Noticed Supermarkets feel glum?

[Neverendingdust]

I don’t think I’m imagining this but I’ve started to notice over the last month or two an almost gloomy muted atmosphere in the supermarkets where I live. It’s pretty noticeable that people are now conscious of the rising prices, the mood is almost somber and tense as they’re shopping. Has anyone else noticed similar? M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco and Co Op all feel very different, you can tell people are worried about the prices they’re seeing.

That excitement of popping treats into the trolley has gone for so many, doing the weekly shop has now become a challenge to simply spend the least amount but make the shop last longer. Peoples behaviour has changed massively.

Does anyone work in any of the stores and noticed the same?

[XenoBitch]

Hmm, no. I can't tell how worried someone is about a price just by looking at them. I go in, buy what I want, and leave.

[TurquoisePterodactyl]

Noooo. I love going to a supermarket. There's always music to sing and dance to, as well. Clothes, make up, housewares. I did notice earlier in the year, a tremendous dearth of crisps but now they're all stocked up nicely. 😊

Lol!! Can you do my shopping for me please? It is literally hell on Earth me, I refuse to go. 🤣

[expat101]

Earlier this week I popped into our closest main brand supermarket and all the fresh fruit and vege shelves were bare. I trolleyed around the corner and two employees, both near or are management level, having a heated discussion about the inbound truck, whether it contained two loads and if it was going to turn up when the driver said he would... both had to walk away from each other it became that intense.

Later this week i went back and noticed the frozen seafood section being stocked up by one of the aforementioned guys, he wasn't happy at all.

On top of that, I'm not seeing the normal number of people shopping there so perhaps they have given up on the supermarket and gone further to our next major town to shop at the sister store, where I went to this morning.

Certainly not the Saturday morning numbers I would usually see.

[TurquoisePterodactyl]

What Saturday numbers would you normally see earlier than 4am @expat101? Or - just guessing based on your username - are you not in the UK?

[LoisLane66]

I've never been to Lidl or Aldi. Neither shop have stores anywhere near where I live. Nor have Ikea. I wish...

[RampantIvy]

Aldi fruit and veg was always great quality

The fruit and veg in our local Aldi has never been good quality and always goes mouldy very quickly.

[LaWench]

I can't say I've noticed it but I don't go shopping for the atmosphere. I've noticed Lidl and Aldi are much busier than they used to be.

[berksandbeyond]

Can't say I have noticed this, M&S was heaving yesterday

[jamdonut]

What’s really irritating, living in a seaside town, are all the guesthouse/hotel owners going in and buying the cheaper stuff by the box load, and sod anyone else waiting to get said items. Trolleys piled high with the cheap loaves of bread, trays of cheaper baked beans etc etc….and no-one says anything! I know hospitality is having it hard at the moment, but it’s grossly unfair.

[CeeJay81]

I work in a supermarket but it's in a fairly touristy area, so we seem to have the usual amount of tourists in over the Summer. Atmosphere just the same as every Summer.

However I'm thinking come september onwards it's going to very quiet with the cost of living squeeze. It's not one of the cheaper supermarkets and even though those are 18 miles away, I'm thinking more people will make the effort to go there. Its always quiet in winter but I'm thinking it could be eerily quiet.

[CherryRipe1]

@GeorgiaGirl52

It's the middle of summer here in the south. Normally stores are full or fruits and veggies and there are roadside stands beside the fields. Not this year.
Farmers can't get pickers, so they are harvesting mechanically and selling to the cannery.
The fresh fruit that makes it to the store is incredibly expensive ($9 a pound for cherries) and there are fewer choices of variety.
I am buying canned fruits now, especially peaches, since I can't get fresh and the prices are all going up.

Interesting insight @GeorgiaGirl52. I'm guessing by your name & post you are in Georgia USA? Why can't your farmers get pickers, do they use local people or migrant labour? Thanks!

[SarahSteedman82]

Can't say iv noticed that (I'm sure I will now though) the little Waitrose near me seems the same and they have always had a fairly full reduced sticker section which seems to sit there untouched for most of the day,.doesn't seem to be any different. Similar with other local stores, the Tesco express a bit further way seems to be constantly moving things around filling in missing gaps though if that means anything

[fetchacloth]

@RampantIvy

Aldi fruit and veg was always great quality

The fruit and veg in our local Aldi has never been good quality and always goes mouldy very quickly.

I agree about Aldi fruit and veg, their produce doesn't keep for long.
Lidl has better produce and it's cheaper too.

[LoisLane66]

Someone upthread mentioned kids eating more as they're at home and looking for cheap or free things to amuse them in the holidays. I wonder how we older mums managed years ago or indeed how MY parents kept us amused during the holidays.
We played out on bikes, go-karts, withp cricket sets, tennis, made dens out of cardboard and sometimes hay bales. Went fishing in the brook for tiddlers to put in jam jars, went to the beach. On rainy days we played with our toys or helped mum bake or did colouring in books, read, painted, had tea parties, collected leaves and stuck them in books then wrote their names beside them. We had puppet shows with our toys too. When my children were older they went to Scouts, Guides. Airforce cadets and learned first aid. They had jobs delivering papers and the girls delivered monthly magazines and helped at a local farm shop and dairy in their early teens.
I and my brother's had to set the table and clear away after meals, make our beds and dust certain rooms, brush the paths and do a bit of weeding and deadheading in the garden.
We were never bored and were always busy. My children, now adults, never said 'What can I do, there's nothing to do?'
Nowadays they want amusement on tap.

[Eastangular2000]

@jamdonut

What’s really irritating, living in a seaside town, are all the guesthouse/hotel owners going in and buying the cheaper stuff by the box load, and sod anyone else waiting to get said items. Trolleys piled high with the cheap loaves of bread, trays of cheaper baked beans etc etc….and no-one says anything! I know hospitality is having it hard at the moment, but it’s grossly unfair.

Thanks in what way is it grossly unfair. You have the same opportunity to buy the products as they do.

[RichardOsmansXraySpecs]

Have to laugh at the ‘glum faces’ shopping at Waitrose and M&S

[MarshaMelrose]

@TurquoisePterodactyl Send me your list. Hehe. If I could make a business out of it, I would. I shop at Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, M&S, Lidl and Aldi. They all have different things I like.

No glum faces other than frazzled mothers shouting, don't touch that, get off there, put it back etc etc. Maybe if you're glum yourself, you project that on others?

[MyrtlethePurpleTurtle]

yes - my local Tesco has become sad. It’s not tbe people but the empty shelves for unavailable ite ms and not being super clean (you know, that vibe you get if shopping v late). Tbe London Waitrose’s seem as buoyant and as beautiful as ever

[zingally]

I do see what you mean... Most prices I still think are within the realm of normal. But I did notice one this morning that really shocked me...

My kids like a chocolate mousse for their pudding (so do I!), for years and years they were just the cheap and cheerful ones, 40p for 6. They were that for years. Not very long ago they went up to 60p, I thought ok, fair enough. I looked today... £1.15!

[Nave]

@Davros

Which bit of London was that then 😂 ? I've never seen so many people out and about in central London, all spending...

I went to Oxford Street last week and found it quite depressing. It was busy but the House of Fraser/Debenhams being all boarded up looked awful and John Lewis was a bit of a mess - particularly the woman’s clothing department.

[Echo40]

Have noticed it and feel it.
I live in a city so do a few different supermarkets every month keep costs down and to find the bargain/ reductions.
I do big tesco once a month thats usually good but last visit patchy.
Worst is lidls local looks like shutting down had empty freezer grocery seems more gaps then fresh in there.
Decided try bigger store had the same issues.
They not had own brand ketchup in 4months only heinz or value pasta.

Aldi is worst for uplifting prices every week whats worse is everyone copies as they price match to aldi.
Brought some mince tue best before 8th abd it's all brown.
1 litre sunflower oil now £ 1.99.

Morrisions never managed queues , availability patchy and 2 ailse chilled had massive puddles.

Seldom I go sainsbury or asda couple weeks ago big sainsbury seemed well stocked.
Smalll coop very patchy.

Its Milk thats killing me as £1.65 4pints tesco £2.09 6pint lilds.
We get through as family of 6 4 pints a day so now probably £70 months food budget is just on milk!

Not finding amazing reductions lately.

Last summer holidays I remember it being very patchy.

Is it the fact lorries queue at Dover for several days.
As random gaps .

We have had make some cut backs.
I'm avoiding special buy ailse at aldi and lidls ours are next to each other do regularly do low.

All the cashiers and staff always talking about price rises its literally every week.
1 month I thought Morrisions being good the they upped value penne to 45p from 32p and value spagetti from 23p to 30p just seems greedy .

Food inflation prices going up 20% plus lidls coffee 50p rise. Oil 70p rise cheddar cheese 40p rise butter least 10p definatly getting more challenging to do same shop on same money.
Tesco is best for us on squash, cereal and biscuits.
Aldis is most competitive on meat.

Finding shopping stressful and I do use a calculator and check receipts.
The staff are mostly miserable.

[lightand]

I havent noticed.

Quieter maybe?

And still lots of yellow stickers available if happen to be in when they are on the shelves.

[hennaoj]

I'm convinced people are quite mad. There's masses, absolute masses of free blackberries growing wild everywhere at the moment, loads of them ripe and hardly anyone picking them. If people are soo hard up why are they being left?
Also found wild raspberries going to waste. I picked some but found loads of them on the plants going bad.
elderberries are on tree's by the bucket full soon, can be easily made into cordial and jam.
I got tons of free cherry plums from trees at my local school, noone else wanted them. Made lots of jam, got 2 litres of gin steeping in them and two lots of crumble. They also grow in hedgerows and parks. The yellow ones are called Mirabelle and are used for a regional speciality jam in France.
Hawthorn berries are free and plentiful.
Seabuckthorn is plentiful in sand dunes and a superfood.

There's a an awful lot of free food that's lovely, most likely organic and going to waste!

[Davros]

karimacukture
I went to Sloane Square yesterday. The whole area was very busy, not on the same level as Soho last week, but still busy. Café Colbert was packed and Duke of York Square was very buzzy

[MibsXX]

@hennaoj

I'm convinced people are quite mad. There's masses, absolute masses of free blackberries growing wild everywhere at the moment, loads of them ripe and hardly anyone picking them. If people are soo hard up why are they being left?
Also found wild raspberries going to waste. I picked some but found loads of them on the plants going bad.
elderberries are on tree's by the bucket full soon, can be easily made into cordial and jam.
I got tons of free cherry plums from trees at my local school, noone else wanted them. Made lots of jam, got 2 litres of gin steeping in them and two lots of crumble. They also grow in hedgerows and parks. The yellow ones are called Mirabelle and are used for a regional speciality jam in France.
Hawthorn berries are free and plentiful.
Seabuckthorn is plentiful in sand dunes and a superfood.

There's a an awful lot of free food that's lovely, most likely organic and going to waste!

My grandmother taught me how to forage and make preserves, jams wines etc BUT these processes cost quite a bit in equipment, fuel to cook and process, time, and not forgetting the cost of the other ingredients you need to make them. Home baking gardening and foraging is not the cheap and easy passtime the tv portrays it as. And much though I also love free blackberries, not so many folks have access to the countryside where most of these things grow in the hedgrows, and the last time I picked some, rural area, they tasted of whatever chemical the council had been spraying the hedgrows with! ( and exhaust fumes were definately mixed in witht he flavour)