Coronavirus - Strange times

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Martin Phillp
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The one adult policy goes national in Sainsbury's from today (Friday) and limits will start to be removed from some items from Sunday.

UHT milk, pasta and tinned tomatoes will continue to be rationed.
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Jamesypoo
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Speaking of Sainsbury's, I've found them to be far the worst locally when it comes to getting stock back to (somewhat) normal levels - what's everyone else's experiences like?

Local branches of Asda, Tesco and Lidl seem to be much, much better and almost like normal (as far as stock levels go at least).
Martin Phillp
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Jamesypoo wrote: Fri 03 Apr, 2020 17.57 Speaking of Sainsbury's, I've found them to be far the worst locally when it comes to getting stock back to (somewhat) normal levels - what's everyone else's experiences like?
I've found Sainsbury's are still low on tinned food and spreads locally. However they're fine for toilet rolls now.

The strange thing is now that while toilet roll is back to normal, I'm not able to buy kitchen towels, which I could do during the panic.
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all new Phil
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Maybe they just cut all the kitchen rolls in half?
cdd
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My local Sainsbury’s has filled every formerly-empty bit of random space with toilet rolls stacked to the ceiling. Predictably, nobody appears to be buying them.

My M&S is a clothes + food type, and they have tensabarriered off the clothes section you have to walk through to reach the food section. It’s also pretty empty.
cwathen
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Speaking of Sainsbury's, I've found them to be far the worst locally when it comes to getting stock back to (somewhat) normal levels - what's everyone else's experiences like?
It's hard to criticise any supermarket for how they handled a situation unplanned, but during the panic buying few weeks ago Sainsburys seemed to be coping a lot worse than Tesco and Morrisons (didn't try an Asda). All supermarkets were under great pressure, but by 12PM each day Sainsbury's looked like it was on the last day of a closing down sale, whilst the others seemed to manage to keep most things in stock (except bog roll and pasta obvs) for far longer. Sainsbury's were also very slow off the mark in introducing rationing, I think both the time they took to do anything and their initial limit of 5 were very behind the curve.

Now though (for over a week in fact) where I live there have been no supply problems on anything that I've noticed at any supermarket. The biggest problem they face now is the availability of delivery slots.
cdd wrote: Sat 04 Apr, 2020 09.45 My M&S is a clothes + food type, and they have tensabarriered off the clothes section you have to walk through to reach the food section. It’s also pretty empty.
Interesting that M&S have gone down that route, but Sainsbury's haven't - not only is the clothes section still open, but it is being actively stocked and merchandised. Some retailers are interpreting their status as an essential business to mean they can sell anything they want as long as they also sell essentials, others taking a more restrictive view.
My local Sainsbury’s has filled every formerly-empty bit of random space with toilet rolls stacked to the ceiling. Predictably, nobody appears to be buying them.
EDIT - Just been down to my local Sainsbury's local. Amongst the mountains of unsold toilet rolls, they also now have a large amount of unsold bread which reaches it's best before date today and has been marked down. I think we are very close to the problem going the other way, the system being oversupplied and food going to waste.
gottago
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There must be high street M&S Foodhalls up and down the country that are completely dead, not immediately near any sizeable residential areas. The one near me in Westfield is lucky to have a reasonable amount of residential nearby but I haven't had to queue once and it's always very well stocked.

They've converted the cafe area into a home essential section with pans, towels etc but I did notice a sign saying they'd be willing to go up to the main store for you to fetch any other clothes or home items you might want.
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Pete
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cwathen wrote: Sat 04 Apr, 2020 10.28Interesting that M&S have gone down that route, but Sainsbury's haven't - not only is the clothes section still open, but it is being actively stocked and merchandised. Some retailers are interpreting their status as an essential business to mean they can sell anything they want as long as they also sell essentials, others taking a more restrictive view.
Perhaps bc M&S is, and remains, a department store in that you take your clothing purchases to separate tills. While theoretically you could process them through the food checkouts it would require larger staffing levels in a way that sainsburys clothing area would not.

Which begs the question... how does it apply to Asda Kirkton which has a wacky separate George extension separate from the main flow of the shop (the supermarket is the main building, the bit on the left, set back, is not a loading bay but is the george shop accessed through a doorway at the end of the first asile.

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Pete
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This, meanwhile, is quite a statistic
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WillPS
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Pete wrote: Sat 04 Apr, 2020 12.07
cwathen wrote: Sat 04 Apr, 2020 10.28Interesting that M&S have gone down that route, but Sainsbury's haven't - not only is the clothes section still open, but it is being actively stocked and merchandised. Some retailers are interpreting their status as an essential business to mean they can sell anything they want as long as they also sell essentials, others taking a more restrictive view.
Perhaps bc M&S is, and remains, a department store in that you take your clothing purchases to separate tills. While theoretically you could process them through the food checkouts it would require larger staffing levels in a way that sainsburys clothing area would not.

Which begs the question... how does it apply to Asda Kirkton which has a wacky separate George extension separate from the main flow of the shop (the supermarket is the main building, the bit on the left, set back, is not a loading bay but is the george shop accessed through a doorway at the end of the first asile.

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I've always taken M&S clothing purchases to the self-checkout food tills with milk or whatever. Spares the awkward feeling at the lingerie tills.

Asda in Arnold has a similar setup where they bought the unit next door and knocked through:
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It has it's own front door which is usually locked and shuttered.

I've no idea if it's open or not because I've been on lock down. That shop is a nightmare at the best of times thanks to its weird layout.
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cwathen
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Has anyone actually had their letter from Boris yet?
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