had issues but I know our local co ops and Asda have.

I work in a co-op in South Wales. We're having major issues with stock....fresh, frozen, jars, wine, cigarettes....everything. Massive gaps on the shelves which were filling with whatever we've got.

Some customers are being a bit twatty about it....like it's our fault or we're hiding stuff out the back. We've been warned it's going to get worse in the lead up to Christmas.

Went to Lidl at the weekend. Lots of items on my list not available.
It was late in the day, and there was a coupon for £5 off a £25 shop though.

Scotland here. My co-op had no milk left the other day. They said it was because of the driver shortage. My Tesco app has so much stuff unavailable now. Almost all frozen veg, for example.

"all fine in London" What? You've been to EVERY supermarket in London and they're ALL fine? What nonsense, there are literally thousands of supermarkets in London spread across a vast area. Absolutely impossible to generalise.
FWIW, we're in London, near Finsbury Park. Local large Sainsbo's has the odd complete absence but it's more a kind of spreading out of stock and the judicious use of extra signage here and there within the shelves to make them look fuller. We first noticed it about 4 weeks ago.
However, more annoyingly, my local Turkish greengrocers is charging an unprecedented £1.19 for their incredible bunches of chard today and they're about 20% smaller I'd say.....though this might be seasonal.
Mmmm. Spanakopita tho.

I had a grocery delivery this week, all the usual things. Eggs, bread, milk, wine, eggs, salad, fruit, veg. The only substitution was Heinz sandwich spread sent instead of a tuna sandwich filling. That went back!

Birmingham and nothing that bad. I've noticed empty sections here and there though. Like Morrisons had nothing where ice lollies should have been, but they had tubs. And a few times the fruit and veg has been empty.