The ‘essential’ police - please stop

[TheDogIsKeepingMeSane]

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

My local shop has put a clingfilm barrier across the counter, put the scanner on the customer side and the card reader. The shop owner has literally no contact with me or any customer. My part of it is not touching anything I don't actually buy and using a sleeve to open the door. I live alone when my kids are at their dad's and having spend the day doing a lot of housework, I'm going to get a beer later. I've had no contact with anyone other than shops with minimal contact and handwashing before and after etc. This is about intelligent risk management and balancing risk vs sanity. I have also been for long walks in the countryside that is on my doorstep. In a collective 6-8 hrs of walking over the week, I've seen about 8 people, at a distance.

@LalalalalaLlama - I really feel for you. Have you tried a butcher? Mine would keep some behind the counter if I asked (my child only eats beige food unfortunately!)

Well Boris did say basic necessities so as long as you bought special brew and not something fancy like Fosters you're fine . Just make sure you sit and drink it in a darkened room whilst curtain twitching at what your neighbours are doing and you're golden.

OP I hope you enjoyed your chat and your beer.

I came home from hospital after a c section on Thursday. I messaged my husband before he left asking him to bring me some diet coke I really fancied. I meant to bring the cans I had under the sink from our last big shop but he thought I had finished them all so stopped at the local shop and bought me some bottles.

Definitely not essential but very much appreciated by me when I was shattered and sore!

Yes, ideally we would all plan ahead but sometimes things change and we are all in a shitty situation and sometimes need a little light to lift ourselves. If that's 2 cold beers for you then enjoy them!

Nothing wrong with buying a beer, or an icecream only with the person who makes the comment. Perhaps they should direct their energies to a campaign to have baby items regarded as essential like food. Baby gros, socks, vests, tops and bottoms, cardigans, moses basket sheets, not available to order from supermarkets as non essential. Those who do allow online shopping are increasingly sold out. There are the stores who have the stock but are closed even online. No-one in these organisations seem to care. Nappies and baby milk seem to be available more than a couple of weeks ago. Some people wont know they are pregnant and by the time they do I have no idea where they will buy things for their baby.

Crazy.

Some of us don’t drive or have huge freezers. Yes I need to pick up bread and milk more than once a week and as I’m 8 months pregnant I can’t physically carry enough shopping for 3 of us in one trip.

People seriously need to get a life or get laid....

I would like to think people buy these things on their big shop, I guess i cant get too stressed about buying top up milk or even beer if on your daily walk. What pisses me off is people who do their walk, do their shop and then go to the shop for their “essential” top up which clearly could have been bought either on their walk or their big shop.

But how do we know who these people are? Unless they are a neighbour we are spying on or someone we live with.

I'm a general prepper. We include morale boosting stuff in our preps. Including beer if that helps.
Things like chocolate, sweets. You can bet your arse I have wine in my preps bought over last year.
Moderation and all that but if a cold beer was just what you needed, cheers.

I felt a bit shamed buying Sauvignon Blanc at 07:30 in the morning during Sainsbury’s NHS - only slot.

I was ok though as I did the self scan and hid it under some loo roll as you have to walk past the queue on the way out.

Effing cyclists.

People can shop every day if they want

No rule against it

In some cases alcohol is essential. Unless you want people to start withdrawing and clogging up hospitals with a preventable issue.
Obviously not saying that OP is alcohol dependant!

I don't get it.

If you're only allowed to shop for all your essential stuff and nothing else, and not allowed to pop to the shops for the odd one off, why are off licenses open?

I don't drink alcohol and haven't been in an off licence for probably more than 50 years but I'm assuming they don't sell groceries.

So when you go to an off licence are you supposed to buy all your booze for a fortnight?

Surely by their nature off licenses are only going to be selling small amounts at a time, ergo you're going to be popping into an off license for a small amount of stuff.

By letting them stay open, the government must be happy with this yet posters are saying you shouldn't be going into a shop to just buy beer OP.

How does that work?

Sorry OP I appreciate it's been a warm day and it turns us into thirsty beavers, it's the weekend and why not enjoy a cold beer in the garden as the sun goes down...but... (sorry ) we can't just pop to the shop when we have the urge at the moment x

snowegg kinda what I was thinking.
Anyone remember the ARP bloke in Dad's Army? Reviled and mocked for ordering people around with petty interpretations of what was common sense.
Have a beer, op. You deserved it.

In some cases alcohol is essential. Unless you want people to start withdrawing and clogging up hospitals with a preventable issue

Or the hospitals being empty of staff as we’re no longer able to cope

The emphasis shouldn't be so much on what we buy, but how often we buy them

Thanks all the beer was absolute nectar. I’ve been out for a walk & this normally bustling park is empty.
People please don’t judge each other.
No one knows the person next you situation.
🍺

@Curious78 - I didn’t ‘pop’ to the shop. I stopped on the way home from work. It wasn’t a special journey

@TheDogIsKeepingMeSane I was generalising with that comment tbf

I've ordered a box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates with my Ocado order for next week.

Maybe that's ok because it's being delivered though?

*People can shop every day if they want

No rule against it*

The advice is to go as infrequently as possible. No one needs to go every day. If everyone goes every day, we’re just wasting our time having a bloody lockdown.

Nobody is saying you can’t buy chocolates or beer or wine. Or anything else.
The advice isn’t about what you buy. The whole point is to limit the number of people you have to get close to. So making more trips into more shops than you need to should be avoided.
Things will get much worse or the lockdown much stricter if people don’t start looking at the bigger picture.

People can shop every day if they want

Some people have to. It's a 25 minutes walk to my local shop. I don't drive. I can only carry so much at a time, especially when it's heavy stuff like potatoes, milk, washing liquid etc, and as sods law would have it, it's bloody uphill all the way home! As well as picking up things for elderly neighbors too.
Staying off public transport, because I don't need to be on it like some key workers or those who can't walk carrying shopping like I can.

I go every second or 3rd day at the moment, though I am out every day because I'm volunteering locally (but closer than the shop thankfully!) Making up food parcels for people who need them.

Off licenses also have pay points, and many alcoholics can't afford to stock up on a fortnight's worth at a time, it's more of an issue to keep going back to an overcrowded supermarket.