What is the best time to go to supermarket?

[Gyptian]

There isn’t a chance of getting an online delivery slot for weeks so we will have to go to the supermarket for provisions. What time do people reckon it will be the quietest? I’m thinking probably the evening but they probably won’t have anything left by then!

By 11 it was empty shelves today, same yesterday

The idea that there’s nothing left or rows of empty shelves is perpetuating panic buying. I live very close to three major supermarkets. This week there have been empty areas but you can still get food and most of what you need. Loads of fresh food in Aldi yesterday at 10am, not much in Tesco at 4pm today. It may be worse in some areas than others though. There was no milk at all today at two of stores then loads in the third. It’s odd. Usually at Aldi they stock up first thing the bigger store stack overnight so early morning next. Hope you get what you need.

I went to Aldi at 9am today (it opened 8am). Fully stocked of everything I usually by on my weekly shop for a family of 6.

I’ve been going about 9pm and they have almost everything and sometimes are even restocking the shelves. I live in a rural county though

Sainsburys was ransacked by 8am today. I've been most days (as I usually do) and it has got worse day on day!!!

I'm getting concerned now.

There isn't a best time. I work in Tesco and deliveries are all over the place at the moment.

Went into Tesco today at 3
Plenty of fruit and veg
Bakery bread
Long life milk
Reasonable selection of meat
Plenty of cheese and yogurt
Flour back in stock and yeast too
No pasta and limited tinned food
No loo roll, wipes or paracetamol
So not that bad.
This is east Devon.

Luck of the draw really but I'd say evenings are best bet. The 'clever' people seem to queue up in the morning and the staff haven't even been in to stock up the shelves. Through the day anything put out will soon be cleared or customers help themselves to the stuff in the cages before it hits the shelf.

I went to Aldi after the gym the other evening about 7:30pm and it was like normal times! Fully stocked bar pasta and rice pretty much. Don't need toilet roll (12 rolls I already had will last me ages) so didn't look. Loads of tins of everything. Guess they'd managed to have a good hour or two of restocking late in the day.

Is it true Tesco is offering NHS workers a special shopping hour on Sunday?

@ThisMomentIsMyLife yes it's true. NHS workers will be allowed in an hour early to browse and fill their trollies but they can't pay until 10 o'clock because it's Sunday trading hours. You need to bring your NHS pass or staff card.

It really depends where you live. It’s still ok here, some things are low but not the horrendous empty shelves, but apparently 10 miles away it’s dire.

My friends mum works in Tesco and said to get there for opening which is 6am for the one near me where she works and she said people are queuing outside from 5am..

I went to Lidl half hour before closing. There was still food to buy. They have plenty of chilled things like bacon, sausages, cheese, pies, ham, cured meats. They even had fresh filled pasta and some veg. Plenty of sweets, crisps and chocolate. Some breakfast cereals. No tins, jars, frozen things, or dried carbs. People really just seem to want long life things.

About four weeks ago

No seriously I’ve been to Tesco, sainsburies, m&s and Aldi today and all the shelves were bare

SE London - Tesco at London Bridge was very well stocked at around 1300 yesterday

It depends when they restock.
Our local Aldi restocks at night so if you are near the front of the queue at opening you can get most things.
Our local Morrison's has deliveries twice a day so it's hard to say when those items hit the shop floor.

Aldi at 8am yesterday was fully stocked and they were putting more stock out then too.

28th September

Two days ago I went to Asda at 0740, less than two hours after opening. Not a single toilet roll. Apparently there was a queue and a stampede at 0600 that morning.

Went for a laugh at 1730 tonight. Empty shelves everywhere. Very little of anything left. Got two tins of tinned potatoes and some lucozade.

So @Wineislifex in four supermarkets, all the shelves were bare?! Really? This is the sort of crap which panics people and forces them to buy enough pasta to last until 2040.

Thanks all. It sounds quite random depending on where people live. I’m concerned about getting what we need but my main concern is OH being around loads of people as I am in a vulnerable group.

@CatsForLife

I hate to be the "reason" for panic buying but today I've been to a Sainsburys, Tesco, Mark's and Waitrose and you couldn't have done a weekly shop in any of them. In fact you couldn't have done a weekly shop in all 4 combined.

Lack of stock is very real and very concerning where I am!

Near me, there’s been daily crowds gathering around the the entrance when the supermarkets open - think massive queues, no parking and people fighting over items etc. So frankly I’d rather avoid the opening time as it seems to be absolute chaos and just wait until things quiten down in a few weeks to buy “trendy” essentials.

I went to Waitrose today at around 12, had a good range of items. Definitely wasn’t barren but the trendy items were all sold through.

Then went to Marks and Sainsbury’s around 9pm, there was a definite lack of items imo. The trendy items sold through of course, but also other bits like apples, potatoes, oat milk etc. Still more than enough food though - if I’d didn’t visit Waitrose earlier in the day I would have still been fine.

@catsforlife yes bare of everything I wanted to buy which included kitchen roll, toilet roll, pasta, beans and chicken breasts...so I ended up with alcohol and New York cheesecake for tea instead!

Not scaremongering at all, just telling you what I experienced