To be fed up of supermarket low stock

[BradfordGirl]

Since Christmas stock is so low in the supermarkets. I have tried different supermarkets and going at different times, it makes no difference. Today I had to go two supermarkets so I could buy bread, milk and ham - so hardly an exotic shopping list. The supermarkets all have some large empty spaces in their fruit and veg section and lots of other things missing. And trying to get eggs is not easy.
The only supermarket with good stock is the co-op. I went in as I had been a few places trying to get eggs and was a bit taken aback to see shelves fully stocked. Unfortunately it is quite expensive.
But I am getting fed up of all the other supermarkets having permanently low stock.

I’m an Aldi shopper and can honestly say there haven’t been empty shelves when I have shopped, not even at Christmas. And I got cornflour there the other day too.

No problem with my midweek online shop from sainsburys, popped in on Friday and got eggs no problem and didn’t see any glaringly empty shelves.

I have started buying eggs from a local egg farm because sainsburys eggs started being of poor quality about six months ago so we switched, more expensive but the quality and taste is far superior.

Similar here Ive really noticed the gaps on the shelves since the Christmas food was removed. Gaps where fruit and veg should too.

But we have a new Food Centre just opened in the town which is a pay point sells Eastern European food and is a green grocers. We havent had a green grocers in the town centre since i was 13/14 and im 50 this year so this is a big thing here.

Our local Lidl always has cornflour in.

Our local Asda has rearranged the shop floor so there's more space in the aisles and more displays, makes it look less empty, but it's clear that they aren't expecting the supply issues to resolve quickly.

Just order cornflour from Amazon

Our big Sainsbury's and small Tesco have everything we need. Only issue was a week with no eggs in Tesco but I just went and got from Sainsbury's. We are in London though so maybe better connected

I work in a Co-op and ourstock has been shocking for the past two weeks. Especially eggs, milk and veg. According to management it's been some kind of IT issue which I can well believe as their IT systems are shit.
I do the baking and three weeks ago my sales figures were nearly £1700.oo for the week. Two weeks ago they were less than £1200.
Apparently we have had a big delivery today so hopefully things will improve before we lose all our customers.

I work in a supermarket in Ireland and there are no supply issues whatsoever.

It never happened before Brexit.

Bird ‘flu and Ukraine are having an impact, but Brexit is the worst cause by far.

No problems at my local Waitrose or Sainsburys. Plenty of anything you want.

This is a situation that has been happening for months now. It really is getting tedious. Usually for us it's eggs that is the issue.

Brexit wankers. Can't believe the idiots who voted for it. 😑

This. Plus Avian flu. I struggled to get eggs before Christmas.

@BradfordGirl

It is the same where we are - I go shopping with a list and then I'm phoning my partner saying I'll be back soon but have to go somewhere else as I need x, y and z

I get a big monthly shop delivered with cupboard staples in it as we find that is easier and freezer stuff and that weeks fresh stuff but often they don't have What we ask for but I agree it's the time then taken to go out looking for other stuff that is annoying.

There were no Bananas or bread and eggs or bacon in our co-op tonight not exactly luxury items!

Biggest issue I'm having is own brand/value brands being permanently out of stock.

Generally I'm an own brand shopper, with some value brands (bin liners/toilet bleach/cooking bacon etc), and I'm needing to buy ridiculous expensive (and often inferior) branded items instead of own brand or basics. It's not a few pence more either, often double the price or more.

I can usually get the thing I want as long as I'm prepared to pay double for it.

Long term out of stock for me (of branded or home brand) have been mini marshmallows, cornflour, whole duck, eggs.

Ha, I've been wondering what it was thanks @Glitterandcard it seemed like a strange thing to be out of stock for so long!

No shortages but Lidl rationing eggs for the people who panic and over stock. ASDA under new ownership is having a bit of a wobble. Don't know if they're changing suppliers or not paying existing ones. They don't have the muscle or buying power Walmart did.

Yesterday I did notice Tesco cold and flu remedies section was almost bare. I'm guessing there's a lot of Sick folks out there

No problems with my Sainsbugs deliveries up here (Perthshire). They hardly ever substitute things, and even apologise if an item has a short use by date. I don’t know about their egg supply though, as I get mine from the village shop, which stocks local free range ones from the farm in the next village. Pre Xmas and post New Year deliveries were fine as usual.

I haven’t had any trouble, there are odd things that are easy to substitute.

It must be Brexit.

I haven't managed to find any under-ripe bananas for weeks. In Sainsbury's today (a big one) they were all turning brown and there weren't many either.

Our local Co-Op has been quite poor. No salad leaves, red peppers, courgettes or cucumbers last time I was in there.

I've also noticed that Boots stores are looking very empty - loads of empty shelves presumably from the Christmas stuff, but also huge gaps in the deodorant aisle, for example.

Here in the US they are blaming avian bird flu for the low stock and high prices like $20.00 for a 60 pack of eggs.

Tesco online and no substitutions for ages except different pack sizes. Hasn't been a problem buying eggs either.

It’s not brexit and drivers. I recently stopped working in a big supermarket. I was in one evening last week and saw one of the managers and he was saying it’s just brutal. No overtime for staff (so all working in basic contracted hours, despite normally needing availability of an additional 50% at least) but warehouse rammed choc full of stock - they have no resource to get stock out on the shop floor. Their profits are sky high but a lot of the impact of them making cuts to stay in line with utilities etc rising is on the staff (expected to work harder and harder for the same wages) and the customers. It’s a shambles and I’m glad I got out when I did.

I’ve had two sainsburys deliveries since Christmas and the only thing I couldn’t get was pomegranates. Cornflour, eggs, chicken thighs all received no problem 🤷🏻‍♀️