aibu to think Xmas food shopping is panic buying?

[DragonMama3]

In Asda. people buying food like the world was ending! WHy?

Shops reopen in 12 hours?

Speak for yourself OP.

I sent My DH to get the normal Friday shop today. I only shop once a week, unless there's something extra I want from a shop I don't normally go to. Bought a rib of beef, some smoked salmon, extra veg and milk, crisps and chocolates, and some cheese we don't normally buy. Plus a normal amount of usual things like cornflakes, gluten free bread, loo roll and cat food.

Wasn't even particularly busy.

Will get some fruit at the market tomorrow but I don't plan to do any more food shopping till next Friday. Certainly wouldn't want to go on Boxing Day, or any day when I had guests or was visiting someone.

I worked as a teen in a posh supermarket. Surprise me how many don't buy food but trolleys full of plonk

This is it. I like to be able to unwind with a glass bottle of wine without running to the shop for milk . It's just nice being able to rustle up a wee Buffett of beige crap or pile the slices of cheese and chutney high upon a cracker if one wishes to do so ☺️

It’s not just about Christmas, it’s also payday so it’s time for a big shop. Add to that ds off school and dd back from uni, so extra meals to be made and both looking in the fridge and cupboards for snacks.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER blimey- are you running a large guest house- I'm packed out at both my son and elderly FIL staying

I'll hold my hands up and say while spuds are on such a great offer I bought 2 bags, purely as I'm getting lazy in my old age and will par boil a good few to bung in the freezer for such times I want roast spuds but can't be bothered with all the prep. But that's where it stopped.

But yes, shopping was crazy mad on my normal Thursday supermarket run this week.
I also noticed on leaving a sign saying they're open from 10 - 4 on Boxing day.

I had a Saturday job on the tills in my local supermarket 36+ years* ago. It was exactly the same the week before Christmas. Grumpy customers with full trolleys heaped over the top, queues down the aisles. Only [cue Hovis advert music] shops weren’t open on Sundays, we had to tap each item price and department code into the till manually, while spotting if the shelf stackers had priced up incorrectly on the stickers, which they often did as the girls got put on the tills and the boys on the shelves and the boys had no common sense on what things cost. Everyone paid by cheque which we had to process manually with the cheque guarantee cards or paid with big wodges of cash “careful with that love, the inks still wet haha” that we had to regularly bag up and send to the cash office. It was great as I got loads of extra hours once school had broken up, raked it in while vowing to do well in my A levels so I could choose to to have a job after school that did not involve dealing with the general public.

*Fucking hell I’m getting old.

Alot of People dont want to go to the shops over Christmas
They want to chill, stay in pj’s, have a drink maybe !

I think that people do it out of habit. It's a throw back to when the shops would have been closed for days. There's absolutely no need now.

But that's one supermarket in the UK. I went to Morrisons around 5, mainly to buy normal things that I'd buy anyway like bananas, bread and yoghurts, and no one was standing around on the aisles. If anything, I thought people were moving pretty fast! Honestly, it was only marginally busier than a normal Friday and there were no queues at the tills at all.

Surprised at that.

Shame on tesco.

Even McDonald's is normally 9pm ish

I’m that super annoying chill person you see in the grocery store right before Christmas. Essentially everything is sorted (that’s typically DH’s job) but it’s where I go for those final things and most importantly pick up the pickled herring and oysters.

I’m the one hanging out without a panicked look on their face, chatting with people in line, letting people behind me go ahead, etc.

It’s my cathartic… zen moment right before the holidays.

I had a trolley full yesterday and am not hosting for Xmas- it was just my normal weekly shop! Usually go at the weekend as I work FT but went yesterday instead. People still need to shop over the holidays.

I think it's because people plan to be permanently tipsy for a week, so won't be able to drive to the supermarket. Also, they won't want to leave visiting relatives unsupervised in case they rummage through their things.

There is if you don't wish to go to the shops for days

That’s not panic. Thats just supply and demand at a crunch point in the year.

Just about no one is panicking in the supermarkets. People do get stressed by the sensory overwhelm of all the people and trolleys close together and everyone trying to get at the same stuff. Having to queue to browse the pigs in blankets. And then queue to browse the cheese. And then queue to get near the carrots. It is quite stressful.

But it’s because it’s busy and everyone is trying to buy more or less the same ingredients to produce a Christmas dinner etc. There is finite space in the shop - less than usual anyway because there are additional palettes and trolleys of stuff out in places. And the staff need to more regularly restock due to demand.

There are still much quieter aisles (pet food, for example, is not over run) but the standard Christmas items are going to be busy. There is increased demand and it can’t get spread out across days and weeks because people are buying fresh food for the 25th.

People do moan if something isn’t there because they have a list and it’s annoying if things aren’t available. Especially if it was an ingredient and you need to figure out an alternative. Or if it was someone’s favourite thing. They may need to go to another shop to get something (and it will also be very busy) or not get it. It’s nothing to do with panic.

Why didn’t you anticipate that it would be ridiculously busy and overcrowded with people who stop and browse? You could have ordered a delivery on the basis that you knew Asda would be chaos on 22nd December.

It sounds like you want to judge everyone else and complain they were inconveniencing you. But there is no way that it could have been in any way a surprise to you that people were shopping like it’s the Friday before Christmas.

I was in M&S. it was busy. I had to wait to view some of the stuff. There was absolutely loads of stuff. It took me ages to find a turkey that met my criteria (small crown, free range, if there’s stuffing in there it must be GF) because there were lots of different kinds and the last time I browsed a Christmas turkey display was a year ago. Not being familiar with the options or layouts definitely slows everyone down.

Absolutely no sense of panic though. Just people behaving in exactly the way I predicted when I decided to go in there.

I decided to go yesterday with my 14 year old (who can help carry bags home) so I didn’t have to take my 3 year old (who was in nursery). Trying to navigate the busy shop with him in tow would have been much more stressful.

I stopped off at the supermarket yesterday and while it was a nightmare getting in and out, people were being really considerate. Two people let me out within the car park and again from the main road when I got to the exit. It was slow moving but everyone was calm. Same inside the shop...busy but orderly.

I collected stuff from M&S & butcher yesterday but need to get bread, fruit & stuff for boxing day as hosting. Won’t go shopping again till the 27.

Didn’t see anyone loading up on toilet roll.

How do you know how many people the person has to cater for, and for how long?

I’ve had 9 adults all staying for at least 4 nights, so yes, I had a trolley full. I wasn’t planning on setting foot inside any shop for several days. And none of it was wasted

But then that should mean less people in the supermarkets?

If you are catering for 9 why are the shops rammed?

I saw people last year with 5, 8 even 10 large milks in trolley. Not just 1 or 2 people. Quite a lot of them!
What do people do with 10-20 liters of milk😱

I don't think people are panic buying either.

I popped into a Waitrose earlier in the week in the evening to see what they had for holiday food offerings. Most of the holiday 'special' poultry offerings and easy to pop into the oven 'holiday' side dishes had expiration dates of 21 / 22 /23/ 24 December ... absolutely NO good for people who were hosting Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. Can't even imagine how much of that pricy food gets wasted due to the dates.

It's why I don't order my shopping in AND why so many probably go to the shops in the 3 days in the run up to Christmas.

Her guests are probably buying last minute cards, gifts and food to take with to share.

@wronginalltherightways yes lots of stuff has to be bought later as they expire too early.