Supermarkets need to get real!

[Justa47]

When will supermarkets stop being a day out and only allow single parents in with kids and not families and couples?

Why doesn’t one parent wait in the car?

I am disabled and rely on online shopping or supposed to, If they had not all been snapped up by other shoppers.I don't know if it is because they are not able like me or if it is because they prefer to do as they are told and not go out. Either way I struggle to get deliveries. The fact that when lockdown disappeared before I found it relatively easy to find the odd slot for a delivery may indicate which is the case. I still prefer it that people stay home and leave shop staff alone. Cannot tell you how much stuff is not available either.

As with masks, people have turned this into a customer service issue rather than a method of slowing the spread of a virus during a pandemic.

As @NuniaBeeswax says, when shop staff start to enforce rules, and companies actually back them rather than throw them under the bus, many people aren't happy about it because they're so used to behaving exactly as they please, bullying shop staff and then getting apologised to for it, that they cannot compute it's their own actions that are causing the problems. The customer is always right has an awful lot to answer for.

As with licensing laws, the staff on the shop floor have been charged with policing this, as so many people have zero respect for these types of worker, it's not happening. And they can't win, moaned at and told to mind their own business, reported and abused for trying to ensure compliance. Moaned at and reported if they don't try and ensure compliance. But either way it's always the shop assistants fault.
As a pp said, people need to start taking some responsibility for themselves and their actions, and realising that other people are responsible for their actions, not a third party who works there.
Shop staff are there to keep shelves stocked and serve customers, not be a whipping boy for the public or a scapegoat.

i'm a single mum. Luckily i have bubbled with my mum as she is alone and vulnerable and i'm alone with kids. She drives and i dont. She picks me and the kids up - throws me out at the shop and takes the kids to hers. I do her shopping and mine in one go then she picks me up when I've paid. So only 1 person out of the 4 of us ever goes in a shop.

I think it's because it's so hard to police and i bet people will bang on about being discriminated against if they are asked if they are single parents... Poor staff will get it in the neck with abuse by twats.

I honestly dont get the 2 adults and 3 kids shopping trip - the one that drives goes to the shop and the other stays home with the kids - simples. Where i am it's a multi house hold trip for lots - one trolley 2/3 adults and a bunch of teenagers in a group. usually no masks on any of them, loud annoying, no distancing and treating the place like a social hub. Really pisses me off.

Thank you @Maverickess

Whatever we do is wrong according to some people.

Of course you can’t leave kids home alone. You’re in a difficult position if you’re a disabled single parent but I hope someone would offer to shop for you. I don’t get disabled and a partner shopping though. Why can’t just the partner shop? Heavily pregnant, no can’t carry heavy stuff but why can’t your partner do the shopping or, if you must do it, why can’t he wait outside? Yes, it’s crap and currently shopping is the only outing but look at the numbers! You’ve got to stay home!

I'm confused by the partner of a disabled person not being able to shop alone argument. Unless it means it isn't safe to be alone at home by yourself? Or to look after children by yourself?

But can someone please explain why is a couple/parent and child living together more dangerous than one person from that possibly infected household alone?

Shops shouldnt be more crowded as there are limits on number of ppl in at the same time. So 2 ppl from the same household, two ppl from two household is still 2.
Taking it further since this discussion is already ridicoulus it is even less risky if family of 5 is in as you are exposed to one household, not 5

Lol at the idea of club bouncers at tescos deciding who can go in and who cant

“Lol at the idea of club bouncers at tescos deciding who can go in and who cant“

Why? First thing we thought as we listened to today’s briefing about enforcement.

There are certainly thousands of currently unemployed candidates who would be very appreciative of the opportunity. I personally would love to see some of the bolshy hard men who behave disgustingly towards usually much smaller, female workers as they try to push past the queue and refuse to comply with mask wearing/ sanitisers if they were suddenly faced with a big man.

I’m betting the problem would disappear overnight. Life would become much easier for people with medical exemptions too, once the arseholes were dealt with.

It is just funny, what will they decision be based on if again you dont need proof you are single parent, dress code?
And again why is it safer if couples dont go in together?

Lol at the idea of club bouncers at tescos deciding who can go in and who cant

Do you think they’ll be checking if we’re wearing trainers instead of proper shoes ?

What will they be checking then?

It’s better that couples don’t go in together because it’s one less potential positive. It’s easier for people to keep their distance and less people are breathing in there and touching products. FFS, a lock down means staying home and only going out for essentials.

I've given up going in store for my shopping as it winds me up. I now do click and collect at Aldi. Takes about 10 mins, park up, text your name and bay number, a few mins later they wheel out your groceries and put it in the car. Saves my sanity and temper not having to wait for those that think if you stand and stare at stuff for long enough it'll make its own way into the trolley, just pick up your stuff and move on! Don't get me started on those that let their kids sit in the main part of the trolley I don't particularly want to put my food where your kids sweaty arse and dirty shoes have been thanks, use the proper seat bit!

@Kazzyhoward

Not on the basis of disability they can't

No, but the "disabled" person's only recourse is to make a formal claim for disability discrimination, which wouldn't get far as the first step will be declaring (and proving) their disability!

Oh well that's ok then, if you face discrimination it can be all rectified by complaining. No harm done. How about we reject entry to black people? They can complain after all.

The customer is always right has an awful lot to answer for

@Maverickess do you think it's ok that a supermarket worker made a comment about a PP's child being there and reduced her to tears? Or is it ok for workers to be shitty to customers?

@Stellaris22

I'm confused by the partner of a disabled person not being able to shop alone argument. Unless it means it isn't safe to be alone at home by yourself? Or to look after children by yourself?

For a huge number of people that's exactly the case.

@kingat

It is just funny, what will they decision be based on if again you dont need proof you are single parent, dress code? And again why is it safer if couples dont go in together?

Well apparently it's ok to be discriminated against, take it on the chin and complain.

People on this thread are SO obviously not part of a group who would ever be discriminated against. It reeks of "I'm alright Jack".

@smilingontheinside

I've given up going in store for my shopping as it winds me up. I now do click and collect at Aldi. Takes about 10 mins, park up, text your name and bay number, a few mins later they wheel out your groceries and put it in the car. Saves my sanity and temper not having to wait for those that think if you stand and stare at stuff for long enough it'll make its own way into the trolley, just pick up your stuff and move on! Don't get me started on those that let their kids sit in the main part of the trolley I don't particularly want to put my food where your kids sweaty arse and dirty shoes have been thanks, use the proper seat bit!

These are annoying supermarket things in general, in a normal non-COVID world!

My bugbear is supermarket swervers. Swerving along the aisles and giving you a dirty look when you nearly collide with them 🤣

I hate doing the shopping alone. We use aldi, if doing a “big shop”, everything doesn’t fit on the conveyor, so it’s impossible to unload the trolley and then be at the other end to pack. It really does take 2 people! So in normal times we do go as a family of 4.

But of course, during lockdown, just one of us has been going. Tending to use Tesco a lot more as there is less pressure at the till

@tinytemper66

Some stores still have the hour for the vulnerable and elderly to go shopping with a carer etc. I will be using this tomorrow with the person I care for. He will go out for the first time in 2 weeks to the local supermarket and he will choose his own food. We won't be long but it is a hour dedicated for such folk. If you don't like it that we are doing it then stuff shit. I have phoned and asked and it's fine to go.

I can only shop with a support worker. Are they going to make us go in the set hour for vulnerable people? That is first thing in the morning. This is before my support worker starts work. There is NO click and collect for supermarkets in my rural area. All the delivery slots are booked up.

All the hate directed towards people who shop with someone else and the talk of bouncers at supermarket entrances terrifies me.

@MoonlightFlitwick it's absolutely barbaric isn't it.

People seem positively gleeful at the thought of others being scared out their wits by a big burly bloke interrogating them. Awful, hyper-privileged human beings.

@moonlightflick they are in the Tesco I am going to. I rang and explained and they told me that I can go with him in that hour. It may be different if you have a support worker. I am his unpaid carer so it may be more flexible for you.

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

The customer is always right has an awful lot to answer for

@Maverickess do you think it's ok that a supermarket worker made a comment about a PP's child being there and reduced her to tears? Or is it ok for workers to be shitty to customers?

No I don't. But then I didn't say that did I? I didn't qualify the sentence "The customer is always right has a lot to answer for" by saying "And staff have every right to abuse customers too" in fact no where in my post does it say that. You're grasping at straws, to make a point, quite what that point is I'm not sure though. Regardless, the accounts of customers abusing staff is far higher than staff abusing customers. Footage of it happening hit the national news a few weeks ago with CEOs of a couple of the larger companies (Co-op and Sainsbury's if I remember correctly) asking for people to stop abusing their staff. Sainsbury's have put body cameras on staff in some stores, and just about everywhere has signs up asking either for patience and kindness from customers through to saying abuse won't be tolerated by staff. A lot of those signs were up before the pandemic too. So this is an escalation of an existing issue, not one brought about specifically by the pandemic. Yes, the customer is always right has a lot to answer for. It's been taken to the nth degree, and is often translated to "The staff are always wrong" regardless of the actual situation. One example - I worked in hospitality. I got called a fat, useless cunt, who shouldn't be working behind a bar because you're supposed to be pretty. I refused to serve him and asked him to leave. After much to-ing and fro-ing the company I worked for apologised on my behalf and gave him a voucher for a free meal for his 'poor customer service'. I was given a warning. That's what I mean by the customer is always right has a lot to answer for, he behaved appallingly, and I was the one who got punished. Had I called him that, it still wouldn't have been acceptable, but I bet I wouldn't have got rewarded for it.

@tinytemper66 thanks. I will get s.w. to phone and ask.
@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows yes. So much vitriol. Same towards non mask wearers. I wear a mask but I have no problem accepting that some people are exempt.

I wish I knew how to quote on the app.

I just still dont see any reasonable argument on how 2 people in a couple/family are more dangerous than 2 people from two households.

Say, tesco allows 50 in, it is still 50 if it is 50 singles from 50 households or 50 in couples, but only 25 households.

It is not less positives, if I have it probably my husband has it too, so whichever one of us goes, it is the same risk.