So all the 'non essential moaners' what do you class as non essential

[HoppingOnSteppingStones]

Because I've just been to tesco and brought a kettle. I've just had a bloke when I was stood in front to pay. Mumble about an 'essential kettle'

Did he know why I had to buy it. Did he plums!
It's not so I can go home and have a relaxing cuppa. Its so I can make formula for my baby. Because last night our kettle went bang!
We had to get hot water off the neighbour for this mornings bottle so I could then run to grab one.

What's essential to some isn't to others.

Yes I think there's prob a fine line but I wish people wouldn't judge

@SchadenfreudePersonified

I can't believe there are really people who look at what other people are buying, who cares and has time for that?

Me.

I often look at the person's shopping in front of mine and think "COFFEE MATCHMAKERS!* Where did she find coffee matchmakers? Bugger! I want coffee matchmakers!"

*Random example - it can be any delightful treat

Yes! I hold the person in front of me in the queue in Asda responsible for my purchase of orange and mint After Eights.

They were absolutely disgusting

@MessAllOver oh I bloody wish they'd have to.

I honestly think there are people on here who think tampons aren't essential. I'm sick of this shit about what is 'essential' anyway. Everyone has had to give up so much since last year, why the hell are there so many who seem to want to make things as grim and miserable as possible? So fucking stupid as well as it's entirely counterproductive if they're obsessed with keeping infections down, making things as grim as possible for no reason, pushing and pushing people, calling them stupid and selfish and granny killers or whatever is far more likely to push people to breaking point and think fuck it, I'm done with complying with this any longer.

It's kind of like Boris sending out Priti Patel to lecture everyone about police fines at the press conference yesterday...

@puffinkoala

I long for the days when people go back to minding their own fucking business about the contents of my trolley

I've had people comment way before covid. I buy too many tomatoes, apparently.

There is no such thing as too many tomatoes!!

@KatherineJaneway

Some prat on MN told me during the first lock down that milk and bread were not essentials.

Ignore him, your purchase sounds essential to me.

I remember that! Even their subsequent posts were utter rubbish.

@ilhahih

We have dental check ups. We are planning to go, but have thought hard about whether they're essential.

Good grief. Of course that's essential. Go and don't think twice about it. If the dentist is open and offering check ups then go.

It's not up to random men in a shop to decide whether a kettle is essential nor should people be in a quandry about whether to go for a dental check up. If the place is opening and offering the service/selling the goods in question then they are presumably permitted to do this, therefore you can use/buy the thing without a second thought.

I think we're entitled to go, the issue is more that as someone CEV who has been shielding, it would be a shame to get the virus only a short while before having the vaccine. Purely from a selfish point of view of not wanting to be severely ill or die or repercussions on the family. And a check up is by definition something that is routine and non-urgent.

We are planning to go, but there is a fairly good argument against, and if we were in an even higher risk area we probably wouldn't.

Self-righteous twat. Ignore.

Yes! I hold the person in front of me in the queue in Asda responsible for my purchase of orange and mint After Eights.

They were absolutely disgusting

Thank you for the warning.

If its available, I always add ibuprofen or paracetamol to my basket because I'm always bloody running out anyway.

I do try to add in an extra few items even if I've only really had to go out for one thing.

*Yes! I hold the person in front of me in the queue in Asda responsible for my purchase of orange and mint After Eights.

They were absolutely disgusting*

YABU for thinking that After eights would be anything but disgusting!! 🤣

nobody got anything to add to the fact retail staffs mental health is suffering with this attitude?

not to mention physical health as many staff now have covid or are isolating putting extra pressure on remaining staff?

Why is it misleading OP? A summary of what we are allowed to do can be found here:
www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae#summary-what-you-can-and-cannot-do-during-the-national-lockdown

Leaving home
You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:

shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person

go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home

exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person, this should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

meet your support bubble or childcare bubble where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one.

seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)

attend education or childcare - for those eligible

If you do leave home for a permitted reason, you should always stay local - unless it is necessary to go further, for example to go to work. Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.

If you are clinically extremely vulnerable you should only go out for medical appointments, exercise or if it is essential. You should not attend work

Does going to a garden centre fit any of these reasons? No? Then if you have any other reason to go, see if it fits any exemption.

we have a lot of older staff, we are renowned for employing older people as well as younger aged 16+

Going to a garden centre may be essential if your garden is the thing keeping you sane.

I have lived in this country for almost 16 years and I think the only thing I can say about you Brits with total confidence is that a kettle is essential.

One of the things I have found most depressing during the whole pandemic is the stupidity of so much of the population, who amongst many other things want to scream about people buying 'non essential' items in shops, as if popping into Sainsbury's for a kettle, or buying a duvet or a lipstick alongside their food shopping makes them some kind of super-spreader. Seriously I wish they would just all fuck the fuck off. It's pathetic. How sad must people be to give a fuck what others are buying when it has no bearing on them whatsoever.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Yesterday, a standard Tuesday.... we had 2,204 individuals through our doors ... just because we were open...How is this fair on staff?

Why is it necessarily wrong? It's unlikely that they were there for the shits and giggles but may well have been there to buy essential items. Unless you have evidence to the contrary? You don't know what's 'essential' to other people.

Please go for dental checkups.

I have to have an extraction and a filling because I didn't go to the dentist for a long time.

Now I face a 'riskier' process with multiple visits, but better that than pain and possible infection.

Don't judge? I drove to work this morning and it was business as usual, road blocked with traffic like a normal day, loads of people milling about town in groups. Its wankers like these who are putting lives at risk.
Non essential - garden centres, popping out for a paper and some crisps, wandering around with a group of people, why can't the kettle wait until you do your main shop? Surely you have a saucepan and a microwave.
But fine if you're happy with all the other people I've seen today to add to the queues of ambulances outside hospitals go ahead.
One of my NHS close colleagues just died of covid yesterday, he was a wonderful person with two small kids.
But then ….your kettle...so important.

Tooth infection, as opposed to Covid (hopefully I can avoid either).

I'll tell you what isn't essential.

My SIL bombarding Dh with increasingly demanding texts because he doesn't think it's that urgent to go round to her house and try on the shoes she's bought him for her 2022 wedding (all the men in the family have to wear the same shoes ).

The wedding is in 18 months. He told her his size. There's plenty of time to change them if for some reason they don't fit. Or he can just be a bit uncomfortable for a few hours.

But no.
He is the devil for not driving over there and trying the bloody things on.

Sorry, I meant to address my post, not to the OP, but to the poster who thought it misleading that garden centres are open.

Whats essential to me is my life, the lives of my family and my colleagues.

garden centres sell aquatic items
rodent control
chicken wire
fencing and fence posts
bird care
wellies
tarpaulins
sand and sandbags
rock salt and snow shovels
water pumps

could these not be argued as essential?

Essential.....to basic living
Essential.....to maintain current standard of living

choose your 'Essential' i guess....government haven't been clear enough it seems

@RetailGail

Essential.....to basic living Essential.....to maintain current standard of living

choose your 'Essential' i guess....government haven't been clear enough it seems

The latter, within reason.

Takeaways and garden centres are not essential imo.

Vet services are and at the moment they are very restricted.