Today has reduced me to tears 😢

[missmeg3leg]

A polite request to all stockpilers of the UK, I’m sure I speak for the thousands in my position but as a frontline NHS worker part of a dedicated & very tired team looking after increasingly numbers of CV patients please leave something on the shelves for us as we head home after 12hr shifts, just called in my local Sainsburys for a few bits to find all shelves/fridges/freezers bare/1 or 2 of some items.....lets share the love (or loo roll or pasta)! 🤗

thank you and your colleagues for the work you do OP

Only here to say that, and to echo previous posters, if you can try the corner and local shops. The supermarkets should limit the amounts now, and check in with local cover-19 support groups, we'd be honoured to do your shopping - let us support you and your family

I noticed this building up about a week ago when I saw a couple, each with a trolley, filling up with whole trays of tinned goods and piling high with stuff. That isn’t panic buying, it’s hoarding and very selfish. Because the shelves start to be bare then others ‘panic buy’ because they feel that stuff will run out completely. At some point it should ease as people run out of storage space, unless, of course, they’re hoarding in order to sell on, ie, profiteering. I have also heard that people have been buying freezers to store huge amounts of meat, hence the empty fridges in the supermarkets.

Thanks to all the NHS staff on the thread, you're doing an amazing job in awful circumstances.
Don't forget to look after your selves too.
I really wish shops would limit stock per week person even more, limits to six per person I've seen, who needs to six handwashes or six packs of loo roll.

Different supermarkets stock up at different times, our local COOP usually stocks up in the evening, wheras Tesco's does early morning so may be worth trying different stores if you have time. Stores should reserve delivery slots for NHS workers in times of crisis like this.

Struggled to find any nappies for my baby today. Saw a woman with masses of them in her trolley at the supermarket and she pretty much ran off to the tills when she saw me checking shelves. Disgraceful.

So wrong wrong wrong....

This is where the Stores themselves really should step up and said... You know what Customer... we're not going to sell all of these to you today... thank you for understanding...

They'd soon intervene with security if you were shoplifting.. well intervene in this carry on... PLEASE

OP thank you for everything you do... every day

I did an online shop about 3 weeks ago that's on its last legs now... I daren't face the shops. I managed to get a box of paracetamol and baby wipes from bargain booze of all places yesterday. They had some tinned stuff too!

I couldn't get baby milk, calpol, chicken or paracetamol today 😖😡

Some lady is Aldi had loaded her trolly full of nappies, she stropped when the checkout lady told her she could only buy 4 packets, still too many though I'm my Opinion!

Thank you for all you do OP, both of my daughters are nurses, one in hospital, one in gp surgery, I am so proud of them both and all NHS workers who are facing very scary times. I am disgusted with the people who are being so greedy and selfish when shopping, we all need to eat but people on the front line more than others, what would we do without them? I hope you are able to get everything you need and one again, a big thank you.

I'm not stockpiling OP, and I am getting used to having to eat less rather than buying to excess and having more than enough to stuff my face. One minute everyone is going on about food waste and plastic packaging but when the push comes to shove = this. It's such a shame some people act like this.

I'm amazed at all the "local shops" with supplies to be honest. We have nothing like a local grocery style store nearby. We have coffee shops, a restaurant, a financial services place, a wine merchant and two florists within a near distance.

I'm really glad that so many have survived elsewhere.

Local Aldi was very well stocked at 9am this morning. All I couldn't get was cheap pasta (plenty of the specialty stuff), toilet paper and granulated sugar. Plenty of fresh food in particular.

Dramadrama l actually heard a customer where l work saying this exact same thing. That people who don't actually need gluten free are buying it when the stuff they want isn't available, and then there's none left for those who need it for medical reasons.

I'm buying little but often to try and keep a 14 day supply in.Its not hard at the moment as there has been plenty of fresh veg available so salads for packed lunch tomorrow as no bread available.
I'm an NHS worker so this is necessary as there are thin pickings in the shops at times.
I think most of us feel that getting it is inevitable so staying prepared.
On an up note my old towels have a stay of execution as our super market had no bread but did have stacks of toilet roll.I saw no one take more than on pack

Today has reduced me to tears too.
I'm working at a place that has been turned into a centre for help for people who are isolating. All day we've had people phoning in to help, turning up with spare items-we asked for people for a specific help and we had so many volunteers within 10 minutes of asking we had three times as many people as needed.
I will believe in the fundamental goodness of most people when you see that. It is only the few who are exploiting the situation.

My friend works in Sainsburys, the abuse the staff were getting when shelves are empty today was awful he said. I wonder who they think is emptying them.

Thank you all for your very kind replies & suggestions 🤗 have had me in tears again!....I’m sure many NHS staff like me today have had the stark reality of CV face to face & the threat posed to our communities, loved ones & friends.....& I’m sure my earlier banging headache from resp mask didn’t help! 😷 late night chilling here now with a little 🍷.....stay safe all & behalf of us all thenk you for your support! 😀

Yes, also people who don’t have coeliac, stop hoarding GF bread! I can’t buy it online for my son with coeliac, who is self- isolating with us because of a cough. Even before he came home the GF shelves were bare.

I absolutely agree! All the people who can’t get normal pasta bread and cakes are buying gf. The thing is, most people can probably pick up some kind of something, somewhere, with a bit of effort, like a packet of biscuits or box of cereal but I don’t have that luxury. I’m very limited in what I can eat anyway but if the gf bread, pasta, cakes and flour go I am even more limited in what I can eat than usual (vegetables, cheese and meat, basically) . I’ve seen more than one post on social media of the type “can’t get normal pasta so buying up the gluten free!”. Life is hard enough for people with autoimmune conditions (which is what coeliac disease is) as it is.

I for one am so grateful to you missmeg3leg and I hope maybe the supermarkets can perhaps do something to ensure that NHS workers get the goods they need. It can't go on like this. We need some form of rationing. At least the booze section always seem to be well stocked!

I know how you feel OP, and thank you for your selfless work.
I welled up today too when I tried another shop for paracetamol only to find the shelves plundered. My family and I have four ibuprofen tablets (yes tablets, not packs) to get us all through if/when we catch it, which my DS can’t take as he gets asthma. I laughed at loo roll and pasta hoarders - I can live without them - but depriving my kids of pain/fever relief should they catch it is so totally selfish....

It’s the same with vege frozen stuff. No quorn mince or sausages of any kind as meat eaters are buying them when there is no meat option available

Apparently some cunt tried to buy 30 bottles of Calpol at a local pharmacy a relative works at. They have a limit of 1 and when they refused to sell them she tried to steal them. Some people are just plain selfish.

Corner shops are well stocked. I saw plenty of loo roll at mine today. They seem to offer delivery too. Time to support the small businesses!

@Itslookinglikeabeautifulday
Just a word of caution...doctors have advised not to take Ibruprofen if you have symptoms of Coronavirus as it suppresses the immune system.

I am late, but agree small shops are the answer. I found loo roll today in The little shop I drove passed on my way to the supermarket (saw a man leaving with a big pack and pulled over like a mad woman.

Avoiding the big stores now, local grocers, fruit and veg and butchers.