CORONAVIRUS

[Jacksparrow]

As it turned out by the time I reached Tescos just about 7 am the carpark was half empty as was the shop. There were substantial gaps on the shelves and milk,tinned goods and toilet paper had all been pillaged. Bread was rationed at one loaf per customer and I used my ration to supply my Uncle as I still have some left over from last week to see me through. There was plenty of fresh fruit and veg.Fresh meat was available but with a slightly reduced choice and it seemed cooked meats were in good supply.
Now they are shutting all the pubs and restaurants I'm expecting further pressure on supplies. The take-away food trade will be the main beneficiaries but I was talking to the boss of mt favourite fish and chip shop and he indicated that his supplier was making no promises about always being able to deliver.

[Placido]

Must admit I hadn't thought of that - more pressure on supermarkets because of the closure of other avenues of available food. That's scary but makes sense. S'pose takeaways will do a roaring trade though.
Your experience of a half-empty car park at 7 am mirrors what I saw last week re an Asda car park early morning.
I keep thinking about Willpar's post yesterday about buying up chest freezers to panic buy to fill them up. Maybe this will all subside when the country runs out of chest freezers !!

[Willpar]

Done my weekly shop this morning. Did not know what really to expect, but it turned out ok. There was que there but not as many as I thought there might be. Shelves well stocked, people were orderly and I got all that I wanted. Got home without a scratch.

[Willpar]

Just for curiosity, I went to ao online website. All the chest freezers will be back in stock soon.

[Kev]

I took a friend to Sainsburys this morning. She managed to get pretty much everything she needed.... except loo roll. I've been 5 times in the last 2 weeks and yet to see anything other than empty shelves there. I wonder when they DO restock it. They were also blocking the isle off with delivery cages to stop people ransacking them before they'd even got the stuff on the shelf.

[Placido]

Phew !! Relieved to hear that, Willpar. Been worrying where to stash all the stuff 'cos the other two are full.

Sounds dreadful, Kev - maybe you should move to Plymouth .....

[Jacksparrow]

Daughter number 2 went to Tesco this morning and came home with almost everything she went for. She spotted a shop worker returning a pack of toilet rolls to the display area and asked him if had a home and he gave it to her. It had just been grabbed off an over eager shopper at the checkout trying to break the ration rule.
My local town has a Waitrose(there's posh!). It is renowned for being the most expensive of the supermarkets but today it was well stocked and not crammed with shoppers! There is a lesson there somewhere.

[Willpar]

The local coop where I live has been picked clean. No fresh milk, in fact not much of anything. Had to get a couple of cartons of long life milk.

[Placido]

Here's my angle on Coronashopping: I use Ocado as my home delivery service and whilst it was a bit bumpy last week to order (ramjam full 'til 1 April) I managed it at last with some patience ("You are in a virtual queue; waiting time 2 hours") and my first delivery was this morning between 7 and 8 am . That was OK.
So up rocks Konstantin , puts the red boxes with the bags of food and stuff therein on the path about 3 ft away from my door, stepped back and I carried the bags inside. No probs, good idea.
He then, being in no hurry !!, began to talk .....
Did I know that the website was going to publish advice for vulnerable people (that's me, I'm a vulnerable people ), I said that I was aware of that but hadn't received an email yet.
Did I have any day to day support, I said that I did.
Then he got a bit more confiding (by the way, all this was in a marked Russian accent) and remarked that he watched political leaders on TV but had never seen (he singled them out) Trump, Putin, China, Europe (in that order) scared before. They are frightened, he said, and I think he was right, come to think of it.

I also think that the 2 questions concerning my welfare were deliberate policy. There was a reason for that.
Aaaanyway, he was a lovely chap and I thanked him effusively. He quite made my day.
Btw, there were a couple of substitutions but who cares, and the only items which were actually missing were 'flu tablets. No substitution there which tells me that they are rock bottom out of stock of any and all such home medications.
Can't wait for next Sunday's delivery (already booked) - I hope it's Konstantin again .

[Willpar]

That's good placi. Glad you got your groceries. On the news yesterday it said that shoppers, have already doled out and extra billion quid on shopping. I suspect it will settle down, once people realize that they have nowhere to put all their extra stuff. And how much will go to waste?