Panic buying hits DKH Sainsburys

[muffins78]

I went to Bell Green for 7 am, massive queues and it was not just over 70s and vulnerable- there were no checks to see that only these people got in. I brought evidence that I?d be going into isolation. It was carnage. I got so much abuse because those over 70 assumed I was ?okay? - one lady helped me squeeze through into the store - but I continued to get abuse throughout the store and even the checkout lady was rude. I explained I going into isolation too, she was okay then. But it was a stressful experience. I wouldn?t mind but I had a tiny basket - everyone else had trolleys (some multiple), multiple baskets etc. There was not a whole load there but it had more stock than I had seen before.

I should point out, that one man was very very kind and came over to me and offered me his trolley (my basket was half full) - so there are kind people out there - but despite sainsburys trying to do a good thing, because it wasn?t managed, there was a very rude vibe and indeed rude people. Even my mother who had gone to something similar yesterday, saw a young man in the store and her first thought was about what condition he possibly had which meant he was vulnerable...

So 12 weeks away from the world is about to begin, and there are absolutely fab people out there, but my last experience out and about was far from easy. I hope those in need, did get what they needed and can get what they need over the coming weeks...

Take care everyone

[dresswaves]

JohnL Wrote:

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> This morning was the Over 70s and Vulnerable

> people 1 hour shop at DKH. Did it work then ?

>

> Were the queues because of this ?

I drove through at 7:50, there was no restriction on who could go in so looks like they didn?t have the special hour for the elderly. The queues were just to park as the car park was full

[nxjen]

There were certainly restrictions about who could go into the store itself when I was there at 7.30

[Laur]

A thought for DKH staff:

Does anyone know what safety precautions that the hardworking staff in Sainsburys have in order to work through this pandemic?

Unfortunately they don't have the choice of working from home and I personally have witnessed members of the public coughing as they approach staff to ask questions.

Would staff be able to wear gloves, masks or scarves if they wish (perhaps with pen and paper to hand to assist customers) so that they too can protect themselves and their families?

IlonaM Wrote:

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> Follow-up email from Sainsburys this morning:

>

> 'Dear [],

>

> I wrote to you last week to tell you about some of

> the steps we are taking to support increased

> demand for food and other essential items.

>

> After I wrote to you last week, many of you

> replied. You wrote to share your concerns about

> our elderly and vulnerable customers and to ask if

> we can do more to restrict the number of items

> each person can buy. I have listened to feedback

> from you and from Sainsbury's colleagues across

> the country and wanted to share some of the extra

> steps we are taking to make sure everyone has

> access to the items that they need:

>

> A number of you suggested that we reserve an hour

> in stores for elderly and vulnerable customers. In

> response to this request, we will set aside the

> first hour in every supermarket this Thursday 19th

> March, for elderly and vulnerable customers. I

> hope that you can respect this decision and will

> work with us as we try our best to help those that

> need it the most. If you or an elderly family

> member, friend or neighbour would like to shop

> during this hour, please check online for your

> local supermarket opening hours.

>

> We will also help elderly and vulnerable customers

> access food online. From Monday 23rd March, our

> online customers who are over 70 years of age or

> have a disability will have priority access to

> online delivery slots. We will contact these

> customers in the coming days with more details.

>

> For any online customer who can travel to our

> stores, from Monday 23rd March, we will operate an

> expanded 'click and collect' service. We are

> significantly increasing the number of collection

> sites across the country over the coming days in

> preparation for this. Customers can place their

> order online as usual and pick it up from a

> collection point in the store car park. We believe

> this will also work for people who are

> self-isolating.

>

> As we work to feed the nation, we are also

> focusing all of our efforts on getting as much

> food and other essential items from our suppliers,

> into our warehouses and onto shelves as we

> possibly can. We still have enough food for

> everyone - if we all just buy what we need for us

> and our families.

>

> To help us get more essential items onto the

> shelves, from this Thursday 19th March, we will be

> closing our cafes and our meat, fish and pizza

> counters in supermarkets. This means we can free

> up warehouse and lorry capacity for products that

> customers really need. It will also free up time

> for our store colleagues to focus on keeping the

> shelves as well stocked as possible.

>

> I mentioned last week that we had put limits on a

> very small number of products. Following feedback

> from our customers and from our store colleagues,

> we have decided to put restrictions on a larger

> number of products. From tomorrow, Wednesday 18th

> March, customers will be able to buy a maximum of

> three of any grocery product and a maximum of two

> on the most popular products including toilet

> paper, soap and UHT milk. We have enough food

> coming into the system, but are limiting sales so

> that it stays on shelves for longer and can be

> bought by a larger numbers of customers.

>

> Finally, I wanted to end by saying a huge thank

> you to Sainsbury's colleagues across the business.

> Everyone is working flat out in difficult

> circumstances to do their best to serve our

> customers. If you're able to say thank you to them

> when you see them, I know they would hugely

> appreciate it.

>

> Best wishes

>

> Mike'

[muffins78]

You were lucky - I definitely went to wrong store then! Over now and I hope they managed to get all their trolleys into their car :)

[gromit316]

my mother went to Camberwell Iceland for 9am, they only had five packs of toilet papeer on the shelves, the shop had hardly anything in it and it had just opened, the staff were good they were only letting people have one of each item.

I went to Morrison s Camberwell to get mince, a man had cleared the shelf he took ten packets.

[Pugwash]

Just spoken to my daughter who is an Occupational Therapist in Orpington - she normally finishes work at 5 pm but due to staff shortages worked to 9 pm last night. Went into her local Sainsbury's to get bread, oat milk and eggs and came out with nothing. Not even cat food in stock. She reported that a friend was a till assistant at a supermarket and although politely telling people they could not bulk buy, she and other staff have been reduced to tears by the continuous verbal abuse and threats they are getting from some customers. Because of these threats they are allowing the bulk buying. It confirms to me that police/army/security should be stationed at each supermarket to protect the staff. Under normal circumstances this sort of behaviour would have been reported to police etc.

Also employers have a duty towards the health, wellbeing and safety of their employees and should be reminded of this and to take extra measures to protect their staff.

[davidq100]

Have you tried the Zooplus website? They sell pretty much all of the special dietary dried pet food at good prices (much cheaper than the vet) and free delivery via DPD to your door for orders over ?40.

They have some shortages on some lines at the moment (e.g. the particular Royal Canin stuff we need for our cats) but you can set up an alert to be told when your brand comes into stock.

NewWave Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Our cat needs special dietary dried food only

> available from the vet.

> We've been there two days on the trot all gone

> people have been stockpiling cat food.

> Vet kindly agreed to save a pack as delivery was

> expected today and I explained I need to work and

> would come in later on.

> I phoned first as it is not directly on my route

> home.

> Delivery still hasn't arrived and they had run out

> of their medical neccesites too.

> If push comes to shove we could feed our cat

> normal food (not ideal but he wouldn't starve) But

> more worrisome is medical supplies not reaching

> the vet.

> This country is in meltdown and its only the

> beginning!

[DulwichFox]

Thursday 19th 13.30.

Co-op No Veg at all Nothing.

M&S now the same. Empty Shelves. Nothing left

What is happening is on the same level as Looting.

[savvygirl]

muffins78 said her mother "saw a young man in the store and her first thought was about what condition he possibly had which meant he was vulnerable...". This young man could have been shopping for an elderly relative or neighbour. My grandson is doing shopping for me as I am in the vulnerable category. My young neighbours also offered to help with shopping. We shouldn't be too quick to judge as there are some lovely kind young people out there.

[ianr]

nxjen wrote

-----------

> There were certainly restrictions about

> who could go into the store itself when

> I was there at 7.30

At 7.15 there was a queue that afaics extended along half the store front, and the car park seemed close to full. I just walked back home. Was the queue short-lived? Was the store fairly full then?

[jonnywalker]

Question: My mother is 80, she is house bound as well as now on lockdown, lives in Essex 1hr drive away. How am I supposed to get food for her?

[muffins78]

Sorry if my point wasn?t clear, things don?t come out right in writing at times - basically she didn?t think that he shouldn?t be shopping during that particular hour dedicated to people of a certain age or vulnerable, and wasn?t going to say something to the effect that he shouldn?t be there.

Today I was rightly there, but the shoppers didn?t think I might have a reason to be there, they assumed I was shopping and not going into isolation, they were livid.

Like yourself, going forwards my parents have someone doing their shopping for them, I?m going to be doing it online with support from neighbours if really needed.

savvygirl Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> muffins78 said her mother "saw a young man in the

> store and her first thought was about what

> condition he possibly had which meant he was

> vulnerable...". This young man could have been

> shopping for an elderly relative or neighbour. My

> grandson is doing shopping for me as I am in the

> vulnerable category. My young neighbours also

> offered to help with shopping. We shouldn't be

> too quick to judge as there are some lovely kind

> young people out there.

[nxjen]

ianr Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> nxjen wrote

> -----------

> > There were certainly restrictions about

> > who could go into the store itself when

> > I was there at 7.30

>

> At 7.15 there was a queue that afaics extended

> along half the store front, and the car park

> seemed close to full. I just walked back home.

> Was the queue short-lived? Was the store fairly

> full then?

When I got there, the queue outside was comprised of people who did not fall within the vulnerable or elderly category and I guess were waiting to gain access at 8am. I was able to walk directly to the main door and was able to just walk in. There were two or three Sainsburys staff at the door who were vetting people.

ETA Yes the store was full but not unbearably so. Without scrutinising the shoppers too closely, they did mostly seem to fall within the specified group.

[muffins78]

Another way is via pet planet- I couldn?t get the royal canin I needed from zooplus - but yes they are good sites for pet food

Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Have you tried the Zooplus website? They sell

> pretty much all of the special dietary dried pet

> food at good prices (much cheaper than the vet)

> and free delivery via DPD to your door for orders

> over ?40.

>

> They have some shortages on some lines at the

> moment (e.g. the particular Royal Canin stuff we

> need for our cats) but you can set up an alert to

> be told when your brand comes into stock.

>

>

>

>

>

> NewWave Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Our cat needs special dietary dried food only

> > available from the vet.

> > We've been there two days on the trot all gone

> > people have been stockpiling cat food.

> > Vet kindly agreed to save a pack as delivery

> was

> > expected today and I explained I need to work

> and

> > would come in later on.

> > I phoned first as it is not directly on my

> route

> > home.

> > Delivery still hasn't arrived and they had run

> out

> > of their medical neccesites too.

> > If push comes to shove we could feed our cat

> > normal food (not ideal but he wouldn't starve)

> But

> > more worrisome is medical supplies not reaching

> > the vet.

> > This country is in meltdown and its only the

> > beginning!

[Penguin68]

The queue management in DKH sainsbury's was poor (it was the first day doing this) - they needed to clearly separate out one queue of qualifying customers and one for non qualifiers for the 'first hour' - AND have good signage. They were good about catching 'multiple' buys and things were generally orderly - there was stock on the shelves although 'larder' items - long life - were in shorter supply than fresh - which was well stocked first thing. Of course, they didn't hold every brand and every size in particular categories, and you had to be prepared to substitute.

When I drove back I saw normal specialist street shops - greengrocers etc. - with good stock levels.

[Sue]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> What is happening is on the same level as

> Looting.

No it isn't.

Looting is illegal and if you are caught looting you are liable to be locked up or at the least fined.

Stocking up prior to potentially being stuck in your home for weeks or months is sensible, particularly under the current circumstances.

What is wrong is a combination of some people buying more than they need, and retailers not having, or not sticking to, a maximum number of each item per customer.

And (if that were possible) restricting customers to one lot of purchases per - week?

[Bic Basher]

DKH had hand wash for the first time in the afternoon for at least two weeks. However I saw a customer buy five with no restrictions at all.

[DulwichFox]

Bic Basher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> DKH had hand wash for the first time in the

> afternoon for at least two weeks. However I saw

> a customer buy five with no restrictions at all.

If Sainsburys were to be fined say ?100k for example they would put in place restrictions straight away.

Sainsbury's management are continuing to Milk it for as much profit as possible. It's criminal.

[dbboy]

What's wrong is the fear of supply lines beginning to falter and buckle.

See;

i) Ocado

ii) Sainsbury cancelling booked deliveries

iii) On line deliveries arriving with large numbers of goods missing

iv) Supermarkets being unable to supply and meet the demand of customers

v) Customers behaving irrationally and stupidly queing at 7am

vi) Potential of funerals/cremations being postponed for weeks

vii) Fear of the transport network being shut down

viii) 40 underground stations already closed indefinitely today

ix) Potential threat that London will be "shut" down, no travel in or out

x)Profiteering at the expense of others

xi) Small independents struggling to cope with people who don't normally shop with them

[geh]

just been to Sainsburys to pick up a couple of things for tonight. literally have never seen anything like it. feeling harshly penalised for not stocking up.

[JohnL]

There are options

Check the suppliers to pubs and restaurants - one or two advertising on here & Smith & Brock are another.

Aneto has become a nice little supplies shop :)

Fishmongers - looking for some customers - they normally sell fish such as Dover Sole and Lobster abroad

[Staspah]

I phoned smith and Brock this morning and they said they could not deliver to the area

[malumbu]

This is a site for help and advice. Go to the lounge for your wider discussions.

[Blah Blah]

I have been finding the small express stores are doing better at getting stock out each morning. The government have also removed restrictions on night time lorry deliveries too, so hopefully more stock will now get to those big supermarkets (providing there are the lorry drivers to do it).