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Original poster

Rules on shopping frequency - there are none!

220 replies

swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:00

There is so much misinformation being spread on MN about how often you can go to the shops. I think it is worth drawing people's attention to the fact that Downing Street has clarified that there are no specific limits. People are just expected to be sensible and go as infrequently as they can.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/no-10-slaps-down-shapps-over-shop-once-a-week-comment-coronavirus

OP posts:
Makeitgoaway · 01/04/2020 08:03

Yes. I'm actually finding I go more frequently. I've always been a once a week shopper but with more people eating (and snacking) at home and shortages/restrictions in the shops, it's not possible to shop once a week for 4 adults.

LolaSmiles · 01/04/2020 08:25

It's about common sense really so if you're someone who shops almost daily and is prone to lots of top up shops, just calling in because you fancy something different for tea than what you've got in, just going out because you want a bar of chocolate etc then it's probably time to cut down and follow the advice, but if you do your big shop and run out of milk/fruit then a second shop isn't an issue.

GreenTulips · 01/04/2020 08:27

It’s also the he number of people going into multiple shops

Co-Op for bread, Morrison’s for beans, Tesco for Milk

One shop once a day is fine, for essentials, popping in for chocolate or a magazine isnt

Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:30

popping in for chocolate or a magazine isnt

Why not?

OP posts:
Makeitgoaway · 01/04/2020 08:32

Are your chocolate and magazine essential OP? You can shop as frequently as necessary, for essentials.

bluewafflewithmayo · 01/04/2020 08:33

no no OP I don't think you understand. The Mumsnet head girls decide how often we are all allowed to go the shop, and they have decreed that if you go more than once a fortnight you are a murderer and want their nan to die.

Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:34

I mean if you are out for a walk and you pop into the shop for your magazine or chocolate, what is the harm? The shop will have social distancing measures in place.

I agree we all need to think about what we're doing, but we don't need to lead completely joyless lives for the next 12 weeks.

OP posts:
LolaSmiles · 01/04/2020 08:34

Why not?
And this is how we end up with increasing restrictions.

The guidance is to minimise how much we're going out.
Shop workers are on the front line serving loads of people because people need to eat.
Why should they, and everyone else in the shop, be needlessly exposed to more risk because someone fancies a bar of chocolate?

Oh wait, I know, because some people are more special than everyone else so the guidelines don't apply to them. Just like some people have decided that because the law hasn't made non essential drives illegal they should continue driving for their nice walk and anyone who says this is inconsiderate is supporting a police state.

QuixoticQuokka · 01/04/2020 08:35

I don't see how milk and bread are deemed essential but chocolate isn't. Surely it is individual? There are many days I don't eat any milk or bread at all.

Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:36

Are your chocolate and magazine essential OP? You can shop as frequently as necessary, for essentials.

That magazine and that chocolate might be essential to me, they might be my only treat for the week. There is no list of essentials, so it is down to each person to decide what is essential.

OP posts:
Ciwirocks · 01/04/2020 08:37

You need to look at the fact that every time you go to the shops you are risking your own health as you May catch Coronavirus or the health of lots of other people as you May be carrying it and could pass it on

Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:38

Oh wait, I know, because some people are more special than everyone else so the guidelines don't apply to them. Just like some people have decided that because the law hasn't made non essential drives illegal they should continue driving for their nice walk and anyone who says this is inconsiderate is supporting a police state.

But there is NOTHING in the guidelines to say what is essential in terms of dood shopping and what isn't etc. So people can only use their own judgement. I bet you have bought things that I don't deem essential and vice versa.

OP posts:
Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:39

You need to look at the fact that every time you go to the shops you are risking your own health as you May catch Coronavirus or the health of lots of other people as you May be carrying it and could pass it on

Well yes, of course. But the point of the thread was really to ask people to stop spreading misinformation.

OP posts:
Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 08:41

food not dood!

OP posts:
TheDogIsKeepingMeSane · 01/04/2020 08:55

I completely agree with you OP.
I live in a shared house with 3 men. We don’t really speak to each other but use a shared bathroom & kitchen. They leave the bathroom & kitchen in a disgusting state. Usually I clean them because I want it clean.
Yesterday I didn’t go out & last night the pressure of lockdown got to me & tbh I lost my shit sellotaping a very aggressive poster on the kitchen wall about how disgusting they were. This is not me at all & I feel ashamed of myself this morning.

Today I’ve done my hair & I will drive to the shop & buy myself a magazine & copious amounts of chocolate because it’s what I NEED.

uisage · 01/04/2020 08:59

I am pregnant with a toddler, at home on my own all day. So I would deem large amounts of chocolate essential to get through the day (especially since I can't drink).

As usual, I try to do 1 shop a week. However, there are things that don't arrive in your delivery, you forget, or run out faster than you were anticipating. So we need maybe 1 or 2 top up shops. A shop every since day does seem excessive though, and that's what Boris stipulated as being allowed.

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 01/04/2020 09:09

swishthecat

You asked a pp why popping into a shop for a bar of chocolate and a magazine isn't ok.

  • because shops are limiting numbers in store. Long queues here to get into supermarkets. The more people there are just popping in for a bar of chocolate the longer the queue and the longer the wait for people going to do their essential shopping. People are posting on our local Facebook pages that they are unable to stand for long so can't get any shopping. Anyone going to buy non essential stuff is adding to that
  • shop workers are scared. The more customers who.go.in the greater their risk of exposure. If a customer goes in every day there's a greater risk than once a week
  • going in every day increases your chances of catching it, passing it on or needing hospital care
  • advice is to limit the time that you are outside of your house because that limits exposure time.
  • here in London we are about to see demand outstrip capacity and the Nightingale hospital is predicted to be needed before the weekend. We have to get on top of this and that means stop spreading this.
HistoryHeroes · 01/04/2020 09:12

We should be getting bare essentials. No one should be popping in to get a magazine or chocolate! That's why corner shops have been in trouble with easter eggs. You go the absolute minimum you can and get online when possible. Some shops are telling people off for buying mininal things like that. You are putting them at risk.

GreenTulips · 01/04/2020 09:13

Just sounds like you are trying to find loopholes

Tonyaster · 01/04/2020 09:13

You can't really pop to a shop here. You have to drive and the local police, who are loving this, will stop you as you enter the nearest town with a shop. I am going to get arrested the next time I get stopped for going to the supermarket once a week as I am sick of being polite.

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 01/04/2020 09:13

I mean if you are out for a walk and you pop into the shop for your magazine or chocolate, what is the harm? The shop will have social distancing measures in place.

Really? They ask that customers stay two metres away from each other but it isn't guaranteed is it? How are you stopping another customer from getting too close and how are you buying your goods and staying two metres away from the cashier at all times? I work in a supermarket, our tills aren't even two metres apart so customers cannot be two metres from us at all times, unless you use self service I suppose but then small shops don't have this. How are you maintaining that?

HistoryHeroes · 01/04/2020 09:14

I think most of us have pretty bare fridges and cupboards at the moment. It's only going to get stricter so you should prepare to limit yourself a bit.

whitesoxx · 01/04/2020 09:15

This has shown us up for what we really are.

We're instructed to only shop for essentials....but until we're given an exact list of items that we can argue the toss about then we run around like brain dead morons. Embarrassing

Original poster
swishthecat · 01/04/2020 09:16

Hearhoovesthinkzebras yes, obviously I understand all this and the reasoning behind the advice to shop "infrequently" etc.

But I am concerned that some people on MN are inventing rules and making others worried and anxious about "breaking" rules that don't exist.

OP posts:
Tonyaster · 01/04/2020 09:19

I am sure there are enough people following the rules to make a difference. Behaviour modelling would suggest that a good proportion will not follow the rules and that is built in.