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What are you panic buying?

Wilf said:
Step daughter works at Aldi and has had the opposite problem. Where staff have been out in the aisles, they've had customers coming right up to them, even people tapping them on the shoulder from behind.
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I was working in a small retail shop the other day, covering someone who was off sick. I’ve worked there many times over the years but that was the most stressful day I’ve ever ever had in there. It was quiet (one in one out, only four shoppers at a time, I was alone on the till) but holding myself safe while being polite to customers all day was exhausting. If I had to say “would you mind just taking a step back” once, I had to repeat it with almost every single customer. One person said “Thank you for staying open, being here” and even that was stressy because he kept repeating it and seemed to need me to expend extra energy on accepting his thanks in the correct way. Even people who were gloved and masked, even those who indicated that I put their change down so they didnt have to touch my hand, or to drop their change into a seperate bag (presumably for later disinfection) didn’t show any respect for my space. I kept stepping back, I turned away from them, I stretched forward with the card machine but still they leaned in and over the counter and reached over my arm while I was checking prices.

Several were dead keen to expound on their stupid theories (Agenda 21 was a new one on me).

Came home completely wiped out.
 
SheilaNaGig said:
I was working in a small retail shop the other day, covering someone who was off sick. I’ve worked there many times over the years but that was the most stressful day I’ve ever ever had in there. It was quiet (one in one out, only four shoppers at a time, I was alone on the till) but holding myself safe while being polite to customers all day was exhausting. If I had to say “would you mind just taking a step back” once, I had to repeat it with almost every single customer. One person said “Thank you for staying open, being here” and even that was stressy because he kept repeating it and seemed to need me to expend extra energy on accepting his thanks in the correct way. Even people who were gloved and masked, even those who indicated that I put their change down so they didnt have to touch my hand, or to drop their change into a seperate bag (presumably for later disinfection) didn’t show any respect for my space. I kept stepping back, I turned away from them, I stretched forward with the card machine but still they leaned in and over the counter and reached over my arm while I was checking prices.

Several were dead keen to expound on their stupid theories (Agenda 21 was a new one on me).

Came home completely wiped out.
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'Like', but y'know. That sounds really draining. :(

Things seem to vary drastically between shops. My partner went to her chemist and they had glass screens and all the staff gloved and masked. I went to mine and they just had a line of chairs to stop you getting within about 2 feet of the till. The pharmacist, who didn't seem to be venturing out into the shop, had a mask but the women who were serving didn't. Best bit was that they had to get my signature for one of my meds (pregabalin is controlled), so I had to wander round the chairs and go to the till and take a pen out of her hand. You'd think the Dept of Health would exercise a modicum of common sense at this time.
 
It really was very draining. I’ve worked there during last year’s heatwaves *, following terrorism attacks and local riots when everyone was very on edge, done long days without a break when it was stupid-busy (Christmas for e.g.) but nothing else left me used up in quite the same way. I think it’s partly that everyone is experiencing some degree of anxiety, grief, shock etc and processing it in their own way, so while there’s a huge background of commonality the specific is really particular to each person. Having an invisible enemy that can attack our own body as well as the social/cultural/economic system makes this a universal experience that is also unique and quite private for each person. No one has any context for this, so there’s a lot of acting out of emotions while we all try to process it. Added to which, with everyone on lockdown and living either trapped with family or alone, going to a shop becomes the only chance to bounce our reactions off an outside mirror.



* Remember when heatwaves were a once-a-decade thing, even less often? And we hand one in 2017, one in 2018, and two in 2019. Man, a heatwave during lockdown... Death by heatstroke will spike.
 
In my day job (lecturer) I do stuff on Ulrich Beck's Risk Society thesis. He argues we now face qualitatively different risks today, things like the potential for nuclear accidents, terror, food scares and the likes of Corvid. Crucially, he says these risk affect everyone - a universal pool of risk - as opposed to the industrial society where class positions determined the type and levels of risk you face. Like most people I rail against Beck, the old social inequalities around income housing and the rest are still here in abundance and anyway, your class position affects the way you experience many of the 'new risks' (for example the rich could always afford better quality meat amid the 1990s mad cow thingy). I think that's true about Corvid too in many respects, affecting those in high density housing, already ill, working in supermarkets etc.). Same time, alongside experiencing this from the position of who you are socially, emotionally there is a weird feeling of having a common enemy, being part of a 'national' experience. Then having said that, it suits the government if we do start thinking 'we are all in it together'.
 
Just been to the supermarket. Shelves were actually emptier that last week. Somehow though the whole place was full of varying types of booze. How come the booze supplies are so plentiful but you can't get a pack of pasta or a jar of marmite?

Weird country.
 
sunnysidedown said:
I managed to get some eggs from the local half-empty co-op yesterday. made some banana bread this morning, hopefully it will last longer than i think it will.
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Our local CoOp is absolutely shocking at the moment. I actually wonder if they’re just selling their stock as since the Morrison’s opened close by it’s lost a lot of it’s trade, maybe time to shut up shop.

They have fuckin nothin in there at the moment.
 
Numbers said:
Our local CoOp is absolutely shocking at the moment. I actually wonder if they’re just selling their stock as since the Morrison’s opened close by it’s lost a lot of it’s trade, maybe time to shut up shop.

They have fuckin nothin in there at the moment.
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Same with my local Co-Op though it is a small one. I just assumed they were prioritising their larger stores where they often have a bit of a monopoly. Maybe they are just having a harder time adjusting to the new normal?
 
Numbers said:
Our local CoOp is absolutely shocking at the moment. I actually wonder if they’re just selling their stock as since the Morrison’s opened close by it’s lost a lot of it’s trade, maybe time to shut up shop.

They have fuckin nothin in there at the moment.
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I popped in last week and was surprised at how empty it was, i noticed over the weekend that the delivery truck had parked up outside so i was expecting it to be reasonably well stocked when i went in yesterday. not the case, probably less stuff than last week. i managed to get some broccoli though, and some strawberry jam.
 
I bought a case of wine. I gave up drinking some time ago, but they had some fairly palatable wine priced at $3 a bottle. So I bought some. Nearly to the bottom of the first one.

I did notice that the supermarket moved all of their liquor to the front of the store. Doing their bit to keep everyone at home and happy I suppose.
 
So far it looks like I did really well with my panic buying! I've not needed anything since I stopped going out shopping which was before the lockdown.

Interestingly the things I reckon I'll start wanting soon aren't food, drink or medicine items and the last few things I bought before the lockdown weren't 'essentials' either.

Would kill for a maccys though :rolleyes:
 
WouldBe said:
My belt has snapped. I'll have to hold my trousers up with garden twine. :eek: :(
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I got fed up with that happening - I am hard on belts - so I started making sure that any belt I bought was made out of solid hide, not lots of layers glued together. They're not cheap, but 1 of the 2 I have is over 25 years old, and the other one's easily 10.

So then the rivet holding the buckle on gave up.

6mm nut and bolt (sawn off a bit, obvs). :cool:

I'm good until Christmas here, if I have to be :)
 
Numbers said:
Our local CoOp is absolutely shocking at the moment. I actually wonder if they’re just selling their stock as since the Morrison’s opened close by it’s lost a lot of it’s trade, maybe time to shut up shop.

They have fuckin nothin in there at the moment.
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same here, I'm half tempted to get a mime artist outfit and go mime shopping with my mime shopping trolley.
 
Whitechapel Sainsbury's this morning a couple of small steps back to 'normality'. Still no rice but some tinned goods including tomatoes. And at last

VLJORJg.jpg


(it was the last packet though). Sorted for the next week.
 
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