Fuming I can't even buy nappies.

[GAW19]

Me and my partner both work in a supermarket.
For over a week now we have been trying to buy nappies for our 16 month old. Cannot get 1 pack.
Went in today to do our shop and the whole aisle was empty. Was absolutely nothing. Non in the warehouse. Nothing.

It really does anger me that people can be so selfish and greedy. There is no need to stupidly panic buy.
I have now had offers from relatives to send us some in the post from where they live around the country.
I just find it very sad that at times like this, people still can't be thoughtful of others
Sorry for the rant!

Sorry OP - just realised I forgot to quite the poster who mentioned the 3 pack of nappies limit. I know you didn't actually reference that yourself.

When did people in your store start clearing the shelves OP?
You must have noticed since you work there, yet haven't managed to buy nappies anywhere else and have used your whole emergency pack.

Get some cloth nappies, then you’ll always be able to manage.

@SleepingStandingUp I totally understand where you're coming from. The problem is, a lot of people either do weekly shop and run out of other essential like formula or nappies but not quiet due on their weekly/fortnightly shop, they will probably head to a local boots or Superdrug or some other place to top up the supply until their next big shop. But now people are shopping for at least 1 months worth of food and essentials which strips the shelves. If people just continue doing their normal shopping how they would have done it pre Covid, we wouldn't have a problem.

When I lived in the arse end of nowhere I always did a monthly shop for big and "exotic" stuff in the 'big city' -county town- with the decent sized supermarket.

Now I live in a suburban town with many little supermarkets, still do a monthly big shop for bulky stuff and try to top up on foot rather than driving to the shop once a week...

This is my first day back since the government announced lock down again

Last time was hell for shopping as everything was nearly out of stock, and orders were chaos (I’m a supermarket picker)

I dread to think what it’s going to be like today....

I know that some people are getting through over 500 nappies a month so if they buy a bit extra it's actually quite a lot.

There was a FB group set up at the last lockdown of mums to help each other out with (mainly cloth) nappies and stuff, I can see it being revived. I offered to loan out some of our nappies to neighbours and got a twatty response about it being unhygienic we're not all thoughtless

Our local FB pages seem to have refused to entertain any posts about queues at supermarkets (you can still look up on Google if you really want to know) or photos of empty shelves, the supermarkets are well geared up anyway. No shortages of anything locally. It's great.

But I do agree with Neon, I buy non perishable stuff I normally buy ONLY when on offer, and think nothing of buying 3 months worth, or more if it is a very good offer, in one go.

I got accused by a neighbour of panic buying loo roll. I bought one of the big packs of 18 and there are only 2 of us but this is my normal buying pattern.

There is only one of me and when I need loo rolls (which obviously isn’t very often) I buy a pack of 24, because that works out cheaper. Why should I have to keep on traipsing to the supermarket to buy a 2 pack at more expense to myself?

@GabsAlot

how would that work sleeping how do you prove how many kids you have

I stood in Asda with my double buggy and asked them to clarify the limit. Calmly, politely and slightly beseechingly.

I'd have happily taken their birth certs to prove I had two 5 month olds. Any of my two mom friends who were having to go out twice a week to get even a weeks worth of food in would. It isn't stockpiling to want to buy a weeks worth of food, it isn't selfish to want to feed them both and buying 2 children's worth surely would have been better for the supermarket who didn't want the footfall.

Have you tried in any other shops or just the supermarket you work at?

Try other supermarkets, Boots, Superdrug... even local smaller supermarkets sell nappies. They can't all be out of stock.

Plenty of places online sell nappies, Amazon even have a service to send out a regular order as often as you want it.

What about supermarkets other than the one you work in? Surely you've heard of Boots, Amazon etc as mentioned above?

@Chloemol

I don’t think any of it is panic buying, it’s simply that people are picking up one extra of stuff, and as supermarkets tend to work on a just in time model and not hold lots of stock shelf’s get empty

One would have hoped they learnt from the last lockdown

What they learnt from the last lockdown is that stocks run down so better buy an extra while you can. That's what most people are doing, just buying one extra pack. But 10 people buying 1 extra pack amounts to the same as 1 person buying 10.

Also try any local newsagents near you. Most stock nappies where I live but you may not be in such a built up area.

[quote calamariri]@SleepingStandingUp I totally understand where you're coming from. The problem is, a lot of people either do weekly shop and run out of other essential like formula or nappies but not quiet due on their weekly/fortnightly shop, they will probably head to a local boots or Superdrug or some other place to top up the supply until their next big shop. But now people are shopping for at least 1 months worth of food and essentials which strips the shelves. If people just continue doing their normal shopping how they would have done it pre Covid, we wouldn't have a problem. [/quote]
Thing is of you do a weekly shop and run out of something for you to eat, you can normally make do or get something similar. Even with nappies my babies and older one went in any make in the right size, I wasn't precious. But formula you're expressly told not to swap and change, the local shops don't stock it at the best of times so it's still a second lot of bus journeys. Whilst shielding DS.
In the end I managed to pick up an extra one here and there when shelves were full until we were a few weeks ahead.

This time we have our priority delivery still in place so we'll stick to our usual 5 over two weekly shops

I moved onto washable nappies because i had struggled and didn’t want to risk not being able to get them going forward

I love them and I’m at home so much more anyway that it’s not been too hard to get used to them

I’m saving loads of money and less nappies to landfill so win win

But aren’t you panic buying too OP. You’ve got a spare packet in the cupboard but you want another in case you run out. I expect that’s what the vast majority of all those other ‘panic buyers’ are doing too - just like last time.

@NeonGenesis

You say that surely 3 packs of nappies is too much, but you don't know that. It entirely depends on number of kids in nappies, and how often/easily someone can get to the shops. Although I do appreciate that there needs to be some sort of limit at the moment, and they can't please everyone. It's a shame that there's no way to have personalised allowances for things, but I'm sure that would take up a lot of resources that we don't have right now.

Also, I think people have very different ideas about what counts as panic buying. On an a normal day, when there is no pandemic (ah, remember those days? Just about...) I would buy 4 or 5 jumbo packs of nappies as bare minimum, assuming the shop was well stocked enough. If the shelves were stuffed full I would probably buy even more. I prefer to buy bulky items as infrequently as possible. It's not easy for me to get to the shops, I have a decent bit of storage space in my house, and I like to be prepared for hiccups in the road. The thought of running out of something I need every day fills me with dread. I have always been this way. I wait until bar soap is on offer and then buy about 20 bars at once. Same with shampoo and toothpaste. I get about 10 litres of bleach at a time. Buying anything less than 15 tins of chopped tomatoes seems like a waste of time to me. I don't buy these things every week, of course, I just do it when supplies start to run low. I think it stems from a time when I was living in severe poverty and never knew when I would have the money or the means to get hold of stuff again. I learned that in times of plenty, you stock up, because you never know when someone might suddenly lose their job, or if a big storm comes and you can't get to the shops etc.

Obviously I am well aware that these aren't normal times, so I am trying to be more conscious of not emptying shelves. But I have heard some people calling others selfish and saying that there's "no need" to buy 5 tins of tomatoes, or there's " no need" for someone to buy a couple of 9 packs of toilet roll. To some people this is entirely normal shopping. Not everyone is used to just living week to week and buying only what they will use over the next few days. Something I have learned from this pandemic is that we all have wildly different ideas about what is a normal amount of stuff to buy and store in your home.

This. And this again!

A couple of weeks ago I bought 9 jars of pasta sauce. The guy delivering looked at me like I was crazy. It's normally £2 a jar, and if it drops below £1.50 I fill my cupboard. It was 99p, so I went all out!

Same with anything with a long use by date, eg toiletries. At Christmas I bought 4 packs of 9 toilet rolls when they were half price. It got me through lockdown, but if I'd have bought at that point everyone would have shouted panic buyer.

I have changed my normal shopping ways now to accommodate for potential shortages, but that means we are running through our supplies. At the beginning of lockdown I would have confidently said that I could survive 3-4 weeks without a food shop. I'm looking at more like two now, but that does involve me sometimes putting an extra item in my basket so I have enough to see me through a potential isolation period.

It is sad that people who have the money to stockpile do when some live week to week and cannot buy nappies/baby milk etc as and when they can afford to.

Indeed, some are very selfish

*I don’t think any of it is panic buying, it’s simply that people are picking up one extra of stuff, and as supermarkets tend to work on a just in time model and not hold lots of stock shelf’s get empty

One would have hoped they learnt from the last lockdown*

This, this, a billion times this.

I'm.already sick of all the hysterical FB posts about "It's started again!!!!!!" And how selfish stockpiles should die of covid etc, accompanied by a picture of the loo roll shelf looking a bit bare (plenty of the expensive ones left). People generally aren't stockpiling, they just feel compelled to buy 1 extra, which is perfectly reasonable, fueled largely by all the SM posts about "Here we go again!!!!!!!!" and emotive pictures of empty shelves which were probably restocked half an hour later when the SM had some time/resource to do it.

Doesn't seem to be panic buying near me, I got some on boots at the weekend and pampers were on offer too. It might just be people adding one extra to their trolley but it adds up.

Is your area weirdly full of similar aged children, I really find it hard to believe that there are no nappies in any shop at all and you have to resort to having them sent to you. Surely that postage cost is loads, why wouldn't your order from Boots and get enough for free delivery.

Very odd

I honestly don’t think this is the fault of the people who are just reacting to unsettling news.

How is it that supermarkets haven’t altered their buying models?
Why doesn’t the govt liaise more closely with our food suppliers?

We’re always so quick to turn in each other in this case, but I hardly think anyone who didn’t need nappies is buying nappies.