Mr P's Shopping experience today.

I went to Lidl, near my place of work, at 8.15 today. There was a queue of about 6 outside, with a "2 in, 2 out" policy. At that time in the morning, no toilet rolls, Paracetamol, bleach, disinfectant or baked beans.

I got the things I needed - fresh fruit, salad things, bread, bacon and some tinned foods.

Mr T went shopping this morning for tomatoes and cucumber but there were queues outside the Coop ,Tescos and the greengrocer. He didn't want to wait so went in the opticians and had his glasses tightened which were really annoying him.

Mr P went to Lidl as well SalsaQueen, apparently limiting the numbers, but not as rigidly as so many in, so many out.

He got steak, but no salad available. Carrots were ok, but the bag of potatoes he brought home are sprouting!

Oh Phoenix that is so unlike Lidl isn't it their veg & fruit are unsually spot on.
I was really lucky yesterday and got a slot from Iceland which was delivered this morning I added stuff on for DD as she was having trouble getting a slot for herself,we will be OK for the near future thank goodness.

I too am on lockdown so my lovely husband goes out once a week to get whatever we need and also shops for his parents and a couple of my clients and collects prescriptions. Today he was able to get everything on people's lists except for toilet rolls and kitchen paper. Fortunately he had bought one big bag of toilet rolls before they became scarce and he's been dishing them out when there are none in the shops.

He bought me a big bar of chocolate - I'm going to love him forever!!

It's quite something, isn't it, when you do what used to be a normal shop and you wonder what on earth it will be like, what will I find there, will there be queues, will I get in the car park, etc, etc?
We are living in interesting times, indeed.

My DD is just back from Morrisons - less than five minutes to get in and plenty of what we needed on the shelves (including the elusive loo roll). It’s such an inconsistent picture across the UK.

I've got "the letter" so in theory, I could go at the special times, but I'm not supposed to go out, so it's not much help, is it?
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Waitrose was well stocked this morning at 0945 including loo roll , tissues , beans , pasta . No washing up liquid . 30 minute wait , 1 in 1 out .

I was also given a double bunch of tulips ? on the way out too

You can get most things at Sainsbury's where I live and, as I am shopping for someone else as well, I've been in most of the aisles.

We queued for 5 minutes to get into Sainsburys at 1030 this morning and opted for the self scanning service. I knew I had food totalling £56 when we went to the special tills to pay, however the till decided that my bill was £104. One member of staff struggled to get the machine to start again whilst another staff member rescannned everything - and the bill was £56. All friendly and no problem for us but I was given a huge bunch of flowers and we joked about me emailing the CEO to get him to fix the problem!

Mr J went to Sainsburys this morning and got most of what we needed plus a free punnet of strawberries. They seemed to be well organised with most items available. He even managed to
get some pasta which we have not seen for ages. All the Staff are amazing and doing a wonderful job under very trying circumstances. It's a big thumbs up for our local Sainsburys.

I went shopping for the first time this week, and did feel nervous.

I had to get bird seed and cat food from Pets at Home, so I went there first and put it in my car.

Sainsbury's is on the same estate and I was pleased to walk straight to the trolley area and straight into the shop, there were some men in hi vis chatting outside ..... ten minutes later, a young man approached me as I was getting my fruit and said didn't you see all the people in the queue? He led me out of the shop and there were 20 miserable people lined up at a safe distance from each other across the road! I felt most embarrassed, it wasn't deliberate! Joined the end and waited about ten minutes. I did buy a couple of extra meal items, I will try and see out a fortnight I think!

Our Tesco is very organised with it's one in one out system. First time I've had to queue since it all kicked off

I didn't need loo roll so didn't notice but there was only one tray of beans (2 tins p.p.) pasta was in very short supply.
That was 8.30am. The queue moved fairly quickly.

I live in a small village in North Devon.

Advantages: Although in lockdown, I can go out for a walk with practically no risk of even seeing anyone else, but if I did it would be very easy to keep to the recommended distance.

We have a good local support network (not that I've used it, but local FB page shows that, plus our brilliant postie has delivered leaflets from Vicar who has organised a group to help those in most need.

We have a village shop that is making extra efforts to meet demand, and put in measures to keep contact at a minimum, no one is allowed in the shop to "browse" you present your list at the door, your shopping is gathered and given to you.

Disadvantages: The shop cannot stock everything, and their limited buying power often means prices are higher, so supermarket visits are needed. The nearest towns are around a 20 minute drive away, nearest Sainsbury's more like 45 minutes.

As mentioned in my OP, I'm still confused as to why some goods are not available? Deliveries are "normal" quantities are restricted, so what's going on?

I am shopping at Waitrose, go about 5.30 and they allow 35 people in at a time and have just a few trolleys to use which they clean when you bring them out. I was able to get what I wanted, salad, tomatoes, bread, milk and chocolate. We also have a green shop in town with plenty of loos rolls and bread flour and yeast. Also found somewhere still doing takeqy coffees. Feel quite relaxed about it all but might be different in about 4 weeks when my hair needs cutting.

can anyone explain why eggs are not available? I don`t need to do supermarkey shopping, I get a fruit/veg box and milk every week but still no eggs

Qued at local Tesco this morning. Very well organised. Limited number of customers in at anyone time. Staff supplied free cup of tea to customers. Plenty of stock inside. Well done Tesco

Went to Lidl at 8.30am today, no queue outside. I was the only customer wearing protective gloves. Shelves well stocked, noticed that there was no flour, toilet rolls or antibac wipes, none of which I needed anyway. There were about 8 customers in the queue for the checkout all standing well apart. When I came out at 9.10am, there were 4 customers in a queue waiting to be allowed in. I have to say, during the whole panic buying fiasco, Lidl have been very well stocked. Went to Morrisons at 11.00am to put petrol in the car, the queue for the supermarket was ridiculous, about 50/60 people all waiting (at a distance from each other) to go in. Then had to go to the chemist (no one in at all!) which is next to a small Co-Op, had a peep in, no fruit and veg at all, and lots of empty shelves. So all in all, well done Lidl ???

I'm told the supermarkets are so utterly crowded now that Security is letting 10 people in as 10 people leave. You cannot get to the shelves for the crowds.

I really puzzle as to how this is 'lockdown' or 'keeping us safe' .

I don't need anything - yet - but if I did, even as a Priorty Customer (elderly, disabled, health issues etc) I can't get a delivery slot for 3 weeks.

I could be sucking my cheeks or scouring the bush for berries before then.

Mind you, there are a few pigeons still around on the lawn.

Anyone got a good recipe for Pigeon Pie - or am I risking Bird Flu?

Crafty one, I’m only making an educated guess, having been involved in the preparation of other types of vaccinations during my nursing days, but this involved using eggs to grow the cultures as part of the manufacturing process.
Maybe given the hundreds of thousands of Corona virus vaccinations needed worldwide, this could well be why there is a lack of eggs available at present for food consumption.

We went to Aldi this morning at 10.00 am queued for about 20 minutes and the store was fully stocked including toilet rolls so we got everything we needed.

At a guess there were only about 20 customers in when we were and they were implementing a one out one in policy.

phoenix sorry you didn’t get your required supplies. As you are in lockdown (like my DH) did you give MrP a good going over when he came back from the shops? ?

............strip wash, antibacterial rub, disinfect all bits, stand in garden for 72 hours to make sure not infected. Banished to spare room for sleeping. Hosed down in the garden as not allowed to use same bathroom. Licked dry by Oliver Sprout as not allowed to use same towels?

I got the text and then the letter (including instructions about preparing a hospital bag!)

We haven't had a shop for about 12 days so I carefully made a list to try and keep us going for at least another week. He went to Asda at 8.00 but the queue was too long so he came back and then tried again later but it was worse. He popped into the Co-op for cheese and came home. I asked him to put his clothes in the washing machine and reminded him to check his pockets.

Guess what happened to the carefully prepared shopping list?