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Original poster

I am so fed up of a lack of food in shops.

881 replies

OutofEverything · 23/02/2023 00:51

This has been going on for a few years but is only getting worse. I had to go to 3 supermarkets before I found some eggs. No lettuce at all, a few packs of salad tomatoes available in one supermarket, loads of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section, and in ASDA even the freezers had loads of empty spaces.

Before anyone says yes I know we will not starve, there is enough actual food. But a visit to a supermarket now is a lottery about what will be available and what is missing. And more and more I am having to visit multiple shops to get absolute basics.

OP posts:
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20
BlackeyedSusan · 23/02/2023 01:47

I was going to say there is plenty of food... (As you pointed out already)

...Just not the stuff you want, when you want it, in the pack size you want it at a price you need it.n

I have 27 bloody eggs. Why? Well I wanted 12 eggs but Aldi had no eggs, and Asda only had a few packs of 6 for 1.75 or lots of packs of 24 for £4. I will share with ex.

This one was weather, and fuel cost related. And probably pancake day related too.

BananaCocktails · 23/02/2023 01:50

In London where I live, I have not encountered this problem at all, maybe is worse outside of London?
if you don’t find what you want, then make something else instead, get some cookery books

Terriblefriend07 · 23/02/2023 02:29

@BananaCocktails im in London to and haven’t noticed either 😂 Iceland and Sainsbury both had lots of eggs / fruit and veg

Crumpetdisappointment · 23/02/2023 02:36

it is not what we are used to is it.
remember there is a war in ukraine
there is bird flu
there is a high cost of living
this should make you realise these things.

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 23/02/2023 02:41

Crumpetdisappointment · 23/02/2023 02:36

it is not what we are used to is it.
remember there is a war in ukraine
there is bird flu
there is a high cost of living
this should make you realise these things.

Exactly.

Welcome to reality on a planet with 8 billion human beings. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

The bounty of the past few decades is over and won't be coming back.

Soproudoflionesses · 23/02/2023 02:58

BananaCocktails · 23/02/2023 01:50

In London where I live, I have not encountered this problem at all, maybe is worse outside of London?
if you don’t find what you want, then make something else instead, get some cookery books

Cookery books won't really solve the problem if you just want a box of eggs! I have them every day for breakfast and yes there have been shortages here - not far from London.

changeme4this · 23/02/2023 03:39

Are you in the UK? Where would your lettuce normally come from? Is it hydro ponically grown as surely it would be out of season there?

I'm on the other side of the map and we have had a terrible growing season. Should be in the prime of it now. Haven't been able to get many seeds growing apart from beans. Lost all of our peaches and nectarines, no apricots this season. Pumpkin vines have only produced male flowers.

Try a farmers market and plan around the season of the moment. You will find lots of local to you gardening sites which can advise what is (or should be) in season and what isn't... otherwise if you can get it, its going to be at a premium,

LadyJ2023 · 23/02/2023 03:46

You are right...we are North east uk. Today I went to the shop morrisons and I couldn't believe how many empty shelves especially fruit,veg and meat section..usually I get a tesco delivery but forgot to click a slot so ye weird it was in morrisons

NewIdeasToday · 23/02/2023 03:51

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Brexit yet as a key reason behind this, in addition to war in Ukraine and impact of bird flu on eggs.

NewIdeasToday · 23/02/2023 04:05

this report is a good summary

Report

MintyFreshOne · 23/02/2023 04:18

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 23/02/2023 02:41

Exactly.

Welcome to reality on a planet with 8 billion human beings. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

The bounty of the past few decades is over and won't be coming back.

Show quote history

People like the above seem almost gleeful about it. Very disturbing

Bizzle123 · 23/02/2023 04:26

I get it’s inconvenient but I do think the whole UK mindset of expecting all food, especially fruit and veg, to be always available at supermarkets and always at the same price, needs to shift. There’s no harm in the supermarket shelves reflecting current supply and demand. We need to eat more seasonally with all the supply issues and climate change. I’ve just moved temporarily from the UK and where we live now it’s really common not to have certain perishable items in the shops for a week or more. No one minds, they just buy something else.

Zebedee55 · 23/02/2023 04:47

Farmers around here are saying they are struggling because of lack of farm labourers to harvest crops, high energy prices, reduction in previous EU subsidies, and extra costs with exports.

That, added to the weather etc is causing shortages.🙁

StrawHatOnTheParcelShelf · 23/02/2023 05:06

For environmental and animal welfare reasons I feel quite positive about the absence of lettuce in the UK in February, and a reduction in the mass production of eggs. If in fact those are the reasons, and they're not all just backed up in a warehouse somewhere.

Fuckityfuckfuck123 · 23/02/2023 05:15

Tbh I've been noticing it the past several months, I find if quite worrying.
Each week, my shopping basket has food that is unavailable, eggs one week, bananas another, lettuce and cucumber one week. SMA milk in 2nd stage several times.
Ham another time, brown onions.

Sometimes it's a struggle to find fruit- this is at the "big" tescos.

I've never seen anything like this, having been brought up in the 90s, I've always known the supermarket to be pretty plentiful until Covid and its happened a lot since. I'm not saying it's all linked, but that was the first time I saw empty shelves.

Elvira2000 · 23/02/2023 05:15

if you don’t find what you want, then make something else instead, get some cookery books

You live in a developed country, work hard and pay high enough taxes för a high qualify infrastructure. Why the hell are people pretending they are in a war rationing situation and doing the best they can?

I live in an EU country. Plenty of food here. Despite the war in ukraine and high inflation.

The uk is a boiled frog country. The situation is not normal. Castigating people for pointing it out just normalises it. You are being so fucked over by the government.

red78hot · 23/02/2023 05:19

Reason behind it? People panic buying because the news tells them they're may be a shortage.

Supermarkets now rationing items, 3 cauliflowers, 3 broccoli, 3 cucumbers.
Not very many people would need 3 of those at a time, I buy 1, hoarders buy more, just because the limit is now 3.

BernieBarks · 23/02/2023 05:21

We are being gaslight by our government . It's down to Brexit .

Sally2791 · 23/02/2023 05:30

Absolutely agree it’s Brexit. And gaslighting by the government, the BBC is not allowed to mention it.

Frenchfancy · 23/02/2023 05:33

It's not normal and everyone seems to believe the propaganda of bird-flu Ukraine weather...

So why has the rest of Europe got plenty of lettuce, tomatoes and eggs?

JocelynBurnell · 23/02/2023 05:35

BananaCocktails · 23/02/2023 01:50

In London where I live, I have not encountered this problem at all, maybe is worse outside of London?
if you don’t find what you want, then make something else instead, get some cookery books

A quintessential Marie Antoinette response.

The problem is that many families in this country are on the breadline. They are already limited in what they can buy.

MaireadMcSweeney · 23/02/2023 05:35

Abandoned fruit and veg farms in the uk because we can't get workers to pick them since brexit and empty shelves because we can't get them from Spain and Morocco because of the weather. Empty shelves because we can't get the HGV drivers to bring us the food from mainland Europe because of brexit again. We did this in part to ourselves. The UK absolutely screwed our selves by driving out the EU workers. Well done us.

Aprilx · 23/02/2023 05:44

I don’t normally do the supermarket trips, DH usually goes alone. But I went to Tesco yesterday and was expecting empty shelves because I have seen threads like this. I would say that maybe there was slightly less variety than I have seen in the past, but there were no empty shelves, I got everything that was on my list and I didn’t see anything to indicate that there was rationing.

Sparklfairy · 23/02/2023 05:53

'Get some cookery books'

... on a thread about how people can't get basic ingredients Grin

Snugglemonkey · 23/02/2023 05:56

Yesterday I was unable to get spinach, peppers, baby plum tomatoes, fillet steak or eggs. Annoying!