General idea of how supermarkets are doing

[Cornishbelle]

I can't seem to find out anywhere a rough idea if supermarket shelves are coming back to normal after the lockdown? I was thinking the supply chain would recover fairly quickly. Anyone done an essentials shop today and would mind sharing joentheu found it?

I'm in the north west, a few substitutions on my shopping due to pick up later but only 1 type of something for a different brand, can't get sugar, orange juice or household cleaners but other than that everything is available including eggs and flour so I can get baking with the dc. The shops are definitely getting stock in again

Went to our local high street independent shops and they seem well stocked but still no loo roll. Had to queue outside each one so it was slow but fine.

I went to a huge Sainsbury's in Sheffield this morning. I got there at about 9.15, and there was a well behaved queue to get in. Everyone inside was polite and careful to observe social distances. There was loads of meat, vegetables and bread, but significant gaps on the shelves.

No tinned vegetables except for tomatoes, sweetcorn, asparagus and a few tins of baked beans
No pasta
Hardly any wine or beer
Hardly any tea bags
No flour or yeast
Most of the freezers were empty
Hardly any vegetarian meat substitute options in the freezers ((DD is vegetarian)
I didn't look for loo roll as we have enough for now

In spite of supermarkets requesting one person per trolley there were still a few couples shopping together. I don't understand why able bodied people feel that they can't shop on their own. Fair enough if the shopper can't drive, but under the circumstances the driver needs to stay in the car and wait for the shopper.

We’re West Sussex (on the coast) and my son was able to get everything yesterday except tinned tuna.

This was a medium sized Morrisons.

Apparently the loo roll aisle was still empty, though.

Seems to be getting back to normal, thank goodness.

I have also discovered Deliveroo, thanks to this crisis. There’s a Polish bakery near us delivering gorgeous bread and goodies as often as we need.

Didn’t know about them before but will be using them a lot from now on.

I work in one of the big supermarkets, green logo 🤔, our delivery last night was absolutely immense, much bigger than any Christmas delivery, the shelves were full plus the back up also for the first time in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this is reassuring to those who worry we are not going to get stock

@Ginfordinner I am in Sheffield as well although it does have many supermarkets, as in my above post, ours is now returning to normal

I braved Waitrose this morning. There was a civilized queue in the sun, ppl standing around 8-10ft apart. Took 40 mins to get in. Staff were sanitising trolley handles for each customer. I would say shelves we're about 80% stocked. There was loo roll, pasta and sauces, fresh meat, frozen stuff, veg and plenty of booze! Crosses on the floor to mark where to stand at the checkout. I won't go for at least another week now but was a pleasant experience and everyone had a really community spirit about them.

I’m in the Midlands, ours showed signs of recovery earlier this week. Not much pasta but some, couple of bottles of wine, plenty of toilet roll, fresh fruit and veg... no frozen fruit, though.

They were counting people in and out, and it was pretty quiet, although we avoided the morning as they tweeted that it was busiest immediately before opening.

I had a Tesco delivery today. Most things arrived but eggs and toilet paper haven't even been an option in my area on the site for a while .

Also got an email from them saying that in addition to the 'only 3 of any item' current rule, they're now restricting all online deliveries to 80 items max. And the site has no available delivery slots for the next few weeks and no option to look even after that.

Aldi was fully stocked today. No issues at all.

3 large supermarkets- no toilet paper, baked beans (or many other tinned food except tuna), no soap of any kind. 2 had no frozen veg.

Was shopping on behalf of others only so did not look for rice & pasta as not on their list.

Many older people eat ready meals each night and the limit of 3 is concerning them and forcing them, or shoppers on their behalf to go out every 3 days.

Our large Waitrose had 4 pack scented toilet rolls yesterday. It was one in one out. queue looked large because of distancing but was only about 15 mins. It had most things but not the usual choice of brands. very good selection of fruit and veg

Tesco and Sainsburys this morning. Both close by each other (about a 2min drive between them) and less than 5min from my house. It took about 2 hours to do both and that included queuing to get in to both. I was doing a massive shop (over £300 total) as we have been self isolating and our fridge was empty and cupboards not far behind. I expected it to take longer. Long queues to get into both but they moved fairly quickly.

Wasn’t needing any cleaning stuff so can’t comment on that. Mostly I was getting fresh fruit, veg and meat and had no problems getting any.

Also getting some store cupboard staples and a lot of snack items. (Plus Easter eggs)

Pasta shelves were low but stock was there. Sainsburys definitely lower stock than Tesco, and it’s a smaller store. After Sainsburys I still had a lengthy list of things I hadn’t managed to get, but by the time I had done Tesco the only outstanding item was yeast. May take my once a day exercise tomorrow to Asda to see if they have any.

I would be put off going back to Sainsburys though - Tesco much more organised and taking things much more seriously. Both stores had a one in/one out policy, but Sainsburys was much busier inside. Didn’t feel too different to a regular weekday morning.

Customers weren’t really keeping their distance, and while there were repeated tannoy announcements about it, the staff weren’t social distancing either. A lot standing around chatting in aisles and not moving away for customers to get at stuff. No barriers for checkout staff, no gloves on any staff, no cleaning going on while I was there and no wiping down of trolleys and baskets. Tesco was doing all these things and their store was noticeably quieter.

At my nearest Tesco Extra (10 miles away), the queue was so long it disappeared round the end of the (enormous) building, as they were operating a one in one out system. I could possibly have waited (but it was very cold!) but then I discovered they were only letting you have one of the small trollies. All the big trollies were chained up. Has anyone else come across this? I only shop once a week and a little trolley is no good. Lots of people complaining. So I drove another 15 miles to a co-op. Very quiet. I could have a regular sized trolley, got most of what I wanted, but for meat I went to a butcher as the co-op didn't have any.
How do Tesco think people who drive in from rural areas with a family to feed can manage with just a small trolley of goods? It forces people who are used to shopping less frequently because of distance/time factors or fuel costs to now make extra journeys, which we should be avoiding. I should add that when I went in to this store last week it was fully stocked with no empty shelves.
Anyway, Tesco have lost my custom now.

Sent DS to Sainsbury's this afternoon.

Very stupid rationing policy - you were only allowed 3 of any group of items.

I had asked him to buy enough butter, yoghurt, cream and cheese to last a family of 4 a week. Instead he was limited to 3 dairy items, so now we don't have enough of anything to last the week.

And the policy wasn't made clear until he was at the checkout - so he couldn't call me and check (if it had been me I'd just have bought butter & yoghurt).

Hopefully this is reassuring to those who worry we are not going to get stock

Well it would be, but not if I have to queue for hours to get in.

limited to 3 dairy items so does this mean you can't buy cheese if you buy 3 x milk?

Tesco's in Cheshire wasnt too busy. Most things back in stock but obvs very low on loo roll , pasta, soap. Did a normal shop. It was very organised with a station to clean your trolley, a different queueing system to space us out. Think the craziness might be over

Not in our Sainsbury.

The queues and the limits will force people to go shopping more frequently and/or drive further.

Tomorrow I will cycle to a Sainsburys Local and see if that is better than the shops in town.

Plus if nobody can get into the shops surely there's going to be a lot of wastage of fresh goods? Maybe I need to go at 7.45pm and see what's on offer. No doubt I am not nearly the first to have had that thought!

I gave up this morning on getting a few items because of the queues, I would go back in now to try my luck, but of course now I'm not allowed out again today having been out once for essentials and once for exercise and DH won't go in my place as he's got a work deadline.

cologne4711 Not sure, as milk wasn't on the list.

he was only allowed 3 cooked foods too - so no smoked salmon for us either!

Aldi was more or less fine today, managed to get bread, rolls, milk, cat food, pasta and toilet rolls no problem as well as a few other bits. They didn't have any paracetamol or hand wash but that's been the same for weeks.

Went to Aldi on Wednesday. Only bits that were still empty were sugar, the entire baking section and a lot of tinned stuff. The meat section was a bit sparse too. Everything else fully stocked. I think slowly but surely it's returning to normal.

I've just been to Sainsbury's near work as DH has texted to say ds3 is crying with toothache and he couldn't find calpol in the little Tesco near us and doesn't think he should trawl loads of shops with crying ds3 in tow. Anyway- really well stocked, even loo roll in!