Re: closing the supermarkets, and that making a difference To stopping the spread.... I do think that’s true, but we don’t have the infrastructure to sort out people getting food and essentials currently and I don’t know if that’s lack of staff, organisation or there really actually being a shortage of food. I know this because of what’s happened to us the last 18hrs, which to be honest has really shocked me/opened my eyes.
Had managed to book more or less weekly delivery slots (well, every 7-10ish days) from now til mid April with Tesco. Don’t want to necessarily make this about Tesco, I think it might start happening with deliveries generally. I’ve had symptoms so we are in quarantine. Delivery was meant to come yesterday evening, and just... didn’t. No phone call/email/text, just didn’t arrive. Couldn’t get through to helpline as it was jammed.
Turned out a load of deliveries in my bit of London had been cancelled at late notice and a lot of customers hadn’t been informed, due to issues at a depo where a load of staff had all gone off sick with symptoms that day/similar at the call centre. The whole chain of command seemingly had collapsed. We have two small kids, we were running out of essentials (I mean nappies and bread rather than avocados and soy ice cream). Tesco said we shouldn’t therefore go to our local store even if we weren’t completely isolating as it would swamp the local shop and fuck op the supply chain, but they said too that they couldn’t offer us anything, not even an essentials package, for 10 days. The person I spoke to at the call centre did agree it was insane that that was the advice. Obviously we all know we can’t get slots with any other supermarkets, it’s just impossible. Perhaps if we were technically vulnerable, but despite my autoimmune condition, we aren’t. I did put my name down for an essentials package and was promised a cal back at 10am. That hasn’t happened and I have been trying to get through on the helpline all day, not can’t.
Our options for help are: close friend who’s partner is going through chemo so is totally in isolation, so they’re off the list. Husbands parents, both in the got-a-vulnerable-letter-and-are-in-for-12weeks, so they’re off the list. Another close friend with a husband with symptoms, so they can’t go out and are off the list and another friend of mine with a kid with symptoms, so they’re unable to go out for us. Last option are my parents who aren’t vulnerable due to illness and don’t have symptoms but are in their 70s and should be at home. Not a bad support network but no one in it available except them. Alas, they were all we had at short notice so had to send them to do a doorstep drop of enough for us to get by. In future if this happens I guess we will have to use Facebook to look for kindly strangers but who knows if they’ll be available if everyone is having this issue and we don’t count as worthy of urgent help?
Heard via local media that due to so many people being cancelled deliveries yesterday our loca supermarkets were swamped and there was a SIX HOUR queue outside our local Tesco this morning!!! Now we were responsible and weren’t in that queue ourselves, but how many of the people in it were just driven there through desperation because they were out of everything and have no one suitable to help?
All getting a bit scary and starting to wonder if the stockpilers had the right idea.