UK - Resources for help getting food during quarantine and other supermarket related problems

I've been given 'priority delivery' access by Tesco now. They told my daughter that it would still be difficult to get a slot because so many people have signed up to this service. There are currently no slots available in either the normal or the priority delivery options in my area. I hope they realise they need to reserve more slots for the people who really need them now they are allowing people to register as 'vulnerable and in need of home delivery'.

 

Its great that you got it @Simbindi not great that it’s still of no use right now

it’s looking like I was very lucky to get my slot. I’m now debating whether to use my last tenner (for a few days) and add a few extra things on seeing as the government food parcel cannot be relied upon and appears to have vanished entirely along with the support worker who arranged it.

 

I'd personally advise anyone with any kind of lung/heart/respiratory problem/diabetes or other significant health problem, to try to shield themselves. One of the Teaching Assistants in my daughter's school is in an induced coma in ICU because of contracting the virus. Most likely the infection was acquired whilst working - it's impossible to get kids to socially distance themselves in a school setting, many of the most vulnerable have significant problems with hygiene even in normal times, as well as having limited understanding of the risk they pose to adults. This lady is middle-aged and the 'only' underlying health condition she has is asthma - she wasn't advised to 'shield' and was therefore still working until she became symptomatic.

I think it's disgusting the government is not offering practical help to those who are clinically vulnerable because they are not considered as 'extremely clinically vulnerable'. The smaller sub-group has been created based on judgements that have (of necessity) been made on limited data and research. Instead the government is saying that it is a vulnerable individual's choice to shield, so leaving many who are both socially and clinically vulnerable to fend for themselves. But it's not much of a choice when the supermarkets and grocery stores are likely to be the places where there is the highest risk of viral transmission and just trying to feed yourself could lead to you ending up in ICU (or worse).

 

I emailed a complaint to the shop @Adrian. I wasn't critical of the staff per se, but it would appear that the situation in the shop needs to be monitored and enforced by someone. Otherwise what's the point of limiting the number allowed in at any one time & all the queuing round the car park?

I got a reply from the chains Executive Office saying they will be following it up with the store.

I pointed out that if my husband felt this uncomfortable (& he's a fairly chilled person) then it might out other customers off shopping there too. So I am hoping it's something they'll think about in the greater scheme of things.

The irony of having some British police officers wanting to check the contents of people's shopping bags in case they came out to buy non essentials seems even more absurd if they don't give a damn if they breathe all over each other when buying a pint of milk!

 

They could use their tannoy system to make regular customer announcements to remind both staff and customers of the need to be keeping a minimum of 2 metres (3 steps) between themselves and others. They're quick enough to use these systems to 'encourage' customers to buy more (highlighting special offers) in normal times!

 

Northamptonshire’s chief constable Nick Aderly said this.

‘We will not at this stage be setting up road blocks, we will not at this stage begin to Marshall supermarkets and check the items in baskets and trolleys for unnecessary items. But again be under no illusion if people do not heed the warnings then we will start to do that.’

 

I was under the impression that virtually everything a supermarket sold was 'necessary' - although maybe not as a single item, given the purpose of a trip out for shopping.

So, strictly speaking marjoram isn't a necessary item (virtually no nutrition) but if you've also got mince etc. in your trolley then it is not against the stated advice, let alone the law, to purchase it, and the police shouldn't be making that decision.

Otherwise are people going to be expected to have itemised lists of what's in their cupboards, along with recipes, so plod can decide what's 'necessary'?

Other things that supermarkets sell, like light bulbs, pans, pie dishes, or even ice cream - all necessary, in some cases - people wouldn't be buying them if they weren't needed - as long as there isn't a dedicated trip out to get non food/non essential items, then what difference does it make ,given the purpose of the lockdown is to restrict unnecessary trips out.

Or are the police going to be deciding that some dietary choices are unnecessary - that everyone can live off porridge and have an orange a week (subject to availability).

The police are there to enforce the law, and public order - not for this.

 

If people are being pulled and checked for unnecessary items bought... why are the people being punished? Why instead is the supermarket not being punished for selling those frowned upon items in the first place and told to remove them so people ‘can’t’ buy them.

How the hell are people supposed to know what items a shop is still selling, that they aren’t allowed to have? Necessity means different things to everyone.

 

That's simple - the items that were on the empty shelves, in the empty aisles, those are necessary.

If they weren't, according to the popular opinion (which seems to be what counts), then they wouldn't have all been bought.

The ones on the full shelves, in the full asiles - those aren't.

So, if you're considering buying anything in your local supermarket, that you can buy, then by definition it is unnecessary, as if it was necessary then it would have already been bought, and probably be on ebay for at least 4 times the price by now.

LOL

 

Thank you for clarifying that conundrum so succinctly

 

Exactly - very vague.

As far as I'm concerned, if a shop sells t-shirts, or flowers or Easter Eggs & I go to buy milk, bread & tea then I can't for the life of me see what difference it makes if I also happen to throw in a t-shirt or an Easter Egg.

If someone specifically went out to shop for a t-shirt and nothing else....well that's a grey area. I guess that's an unnecessary journey because you could wait until.your next food shop.

I don't see why supermarkets or shops who sell items that could well be considered non essential shouldn't be allowed to continue them if they still have stock. They'll be incurring extra expense with the new measures without raising prices so why restrict their profits unnecessarily?

I thought the whole non essential business was mainly to restrict the number of shopping trips and therefore the number of shoppers at any given time, allowing everyone to shop safely, but even if there are just two people in a massive supermarket and one is infectious and breathing all over the other then the whole thing is a waste of time.

 

I’m starting to worry about my Tesco delivery tomorrow, not knowing if they will bring the shopping upstairs or not.

In the fine print, it mentions the social distancing, and that for people who live in flats we will still deliver to your front door, then 2 paragraphs down, it mentions that they won’t bring shopping in if it involves stairs and puts them at risk. So by front door, I’m guessing they mean downstairs.

This is a decent sized shop with relation to weight. I potentially could be on all day getting the stuff up the stairs

I’ve never had a Tesco delivery before, i have done an Asda drop a few times in the past and that was hit and miss if the drivers brought the stuff upstairs or not.

 

Based on my recent experience, and some prior experience that's not all that relevant (pre covid-19), it seems the drivers pretty much do what they please, although not more than advertised by the store.

So if the store says, as some used to, that they will bring it in to your home, then some drivers would, and some wouldn't.

Bringing in, in this context, probably means bring in to your home - the not carrying stuff up stairs inside your home is an old thing, practically all companies that deliver anything have such a clause.

After my last Sainsburys delivery, where the driver left my shopping outside the building my flat is in, I received an email from Sainsburys, a current one that informed me that I was on their priority list, at the behest of the government. This informed me that their drivers would no longer be able to bring shopping into my home, but if I lived in a flat they would bring it to my flats front door. But the previous delivery, a few days before, had refused to even enter the building, stating it was not allowed for him to do so now.

So whether the previous delivery driver had misunderstood the new rules, or simply didn't want to bring it up the stairs I don't know. If the later I don't know if he simply did not want to climb the stairs but was using the virus as an excuse, or if he was genuinely concerned about entering the building.

It doesn't really matter why he refused and left my shopping essentially on the street (I've had the odd one before this that refused to carry them up the stairs and hung around looking bored while I carried stuff up the stairs, when I couldn't even stand up, bend or twist - some people are 'unhelpful' even when it's their job to be helpful.

In my experience there is no point in trying to explain or negotiate with them, the few that won't do their job, as described in the offer of a delivery service to you the customer by the company they work for, don't care what you say, what's wrong with you, or how much of a 'problem' they are causing.

So, hopefully you won't need to, hopefully the driver will bring your shopping to your front door, knock, and the leave, but you should be prepared that you may need to lift it up the stairs - stressful waiting to find out, and not good if you have to - but better than being caught on the hop, like I was.

 

The delivery slot is between 11 and 7pm. Kinda hoping it comes during the early portion as I literally may need all day to get this done.

I wouldn’t even bother explaining to them that I’m ill, they usually take one look at me with an expression that says ‘piss off there’s nothing wrong with you’

With ASDA sometimes the food was in bags in a crate, other times not. I only have 2 decent shopping bags so I’m hoping some of it is bagged otherwise I’m going to have a line of food trailing down the communal ground floor corridor for everyone to see fun and games

 

I believe that they are currently bagging stuff so that it can be left for 'quarantine' for a while before unpacking, but I haven't dealt with Tescos so couldn't swear to it.

But if they aren't then contact free deliveries even to a ground floor house would take ages, simply for them to take everything out of crates and pile it up - hence bags.

That's a very long, uncomfortable, time waiting for a driver to turn up at random - I thought Tescos were doing the long slots but notifying people in the morning and narrowing it down to an hour on the day?

 

I really hope so

 

Yeah, but my caree has ME. She can't cope with watching all that TV :/

Maybe. I had a similar experience going to Waitrose today, where in the past it's been relatively civilised. Apart from all the young members of staff hanging around in the chiller aisle doing things, with no masks on

That's crazy: asthma is on the list of things you need to be extremely careful with. A GP I know who has it is doing video consultations only - absolutely no person-to-person contact. I hope your TA makes it.

 

Tesco’s opened up another priority slot for me for tomorrow. 1 slot available.

however when I looked at the normal 1 hour fixed delivery slots there are a few available pretty much every single day for the next week.

This is is the first time in a month I have seen lots of slots available

ETA: I still haven’t received notification to give me an idea of delivery time, so it’s still just 11-7pm at the moment