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 ?

Yes I have noticed that there are swathes of empty spaces especially in the fruit and veg areas of Lidl (Carmarthenshire )

The local Tesco was better when I went last week but a couple of weeks ago there was almost no fresh produce at all and lots of gaps on the shelves. I've never seen the fresh produce section so empty, not even just before Christmas. They also seem to have a very small stock of filtered milk and sometimes none at all.

Lidl has been having problems for the last couple of months, huge gaps on shelves which seem to be increasing.

Sparkling water has been in short supply in all local shops for at least 2 months, I rarely buy it so it could have been in short supply for longer.

I'm in a small town in the Southwest.

Asda had everything I wanted except fizzy water. I am drinking wine instead.

But the school uniform thing is Covid, I’d imagine. Clothing sweat shops in the Far East not at full output because of local lockdowns.

Definitely, large town, central Scotland, tesco two weeks ago had no tins of tuna on the shelf. Becoming more frequent seeing gaps on the shelves.

Weirdly, frozen veg has been out of stock for weeks at my London Tesco. Not just peas, but spinach, cauliflower, all sorts. I assume there’s some sort of processing or packaging issue.

A few times recently I’ve been surprised at no milk or eggs or butter. Veg too. My friends DP is an import/exporter. He’s says is appauling what is happening - the paperwork, the lack of drivers and the lack of containers is massively impacting his business.

@FlyingScott

I'm not panicking - not yet, but I'm stocking up

So you are buying more than you need to? Well that is marvellous and irresponsible of you to say so. It is precisely this that encourages others to do the same and exacerbates the situation.

I'm making sure that if I work late, I have the makings of a meal in, so that I'm not dependent on just calling into a shop on my way home. I'm not hoarding crates of baked beans under the bed.

Lack of Eastern European harvesting labour maybe?

Grrrr…. Reply fail to the no cauliflower and spinach post @AnUnlikelyCombination

If the problem is down to delivery drivers (which is affected by Brexit although also by covid), then you would expect it to be patchy. Presumably different supermarkets in different parts of the country will all have different deliveries happening less often, so in one shop this week it might be soft drinks missing, in another it might be frozen veg, in another something else.

The same goes for problems with fruit and veg pickers (also affected by Brexit) - it's not like none of it is being picked, it's just not all being picked, so not as much is reaching the supermarkets as often as it should.

I can't really see an end to this in the immediate future. Clearly we're not in any danger of starving, but it's hard to see how all the just in time deliveries that give us the choice we're used to will work as efficiently as they used to any time soon, given all the new paperwork requirements and the labour shortages.

No issues here at all.

North Wales. The same in my supermarkets. Local co op was the worst. No fridge food atall bar one pizza. It's shocking.

Loads of gaps in my bit of North London.

Sainsbury’s looks particularly empty, but all the shops seem to be affected, with the exception of my local smallish Aldi, weirdly. The bigger branch, where I do click and collect, is out of stock of whole categories of stuff.

A few things but not significant

Isn’t this thread going to exacerbate the problem and lead to hoarding behaviour though?

If we do continue to experience significant shortages and it gets worse, then the Government are toast!! This will be their downfall.

Buckle your seatbelts for the winter of discontent 2.0!

Quite a few empty shelves and freezers in my Sainsburys (Leeds)

Our Co Op has been consistently badly stocked for about a month. Absolutely no issues at the local Asda, morrisons, Lidl or Aldi though.

Home Counties here, middle sized town, the only empty shelves I have seen recently were in Tesco metro when they hadn't yet had their fresh food delivery lorry for the day. Later shelves were packed again. No probs getting what I want each week.

Cambridgeshire here. It's been very hit and miss for the last month or so.

Retail supply chains are extremely resilient and I think many people wouldn't notice a problem. However, I have a friend who works in Aldi who says they are paying huge bonuses to suppliers to ensure they're front of the queue for stock. A friend at Tesco that says they are carrying fewer lines and just spreading the items out they can get. And a friend at McDonald's saying their deliveries are completely erratic so they're having to employ people to unload them round the clock, rather than on a specific shift because they have to take what they can get. So it's hugely difficult behind the scenes and will get worse over the coming g weeks. We certainly won't starve, but flexibility will be key and I've no doubt there'll be price increases to cover the extra costs.

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

Haven’t noticed shortages at all in my bit of Kent. Always able to get everything I want. MN has been going on about bottled water shortages for weeks which I keep an eye on as DH drinks by the bucket load, all absolutely fine here, so far any way.

@Lahhdjdknwbjshdhb

A few things but not significant

Isn’t this thread going to exacerbate the problem and lead to hoarding behaviour though?

If we do continue to experience significant shortages and it gets worse, then the Government are toast!! This will be their downfall.

Buckle your seatbelts for the winter of discontent 2.0!

But its happening! Its not reported in the press. I think threads like this ate important.

I’ve been shopping online throughout the pandemic and my last few shops have had lots of substitutions and missing items and my local co-op, which is usually really well stocked has lots of gaps on the shelves. Last week Iceland sent us a £5 voucher to apologise for all the missing items. However I got a Sainsbury’s delivery today with only 3 substitutions. Scottish Highlands.

There was no milk in tesco the other day. Not just none of my favourite brand, literally none. Also no onions. Very little in the way of fresh produce altogether to be honest. And very empty chilled cabinets.

I went to the co-op on the same day to try and find my missing items, and there was someone there moaning that they had no bread.

We're in the Midlands. As others have said, there is food available, just not necessarily the items items people might want to buy. It's ages since I managed a trip to the supermarket and got everything on my list!