Current Affairs

[Gill W]

Remember the panic over empty shelves?

I remember the panic buying at the start of the pandemic.

However, this year, I think people have behaved with great forbearance regarding the ongoing gaps on the shelves. This may be because some people are pretending they don’t exist!

Cue the ‘well my supermarket shelves are overflowing’ comment!

[Kendhni]

I presume the taxi driver will be in the same situation. Something seems not quite right.......

Did you see the video? How the hell he got out of that car alive I don't know.

[barney]

Remember the panic over empty shelves?

I remember the panic buying at the start of the pandemic.

However, this year, I think people have behaved with great forbearance regarding the ongoing gaps on the shelves. This may be because some people are pretending they don’t exist!

Cue the ‘well my supermarket shelves are overflowing’ comment!

I’m sure you remember panic buying well given that you were one of the people doing it to stock up your Brexit shortage cupboard
Well, my supermarket shelves were and still are literally overflowing
There was a slight yogurt problem by which I mean we only had a choice of thirty as opposed to forty.
It must be very regional because we haven’t noticed any difference.

[towny44]

I have also noticed periodic shortages of various items, but these have been generally short lived, and there was always an alternative to most of them. Our local Sainsburirs is only a medium sized store, and its warehouse is similarly smaller, with limited access for large vehicles, so I don't expect it to always have everything in stock, and I am still getting to grips with the reduced range it can carry because of its size.
However I am still managing to ensure we remain well fed, which clearly is a big disappointment to the BBC and the Daily Mail.

[Gill W]

I’m sure you remember panic buying well given that you were one of the people doing it to stock up your Brexit shortage cupboard
Well, my supermarket shelves were and still are literally overflowing
There was a slight yogurt problem by which I mean we only had a choice of thirty as opposed to forty.
It must be very regional because we haven’t noticed any difference.

I think you are a bit confused, as I didn’t panic buy. Panic buying is rushing out to fill your trolley when stocks on the supermarket shelves are already diminishing.

Buying items gradually over a period of months when stocks are plentiful is the very opposite of panic buying.

Anyway, it’s simply good housekeeping to have a store cupboard. I learnt that back in January 1987 when I was snowed in for a week. At that time, I did a months shopping at one time, and I had done my monthly shop the day that the first snow fell. Therefore, I had plenty of food in the house, and no worries about shopping.

Ever since then, I’ve always operated with a store cupboard to cover the unexpected. This approach stood me in good stead when the pandemic started as I didn’t need to go to the shops at all.

I’ve had no problem with yogurt, as I make my own. I buy the packets of yoghurt mix online, two months worth at a time. I’ve been doing that for nearly 10 years.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We too have a small store cupboard of staples for a rainy day. Enough to keep us going for a few days if we couldn't get to the shops for any reason.

The empty shelves seems to be a regional thing, maybe a North South divide. As others have experienced some items go out of stock for a day or two but are then replenished. But it's usually just a specific brand or size rather than a whole product type and the gaps certainly aren't as big as those favoured by the media or sufficient to trigger a panic.

I have no idea why it seems to be different across the country unless some areas have a greater tendency to panic than others. It seemed to be the same in the recent fuel shortages when there were still reported issues in the south-east after normality had returned elsewhere.

However one long-term crisis. Has anyone seen a pork stock cube lately? They seem to have vanished from the planet.

[barney]

Didn’t even know such things existed Merv

I do agree that the fuel issue seemed to be regional.
Again, in North Devon, we were hardly affected.
Mrs B needed petrol about three days into the ‘crisis’ and was limited to £30. That was about it

The only genuine crisis down here is that it’s virtually impossible for locals to find anywhere to live.
Hardly any properties to rent to live in.
2,500 properties on Airbnb.

[Manoverboard]

Knorr do ' Ham ' Stock Cubes, got ours last week for making Pea Soup, Sainsbugs have them

We operate a 7 week meal cycle so having a periodic stock cupboard top up is key to it's success. We also keep a few contingency Charlie Bighams type ready meals in. At the moment we are unable to get Brancott NZ Sauvignon Blanc nor any of Walkers Crisps but I understand that the latter is down to a software faux pas at the production plants.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Knorr do ' Ham ' Stock Cubes, got ours last week for making Pea Soup, Sainsbugs have them

Yes seen them. Not quite the same but seem to be the only option. They used to do Pork but have apparently discontinued them.

[david63]

They used to do Pork but have apparently discontinued them.

Along with the extra strength beef cubes

[oldbluefox]

Aldi don't do currant slices, bratwurst or strudel any more. Life will never be the same.

[barney]

Knorr do ' Ham ' Stock Cubes, got ours last week for making Pea Soup, Sainsbugs have them

We operate a 7 week meal cycle so having a periodic stock cupboard top up is key to it's success. We also keep a few contingency Charlie Bighams type ready meals in. At the moment we are unable to get Brancott NZ Sauvignon Blanc nor any of Walkers Crisps but I understand that the latter is down to a software faux pas at the production plants.

Blimey, you guys are seriously organised.
In comparison, we fly by the seat of our pants and decide meals a day in advance at the most.
Having said that, Mrs B’s business is next to a butcher and opposite a green grocer so we have no need to stockpile anything.

We are both naturally spontaneous which is why we have a few concerns over future cruises which may include booking things on board like theatre seats etc.
We quite often only decide where to eat immediately before we go.
We’ve been on the way to the main restaurant before and ended up in the Glasshouse.

[Manoverboard]

They used to do Pork but have apparently discontinued them.

Along with the extra strength beef cubes

Sainsbugs have these ....

[david63]

They used to do Pork but have apparently discontinued them.

Along with the extra strength beef cubes

Sainsbugs have these ....

Those are not cubes

[Manoverboard]

Along with the extra strength beef cubes

Sainsbugs have these ....

Those are not cubes

Did I say they were ???

[Ray B]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

[anniec]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

If it's the same one I use at Blue Boar, why oh why do they have to move everything just before Christmas? Seemed well stocked when I popped in earlier, but couldn't find anything. Sainsbury's on Pound Lane has done the same...

[Stephen]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

Ask Onelife

[oldbluefox]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

They're probably bringing them all back!!!

[Kendhni]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

We definitely are (purely accidentally - we had no usable kitchen for the first 7 months of lockdown so all shopping was being piled into one of the spare bedrooms ... I had no idea in the end what we had and, mistakenly, kept putting in the same big month shopping on a weekly basis). We had been working our way down it nicely until a couple of weeks ago when the Tesco site went down and I could not amend our order so they delivered what I had used as a placeholder ... 6x24 rolls of toilet paper ... it was gross and funny at the same time. Fortunately we are now down to our last case of baked beans ... I gave a load to a local charity but we still have several boxes of tinned veg - the big surprise was that we had 4 tins of chickpeas which neither of us ever eats (must have been an exchange at some point).

PS: Hope those that use Tesco for delivery got their Christmas delivery date booked this morning.

[Ray B]

Our Tesco extra has the isle with toilet rolls in overflowing from the shelves. Those that cleaned out the rolls last year must be still plodding through their garage stock.

If it's the same one I use at Blue Boar, why oh why do they have to move everything just before Christmas? Seemed well stocked when I popped in earlier, but couldn't find anything. Sainsbury's on Pound Lane has done the same...

anneic, same here, they have moved things to accommodate the very much larger clothing section.

[Onelife]

Hi Ken, I set the alarm for 5.30 this morning as I didn’t want my wife missing out…. when she logged in there were 51,00 in front of her, she got her slot 40 minutes later, albeit on the Wednesday before Christmas.

P.s she wanted to come back to bed but I told her it was a good opportunity to get the ironing done

[Kendhni]

Hi Ken, I set the alarm for 5.30 this morning as I didn’t want my wife missing out…. when she logged in there were 51,00 in front of her, she got her slot 40 minutes later, albeit on the Wednesday before Christmas.

I tried on my computer at 05:55 and was about 89,000th in the queue. Fortunately an IT chum of mine told me how to beat the queue, so I had all slots booked before 6:15. When I came down from my shower I noticed that I had missed my 10 minute slot to log in and had gone to something like 221,000th in the queue.

P.s she wanted to come back to bed but I told her it was a good opportunity to get the ironing done

I prefer to use a wood in the morning ... assuming we are talking about golf.

[david63]

So the conspiracy theorists have moved on from Covid and now all the problems about the environment are another load of conspiracy theories - although, apparently, they are inextricably linked.

[Ray B]

It is unconfirmed, but the Liverpool bomber was refused asylum in 2014. No doubt that the do gooders helped him to appeal the decision and stopped any chance of deportation. The appeal was thrown out without going to court, the BBC reports that typically, when someone loses an asylum claim and exhausts their rights to appeal, the Home Office withdraws their financial support and housing and warns them they will be removed from the UK.
So why was he still in the UK in 2021,we need to get our act together and get asylum refusals out of our country PDQ.
He picked a soft target but luckily it's thought the actual bomb itself didn't go off. The hospital escaped by pure luck, one can only imagine the carnage had the unthinkable had happened.
We are to much of a soft touch, lead by do gooders and Bible thumpers.
If the refugees trying to break into Poland succeed, we can expect that lot to start heading our way.