I have an idea for supermarkets

[waltzingparrot]

Why don't they designate the day of the week you can shop by the letter of your surname. So A-D shop on a Monday, E-H on a Tuesday etc through to Friday. Saturday could be for front line NHS/essential, Sunday for elderly. They would know this by name on credit card. National scheme for all supermarkets. Well publicised. People turned away at door if wrong day, PA announcements in store for any that have slipped in. No exceptions otherwise word will get round that it's not being policed.

Doesn't apply to corner stores/mini stores.

What do we think?

I think NHS workers will need access every day as there will be so many different shift patterns. They said only shop once a week but weve been finding ironically we're shopping more (and thus raising potential contact) because so many shops have sold out of basics. I dont know how it will be monitored.

Maybe carry on with the first hour every day for them and then ordinary shoppers by surname later.

I cant do all my shopping in one go due to the buying restrictions so this wouldnt work for me. There are 9 people in my house and I'm allowed to buy 2 or 3 (depending on shop) of each item, so this wouldnt work for me.

Plus, there are probably more people with a certain surname like Smith than there are Adams

Households with different names could get around that. Double barrelled names too.

This would actually work for me.

And there is the problem. Dp has a different surname to me.

So we would get 2 shopping trips a week. Not really fair

Many people do not have the same surname as people they live with.

Because there are some letters of the alphabet with don't identify appear at the beginning of surnames.

I once worked with a teacher who arranged for children with surnames beginning A-M to come to settling in sessions in the morning and N-Z in the afternoon. There were 24 children in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.

The nearest supermarket to me (by a long way) is Sainsbury's. They are now open 8am-8pm, your plan wouldn't work for me if my allocated day was a Monday-Thursday because I work 7am-8:30pm on those days.

But I see what you mean. Maybe they could do a 40 people (or a figure relevant to the size of the store) and then once they reach 40 it would be a one in and one our policy?

I do think they need to be stricter on supermarkets if the last few weeks is anything to go by.

in principle brilliant.

But I live in Wales.

Think Jones etc😂😂😂😂🤣 It would be rammed on our day!

Not trying to piss on your chips and this is the kind of thing we need.

People would just borrow friends id’s to go on multiple days. You underestimate how deceitful people can be.

I don't actually have room to store a week's food in my fridge. I tend to shop every three days or so, probably every five now we're in confinement.

What if I'm doing a full shift on my day?
What if I ran out of something I desperately needed ( ie. baby milk) two days before 'my' day?
What if I didn't have a car and needed to do two walking trips?
What if I'm shopping for elderly parents and I can't do mine and their shop at the same time due to restrictions on food items?

The problem with one in one out is people queueing on top of each other waiting to get in.

Good try, but it's a no from me OP.
Not everyone has enough storage capacity at home to store enough fresh food to last until their next allocated day comes round.
The Italian shop I saw on TV, with the 2 metre strips of tape on the ground to ensure people queue at a safe distance from each other, would help.
That, combined with a 1 in 1 out system, to stop the shop being overcrowded would be good too.

Or maybe for different postcodes? With obvious exceptions for key or shift workers.

Yes , it was the principle rather than the detail - that's for the powers to be to work out. Postcode was my second option.

@cinnamonbuns: I thought they could do it by credit card name, which you would pay with, not ID. Nice friend that will lend you their card to pay with.

I see my plan has flaws, but the principle that we are spread out across the week was my aim. Obviously the govt knows how many names fall in certain letter bandings, they would dictate that
Obviously J gets its own day in Wales 😁

No, additional restrictions could just make matter worse. What the supermarkets need is support to increase ability to keep the shelves stocked. Only once enough people have confidence that they'll always be able to get what they need will the panic buying stop.

Bless you @waltzingparrot🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think Boris may be too busy at the moment to sort out our shopping days for us.
Back to the drawing board....

I once worked with a teacher who arranged for children with surnames beginning A-M to come to settling in sessions in the morning and N-Z in the afternoon. There were 24 children in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.

Now that is scary. I assume the teacher has the list names for children who would be at the sessions. Even if they didn't, they should have had enough cop on to know that surnames are not evenly distributed within the alphabet and gone A-J, K-Z, or whatever, based on experience of previous years.

My friend in Canada said Perspex is being put round shop assistants to protect them and contactless payments only. Who remembers when all banks, post offices and many other reception areas had glass between them and customers. I see a return to this.

It would be easy to sort out approximate equal sized groups by name from the electoral register. But I suspect people would abuse the system unless it were a scheme enforced by law, making it pointless.

A move towards click and collect with weekly allocated slots could protect supermarket staff, aid social distancing and make sure everyone got their fair share. There would probably have to be a system where you had to chose multiple meal options and only got 7 to make sure everyone got what they need but a sorting algorithm could handle allocating them quite easily.

I know one supermarket are doing that already @Valkadin

It will be completed by 1st of April