Message from Sainsburys

[Changedmyname84]

Did anyone else get this? You will have seen that, due to the ongoing uncertainty around the full impact of Coronavirus, supermarkets have been much busier than usual and customers are choosing to stock up. I wanted to personally reassure you that we have more food and other essential items coming to us from manufacturers and into our warehouses and distribution centres. If we all shop just for the food that we and our families need, there will be enough for everyone. I also wanted to let you know that at Sainsbury's, we are working really hard to ensure this remains the case. Over the past two weeks we have:

Ordered more stock of essential items from our suppliers

Put more capacity into our warehouses and

Set limits on a small number of items, including some cleaning products, soap and pain relief. This is a precautionary measure - if everyone shops normally, there will be enough for everyone.
There are gaps on shelves because of increased demand, but we have new stock arriving regularly and we're doing our best to keep shelves stocked. Our store colleagues are working tirelessly and doing the best job they can.
Which brings me onto a request. Please think before you buy and only buy what you and your family need. If we all do this then we can make sure we have enough for everyone. And please help elderly and vulnerable friends, family and neighbours with their shopping if you can.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and to thank our colleagues who are all working incredibly hard to ensure we can continue to serve our customers well.
Best wishes

Mike

Re: handgel

I'm usually of the same mind but my son is at secondary school and avoids going to the toilet all day because of the antisocial behaviour that goes on in there. They closed all bar one lot of toilets at one point in order to manage it. So he could do with some in lieu of soap and water but you just can't get it unless you want to pay £10 for 60ml on amazon or ebay anyway. Selfish fuckers.

Am I the only person in the uk who sees hand sanitiser as a really poor substitute for soap and water or any suitable detergent and water?

But it’s handy if you don’t have access to those - travelling on public transport etc...

The advice from supermarkets is that "there is enough for everyone if we all work together and be considerate". The shelves are empty and there isn't enough. It's quite clear that we don't all work together and some people are inconsiderate.

Sainsbury’s worker here, it’s awful right now going to work to be shouted at, spoken to like you are crap and hounded the minute you try to put anything out on The shelves. As a pp said deliveries are coming in and not even making a dent. Never seen my store so empty of stock. I actually need to go do my own shopping today and totally dreading being a shopper as it’s crazy busy. The mass hysteria I have witnessed over the last 2 weeks is something else!

@Byllis antibac spray won't kill viruses anyway. You need disinfectant - Dettol or Zoflora, diluted in a spray bottle. A little goes a long way - a 500ml bottle of Zoflora makes 20 litres of spray for around £5, saving you money and plastic.

That's horrible onlygirl
I hope supermarkets support their staff and have a zero tolerance to abuse.

I got this email too. It was nice and reassured me of the steps they are taking as I don't regularly shop at sainsburies but will definitely be going there if our local tesco doesn't have formula or nappies by next week.

Doesn’t matter what the supermarkets say, idiots will carry on stockpiling. And some of those of these idiots are on here.

This.

I’m not sure we should be so harsh on those panic buying. They are doing exactly that- panicking. It’s hard not to tbh.

I went to the supermarket on Friday and saw the rapidly emptying shelves. It felt like the end of the world and made me feel extremely anxious.

People are only doing what they can to mitigate the effects on themselves and their nearest and dearest and this stressful time. Nobody wants their child to starve because they didn’t pick up the packet of pasta that could have fed them. Yes, that sounds extreme and panicked but for all the reassuring words we don’t actually know what’s going to happen. It’s not like panicking due to snow.

It’s not fair that someone has bought everything and someone else can’t buy anything, but we all care about those we love as a priority over those we don’t.

Actual rationing is the only solution.

Conny848 yeah they are pretty good in my shop, I did admittedly lose it at a horrible man the other day to which another customer backed me up and told him he was being a dick!

Well I hope it works. I was in a smaller Sainsbury's on Friday and a larger one on Saturday and both had loads of completely empty shelves. They all had 'please think before you buy' labels on, but no sign of rationing.

No pasta, rice, flour, pain killers, hand gel, soap, toilet paper. Very few tins, jars, gaps in fresh fruit, little frozen meat.

I don't mean to pick on you specifically @4forkssake because lots of us posting are doing this. But I hope people will think twice when they read posts like the one you made. I'm sure you intended it to be helpful, but is it?:

"I've just read on my local FB page a post from someone who works in Sainsbury's. She asked her boss why they weren't limiting stock (like ALDI are now) & their response was they were having the best increase in trade (bit like pre Christmas on steroids) so they're reluctant to limit. So while we've got companies thinking like this, there's no chance in stopping stockpiling!"

Before we all panic buy or accuse the supermarkets of vicious profiteering:

1. someone on FB who claims to work at Sainsburys (really? do we know that for sure?)

2. asked her boss (deputy manager? store manager? regional manager? head of whole damn corporation?) - and did the boss actually communicate official company strategy or just guess what s/he thinks is going on? We'll all worked with enough people whose interpretation of what is happening sounds official but is pure imaginary gossip.

Please, think before you post what 'someone' on FB, Reddit, Twitter, etc said. Obviously we're all looking for good information where we can find it, but be skeptical and look for evidence rather than what someone said someone said who's probably talking out of their arse if they even exist.

I tried to book an online delivery slot for a week in advance and nothing is available!

I’m hoping it’s a glitch - anyone else getting it?

If not, then I’m not surprised people are trying to stockpile in RL

If you’re meant to self- isolate, you need to stockpile. I don’t think people calling others “selfish” are getting it.

We should have all been encouraged to start slowly stockpiling since January. Then supply would have kept with demand.

Am I the only person in the uk who sees hand sanitiser as a really poor substitute for soap and water or any suitable detergent and water?

No, most people do but there are situations where people just don't have access to soap and water. There's lots of people on here saying exactly that.

The very people advocating the government do more in terms of locking down the nation are ensuring that it cannot work in practice by panic buying everything. All the delivery slots are booked everything is sold out and we're not even in lockdown.
The lockdown will not work. Calm down and stop panicking, you're making things worse.

I have just been to ALDI , at 9am this morning (Sunday) I went in specially to buy my Rose Glow oil gift set (as the oil is as good as pixi oil) also bought there Scarlett rose eau de toilette smells the same as jo Malone red rose at a 10th of the price.

Well there was about 100 people waiting to get in never seen anything like it!! I got my special buys went straight to the till which was still empty because everyone seemed to be doing big shops. Went out side and car park full with cars waiting to get in.

I could not believe it the worlds going mad!!

We aren't in a war - trade is not being blockaded by submarines.

I got the Sainsbury’s message too. It sounds reassuring, but I work for a food manufacturer/ importer and it doesn’t paint an entirely accurate picture of the supply chain situation.

Sales of some of our products are up several hundred percent, which normally would be great. However, we don’t have sufficient stock in the pipeline to replenish it (as we obviously weren’t expecting such a huge and unexpected uplift) and it will take 2 months to get new stock from the factory abroad. That’s if they can ramp up production sufficiently to supply the UK and other countries affected.

Then the products have to be shipped over to the UK and EU and who knows what restrictions will be in place by then. Our factories don’t have huge supplies of raw materials or containers (bottles and tins plus packaging cartons) just sitting around waiting to fill the void. Yes, they have some extra, but no one was expecting such a massive and rapid surge in demand. We need to get these things in from other factories before we can ramp up production of the food products themselves to the max.

The large distribution warehouse we use in the UK, which supplies all the major supermarkets for many different brands and products, is down to 40% stock holding. It normally runs at almost 100% capacity. My point is for some products, we don’t know where the extra stock is going to come from, so it’s a real concern.

I was in a store yesterday nearing us and wanted to get some particular shaped pasta (yes it does taste different). I went to the aisle and there was a couple of shelves of the stuff (not massive shelves).

I picked up two packs (the right shape) and a woman came up behind me and swept the rest of the packs off the shelf into her trolley (maybe a dozen packs) then grabbed and handful of spaghetti packs. The couple behind me at the till had a trolley full of loo roll and pasta. When we walked back through the shop there was only a few packs of chickpea or less lentil pasta left. No passata, no eggs, some loo roll (people must have missed that!).

The location is very commercial with hotels and air B&B types - so usually full of tourists and local workers (people who live their tend to send their maids out to do the shop). All very odd!

I need to venture out to do MIL grocery shopping - she wants loo roll, dettol spray, olive oil, eggs... I have warned her!

I don't think the media are helping by whipping up hysteria tbh - while stocks are lower I've bought paracetamol, tinned toms and toilet rolls this week when we've needed them. The toilet roll frenzy is a sight to behold, we normally buy in bulk from Costco but they'd completely sold out! We have fewer toilet rolls than normal, but enough to get by

Well, that’s the Dunkirk spirit! “Every man for himself!”

Am I the only person in the uk who sees hand sanitiser as a really poor substitute for soap and water or any suitable detergent and water?

“No, most people do but there are situations where people just don't have access to soap and water. There's lots of people on here saying exactly that”

I think the point that @Muminabun and I were trying to make is that there are people who do have easy access to soap and water who are buying hand gel. It should be for those who really need it. Then there would be enough to go around.

I thought it was a lovely message and very sensible.

Our local supermarket has been out of soap and hand gel completely for 2 weeks and toilet roll is hard to get hold of. It's surely putting the elderly and vulnerable at more risk if there's no-one left.

I saw a women ranting in a supermarket about not being allowed to buy more than the allowance because she was buying for a couple of elderly people.

She was rude and superior and told the poor cashier that she was ruining everyone’s life.

People DO buy for older people. We know that. Yet she was awful to the staff member and I am really not sure what the answer is.