Why such a difference with shopping in the UK?

[magicstar1]

I’m not being smug, or trying to start a row, but I genuinely can’t understand how the food shopping situation has gotten so bad in the UK.
I’m in Dublin and went for a weekly shop yesterday for my parents. We had a queue of about 10 people outside Aldi. Security let in so many at a time and the shop was fully stocked...nothing at all we couldn’t get. Lidl and Dunnes were the same.
A local restaurant supplier of vegetables has opened up to the public. Distance of 10 feet between customers, all staff in masks, sanitiser and gloves for customers, and the prices are about 50% lower than normal shops.
All I see on here and on the news are panic buying and shortages in Britain and Australia. France, Italy, Germany and others seem to be fine. What’s going on?

Well we were panic buying last week, but it did settle down within a few days.

Well I am in Dublin and about on third my Tesco shop did not arrive on Friday and the local Dunnes has loads of empty shelves.
The local Centra keeps running out of products like eggs, toilet tissue and milk.

Yeah, I saw the panic buying, but it died down quite quickly. I don’t know anyone who shops in Tescos, so maybe they’re short of stock alright, but even the small local shops here have everything.

@FoodieToo if you’re near Ballymount, have a look at Doyle’s Veg Prep on Facebook . That s the place I was talking about...plenty of eggs and milk etc. along with the veg.

Thanks Magicstar . Am in Stepaside. Just supplementing whatever Tesco will bring with local Centra.

There have been posts from people in italy, spain and france all saying that there has been panic buying and empty shelves but it all calmed back down a week to 2 weeks ago

So hopefully we will follow suit

I went to both Tesco and Waitrose this morning and they were fairly quiet. Decent amount of stock as well, just short of things like soup and eggs.

It's already calmed down where I am in Bristol. My local supermarket very quiet and with stocked shelves the last couple of days.

My colleagues in Germany were all complaining about the panic buying too.

My little town, although the supermarkets have less in, the other food shops are fine and restaurants/cafes/farm shops are selling more than usual, using their catering supplies to make 'heat it at home' meals and selling pasta/milk etc, and doing home delivery for those who can't get out. So I think it does vary massively

I am in Dublin 11. Our aldi is fully stocked except for eggs!!
Never normally go to Tesco but wanted to pick up so Lego and their freezers were nearly empty.

The local Dunnes is grand.
I find what is going on in the UK too bizarre. I really don't understand either.

I know Ireland is completely self sufficient and the UK isn't be still there no supply chain issues.

Very strange

Dh did the weekly shop today, supermarket (dublin, dunnes) not busy at all, plenty of everything. They only let a few in at a time and trollies were disinfected between each wash.

I think it has settled down now. We got loo roll and flour today. Only things in short supply are beans and hand sanitizer

I think it’s about to settle. Most people who were stocking up have now filled their freezers and sheds and so on.

Is it not just a matter that England is a lot more densely populated,they have a lot more supermarkets out in retail parks etc. I live in Northern Ireland (so the UK) shops Near me all fine and my local shop is going over and beyond to protect people and staff. They have installed screens and everything. Man in my work is from Donegal and was in aldi,said there was barely anything left - I think that was a very sweeping statement regarding uk/Ireland to be honest. We are all just trying our best here. We had a lot of cafes and restaurants donate all their food to either the NHS staff or those who needed it most. One group donated over £30 thousand worth of stuff.We have the whole community pulling together to help - this stuff just doesn’t make it onto the news

I’m down in Kerry and we’re not having any problems either. Mostly shopping Tesco and Lidl. DH was talking to the shopping assistant when he did the shopping and they said it had been quite this week.

@ Inituntiltheend it wasn’t meant to be a sweeping statement, it’s just that most of the posts I see about empty shelves are on here, or UK newspapers,or from my English relatives. Nobody’s know here has had any problems apart from the one day of panic when the schools closed.

*Bloody autocorrect...nobody I know here...

I think its partly to do with the culture which has evolved here in the last 20 years particularly with both people in a relationship working. When I visit Spain, Italy, Greece ext and self cater I notice that far more people shop daily or every couple of days than here. We have got used to one really big shop a month to save time with little top ups in between. We are used to having at least a couple of weeks basic supplies in most of the time. When we come to do our 'big shop' and realize shelves are emptying and things we take for granted are disappearing we panic. We go home, if we've been in the shop, and order a bigger monthly shop than usual. This impacts on the shops and we see more empty shelves and buy a bit more.I'm hoping that this will stop now. I noticed the other day in my local supermarket that there were more people with a basket just topping up than the previous week when I noticed a few families with 2 trolleyfulls! I have to get my 89 year old mother's as well as my own and have never needed more than a trolley at once. Come on people. I understand the panic but once we have enough lets just stop. Supplies are coming in all the time. Surely many of us just need a top up of fresh stuff from time to time now.

Wait till payday next Friday. It'll be mayhem. Agree with PP, its about culture. People shopping once a month and buying in bulk.

Sorry I think my back is up a bit today I’ve seen a few posts on Facebook regarding “Northerners” and “can we not go back to Britain,leave Donegal alone” etc when where I live we feel like we are irish and Donegal is our closest neighbour - where a lot of us spend every weekend - and spend a lot of money there !

Anyway I would say the posts here etc is as England has nearly 60 million people living in it. Including north and south we have around 6 million...and as someone else said they do a lot of bulk buying even more this happened