Just witnessed the future in Asda car park!

[Buttybach]

Just witnessed an elderly lady telling a man in a face mask that "he should be staying at home if he has it"

He then told her that he didn't have it and it was a precaution.

He sounded like he was Italian so she shouted "I bet you have been to Italy"

He then flew into a tirade shouting that she should be self isolating as she was over 70 - and to quote him "you're all going to F**ing die if you don't!

As I walked away they were still screaming at each other from their cars!

Is this the future! We will all be turning on each other!

I heard (on Radio 4) a quite long and sensible analysis of the panic buying issue, from a buyer from a big supermarket chain. He made the point that the toilet/roll/pasta/etc problem was not a true shortage, but a temporary blip in supply, which the retailers will soon remedy. It is not a problem with production.
Those who frantically buy more of these things than they really need will, at some point, give up (if only because they have no more room in their cupboards).
They will then patiently consume their toilet rolls and boring pasta meals for weeks, if not months-and have no need or desire to buy more. The rest of us will return to buying our usual amounts, while the hoarders stay at home.
This, of course, does not apply to genuine consumables, like Hand Sanitisers-but I do not see a shortage of plain old hand soap.

Out Sainsbury’s had sold out of random stuff like peanut butter, who stock piles that sort of thing ? confused

I genuinely haven’t bought any this year but I have 7 jars of almond butter and peanut in the house and a large catering tub. I’m not going to run out anytime soon.

Look for the helpers.

If you can please join your local mutual aid group to either help others or get help yourself.
freedomnews.org.uk/covid-19-uk-mutual-aid-groups-a-list/

Seriously, where do you lot live?? I am in Dudley, West Midlands, for reference, so not a rural idyll but an area of deprivation with a broad cultural mix and more than our share of unemployment. Haven't seen any of this fighting over the aisles, everyone is just quietly getting on with it.

We went in this morning to get bread and milk for DH's parents. They're both in their seventies and full of cold.

It took 20 minutes to go in, get two loaves and a bottle of milk and pay. The queues were down the aisle - no toilet paper, no kitchen roll, no bleach, no cleaning spray, no soap, no antibac gel, no baked beans, no tinned tomatoes, no rice, no pasta.

The girl on the checkout said they were restocked overnight and this was at 11.30am - so everything was gone in 90 minutes. Bonkers.

Well .. to go against the grain .. we live in a small town on the Lancashire/Cumbria border and for the larger part we've had the opposite.

Small villages drawing rotas to keep the elderly and vulnerable stocked with food and meds, discussions of child care circles if schools close and a MASSIVE increase in food bank donations ..

I'm hoping the small town community spirit sees us through

I went to ASDA with my mum this morning about 10.45 - the queues were almost to the back of the shop. It was however, all very civilised, good natured, no one was over buying it seemed, just the usual Sunday shop. I had a small trolley, as did most people there. Very civilised bunch down in SE London we are!

Pretty much all the shops around here have been jammed solid. Fortunately got our shopping yesterday but had missed a few bits out. Managed to get some tea bags.

A Waitrose had an overturned trolley outside and has been taped off with Police tape due to a reported stabbing incident and one person taken to hospital in N London. Someone said there were 2 people involved in an altercation.

Garden centre almost empty, one man carrying a small coughing child.

It's about survival instinct. we are never more than a hair's breadth away from being savages. Civilisation has a very thin veneer.

^^ this

@MintyMabel -try reading the thread! There’s lots of positive stories!

@OnlyaMan. Any one with half a functioning brain cell knows that. The point is people want to get shopping in while they’re well enough to go and do it and
Before there are many more infected people out there. If both parents are sick the kids are still going to need to eat and you can’t send little ones out on the bus to the supermarket to get food.

There are only a few brain dead people who think there’s actually going to be a long term shortage of beans & pasta.

Toilet roll is a slightly different issue as I’ve been told by someone whose DH manufactures the stuff (overseas) , that the raw material required is being diverted to mask making - whether that’s the case in the UK OR NOT, I’m not sure.

However, same situation with getting out for shopping if you’re not well & especially if you have children.

It could/should have been better managed by the supermarkets, but selling is their aim, not ‘fairness’.

Some of it’s utterly random though. A whole tray of marmalade?! I can only assume they’re trying to get their vit C in!! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

DH works for Lidl’s. a colleague called I sick this morning as they had a bad, non stop cough

As they are so crazy busy he was told in no uncertain terms to come in to work.

Spent all day coughing and this is in the warehouse.

The Amazon man has just brought the cat food. No dog food yet, but given the dog will eat anything, that’s not so critical

Please tell you cat to keep an eye on the dog... cat had better not look too tasty!!

@WingBingo

Well that’ll make Boris very happy. Really getting it spread about to lots of people 🤬

I haven’t found meanness yet. I’ve chatted more with people because I think it helps to feel a bit more together in it all.

I've got masks (bought them for the swine flu epidemic). Too scared to use them.

@alexasaymyname

Why are you too scared to use them?!

I personally don’t intend to use the couple I have until the situation is much worse and there’s something I can’t live without getting or having delivered. Or if I need to be taken to a hospital by a friend/taxi etc. I will have one for me & one for them. At this stage I’m desperately trying not to get it (51, ‘underlying health issues’) but at least there’s still currently hospital help available. Later on possibly not so much, so saving my masks feels like the best move. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We’ve now got a local FB group where people are helping each other. Giving away unused nappies , people offering to shop for others , one mum has a poorly 3 month old and someone picked up some calpol for her as she didn’t want to take the baby out.

I think, what we have to remember is that people are acting like this because they are afraid. I’m sure the 70 yr old woman didn’t go to Asda for a fight, neither did the Guy with the Italian accent. They’re probably lovely, normal people in a scary situation. (Got to admit, I’d be pretty mad if I was over 70 and just found out the govt policy is to throw us under the bus). Except the guy commenting on people’s bodies. He actually is a horrible person.

I witnessed a man call his wife a 'stupid fucking cunt' because she missed the toilet paper being put out in Aldi.
I have honestly lost some hope in humanity over the last few days.

A pp mentioned about Asda having a BBQ display, the one I popped into yesterday (one of their smaller stores) had a display of Corona beer, maybe there is an internal competition going on.

I have refused to go anywhere near my local shopping centre, Tesco sounds a nightmare, however a couple of miles down the road and my local Tesco express has pretty much everything.

I have a large Ocado order coming tomorrow, a normal weekly shop with a few random things - art stuff for dd's birthday present and a heater in case we have to self isolate in the conservatory.

We did our normal weekly shop today. My OH is "plant based" and he felt actual guilt doing his usual shop. He's good at just replacing the tins he's used during the week, not over buying. He said he just wanted a signed over him saying "vegan" so people didn't think he was panic buying!
There was a guy in the beans and pulses isle going to town on kidney beans. Then looking at a tin of chickpeas confusingly and started chucking them in too.

No chopped tomatoes which is a base for nearly all OH's meals but he found the last pack of 4 peeled plum tomatoes. Turned the corner into the next isle and a lady was filling her basket with huge tins of sweet corn!!

Got to the cereal isle and barely any wheatbiscuits!
He was gutted because most of what he usually eats wasn't there. He's said he'll go later in the week, late at night in hope of getting tinned bits and frozen soya pieces 🤭

One thing that made me laugh was as we were leaving, a guy had finished his shift, wearing his high vis Tesco coat, one hand daffodils and what was in his other hand? Two packets of bow tie pasta!! Which certainly wasn't available on the shop floor!! Perks of the job 😂😂

Aisle** whoopsie😂

At the supermarket today picking up some toiletries, the two supermarket check out staff were discussing organising a strike for more pay. This was in central London. They’ve set up a WhatsApp group to try and lobby for more money. Which was pretty shocking to overhear as I was standing in front of them paying for my shopping!

@AmelieTaylor. Some Japanese people were verbally assaulted when they wore masks, as people thought they had the virus. It’s much more acceptable to wear a mask in china and Japan.

When it’s at its height I’ll wear one though, just to remind me to stop rubbing my nose or touching my face.

My lovely Eastern European friend still insists on giving us all hugs and air kisses though. He is lovely, so I won’t say anything yet.