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Original poster

The ‘essential’ police - please stop

284 replies

TheDogIsKeepingMeSane · 04/04/2020 16:50

Until we are issued what is deemed an essential shopping item ANY food/drink item is ok to buy.
I’ve been working today outside. It’s hot.
On my way home I stopped at my local independent shop & bought myself 2 bottles of cold beer.
I live alone & work alone & it felt great to chat with the shop owner (2m apart) .
When I left the shop a cyclist said me ‘ hardly an essential item is it’

Just stop it .
I’m ashamed of what my fellow human beings have become.

The beer is cold & I shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed for buying it

OP posts:
Kissenger · 04/04/2020 22:50

I bought myself a £65 beauty box as a lockdown treat. Not essential but it cheered me up!

ReceptacleForTheRespectable · 04/04/2020 22:54

I’m ashamed of what my fellow human beings have become.

The beer is cold & I shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed for buying it

Totally agree.

I am 100% compliant with the rules, WFH, shopping rarely, one outing a day for exercise etc. But I refuse to be told what we are and aren't allowed to buy when we shop. If the shop is open, and is stocking and selling the item I want to buy, nobody has the right to judge me for buying it. Most things aren't 'essential' when you really consider them, we could all subsist on water and gruel, but there is no need to condemn ourselves to misery for no purpose.

HeIenaDove · 04/04/2020 22:57

I go twice a week to food shop. i have bought treats but as part of the shop. I usually do the electric for the key meter in the same trip. Im trying to get Boots to deliver DHs medication to save that trip.

Flaxmeadow · 04/04/2020 22:58

I bought myself a £65 beauty box as a lockdown treat. Not essential but it cheered me up!

The 'essential' is about the frequency of the shopping trips not what you buy on the trip.

Though why someone would want to hang around shops, large or small, browsing for treats ATM beats me. It's the air you see...

Kissenger · 04/04/2020 23:01

Sorry I ordered the beauty box online

Flaxmeadow · 04/04/2020 23:10

...then theres the poor retail staff, packers and delivery drivers. Begging people, like the desparate wife of a heroin addict, to just please stop buying so many things. To please think of their family and the wider community

drinkingwineoutofamug · 04/04/2020 23:18

I bought a bottle of wine on my way home today.
This is after a 12 hr shift working in a hospital.
Was in my own clothes not uniform before I get jumped on.
To me it was essential.
I am mentally and physically worn out.
I need to recharge before I do it all again Monday.

LilacTree1 · 04/04/2020 23:24

drinking hope it helps you wind down. Wine

drinkingwineoutofamug · 04/04/2020 23:25

I came home and cried into my wine.

LilacTree1 · 04/04/2020 23:28

drinking I can imagine. Sending a safe distance hug.

MrsFezziwig · 04/04/2020 23:31

The wilful misunderstanding on this thread is breathtaking. Every time you interact with other people there is the chance you will pick up or pass on the virus.

I went to the shop last week because I needed food.

I also love my weekly newspaper. I could “pop in” (because obviously just “popping in” gives you immunity from disease) Hmm to get one but why would I when that would effectively double my chances of picking up or passing on the virus?

Bauble74 · 04/04/2020 23:37

I’m still working, as a nurse .I should get my act together and buy a weeks shop at a time but with the stress of everything going on, it is easier for me to plan 2 or 3 days at a time so I’m going to the supermarket probably 3 times a week. I think as long as the social distancing is happening and I don’t take the dc or dh it’s fine, not ideal but the best I can do.Tomorrow I am going to go and shop for Easter, chocolate, wine, nice food as I need to have hope that we can still have a nice Easter next weekend, if my leave isn’t cancelled. I Think you deserved a cold beer and yes in an ideal situation you could have bought in advance etc. But sometimes life gets in the way.

MrsP2015 · 04/04/2020 23:42

I went to a supermarket the other day as half the stuff I ordered on the online shop was missing. Fair enough, times are difficult.

I walked out with 2 bags of fruit, veg, meat etc in my trolley, beside that was a decent size garden toy for dc and 2 crates of beer for dh who is a hardworking key worker.
Looked like I'd only got beer and the toy to which supermarket staff said
'Got your essentials I see'!!!!!!!
Wtf.
If I'm there anyway with no time restriction then I will buy something for dh and dc.
DC who have always been used to going somewhere every day all their life, even if just a walk on a Sunday. Now they only go in the garden and have done for nearly 3 weeks.

GatoradeMeBitch · 04/04/2020 23:55

If we all only buy essential foods, they're going to run out again. I'm sure there are people who would welcome us all living on a spartan diet of tapwater and rice, but it's not going to happen.

And then what's essential to one person is not essential to another. Apparently milk is an essential - but not to me because I don't drink it, nor does anyone in my household. If I was told I had to have milk as an essential I'd give it to the cats. I would consider apple juice an essential because for whatever reason it stops my gallbladder aching in the evenings...

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 05/04/2020 00:49

My mum’s husband is going to the shops every day for a paper, because it is “allowed”. He’s 80, my mum is 75. I asked her if she would think it was okay if he wanted to buy a new hat every day.

My take on it is, go to the shops once or twice a week, knock yourself out and buy all the hats while you’re there, but do not go to the shops just to buy a hat every day.

StormyClouds · 05/04/2020 01:23

I think the government should issue much stricter guidelines about what is essential- I'd suggest bread, gruel and milk (powdered only) to be collected by one member of each household on a monthly basis.

That should be perfectly sufficient for a balanced diet- purchasing anything else is directly contributing to people's deaths.

ViciousJackdaw · 05/04/2020 01:45

I'd suggest bread, gruel and milk (powdered only) to be collected by one member of each household on a monthly basis

Whaaat? Not even one square of good quality dark chocolate per person per month?

BeetrootRocks · 05/04/2020 01:52

Bread is not essential though

What's wrong with grass from the garden and water?

If you don't have a garden you should have planned better.

PotholeParadise · 05/04/2020 02:57

Don't give milk to cats. Adult cats (and hedgehogs) are mostly lactose-intolerant.

Thepigeonsarecoming · 05/04/2020 03:17

@Flaxmeadow

The 'essential' is about the frequency of the shopping trips not what you buy on the trip.

Strange you’ve changed your tune now after attacking me for adding one ‘non essential’ item to my basket i.e hot cross buns. I had to request that thread be removed due to the level of abuse

Glad you’ve change your thoughts on this though

Bool · 05/04/2020 03:23

I went out for an extra shop today that I didn’t need so I could get items for our local foodbank. I simply don’t see the problem as long as you socially distance. I am worried about all these ‘police’.

Reginabambina · 05/04/2020 03:42

You could say the same about his cycling. It’s not essential to go outside for exercise. We could all lock ourselves in our houses and only leave every few weeks for shopping (if we don’t manage to get it online) or for work (if we’re key workers). It doesn’t mean that we should do.

MordredsOrrery · 05/04/2020 07:55

The problem is definitely other people.

I'm stunned, and not in good way, by all the folk who are suddenly experts on guidelines and law and how they should be applied by complete strangers whose circumstances they are utterly ignorant about. They aren't backwards in sharing their new found expertise, either.

This pandemic has shown that some people are capable of being complete arses, regardless of whether they flout the rules or rigidly adhere to them.

GrumpiestOldWoman · 05/04/2020 07:59

I cannot go shopping 'once a week'. Our autistic son has a very routine diet...

But don't you see, you are one of the extenuating circumstances which are why the government haven't said only go once a week or whatever. The other idiots are taking advantage of the loophole that gives then when they 'fancy popping to the shops for something'.

You will be safer and less likely to catch coronavirus when shopping for your son if the person who fancies a yogurt stays at home and waits to add it to her regular shop.

The whole point of there not being a restriction on frequency is because not everyone can genuinely go a week without shopping without it creating hardship and it's too complicated for the government to try to stop some people and not others. Instead they rely in the common sense of the public to realise that 1. There is a virus which can kill you, 2. You can catch it from other people, 3. Right now shops are your greatest chance to contact people who can give you the virus.

Same with the paper shop or off license being open. Someone might think the paper shop is open because the government think its reasonable to pop in for a magazine and a chocolate bar. However it's actually been allowed to remain open because in many places the off license or paper shop is where many of the local population buy essential food, particularly when public transport services are stripped back to the minimum.

The muppets on mumsnet who suggest that you shouldn't buy anything that's not gruel are idiots, as part of a normal shop why not buy some treats. It's a pity they've distracted from what should be the main message - don't go out to shop unless the trip is essential.

LolaSmiles · 05/04/2020 08:02

Personally I couldn't give a damn what people get in their food shops. We've had nice things in our trolley and have a snack box on the go with nice treats.

I do have an issue with people making unnecessary trips and visits to shops for treats and then justifying is as 'it's essential to me right now'. People making these trips also seem to claim anyone buying anything nice in their food trip can't challenge them without being a hypocrite, whilst conveniently ignoring the fact that those adding nice things to their shop aren't going out multiple times because they fancy chocolate/a magazine/some beer.

There's announcements all over the TV, social media, the newspapers all telling people to stay home, avoid non essential trips out and about. I'm really not sure how 'but I want a treat now' counts as essential. Buy some chocolate/beer/treats in you food shop.