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Supermarket Update

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Tracked

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It's not been quite as bad as at the end of July here in the local Morrison's fruit & veg section;

- Apples have been the one thing where the shelves are regularly under half full (it varies),
- If there, banana's are usually spread out across the shelves, often with decent sized gaps between each bunch
- a few empty/nearly empty shelves, at random, this afternoon it was potato's and oranges, and there was a gap in the area where the cauliflowers and cabbages and things are
- also this afternoon; very few packs of tomato's with an expiry date later than tomorrow

On the few occasions I've gone in on a different day/time to my normal routine it's been similar (except the last bit about the tomato's)
 
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adc82140

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Bi weekly trip to Iceland today. Got all we needed. We spread our shopping between there, B&M and a small Co op and have not hit any major problems with stock.

Oh and we also go here:


Worth a visit if you live near one.
 

DelW

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My local Waitrose has finally removed the last remaining zigzag queue barriers, and reinstated car parking in the area they'd occupied. It's at least six months since I saw anything beyond the last (short) zigzag being used anyway.
Conversely, the nearby Sainsbury's, which had removed everything a few weeks ago, has since reinstated barriers in the entrance porch to re-separate entry and exit streams. It's not a big deal, since they only extend the walking route by a few metres, but it's not clear to me what issues their return is meant to address.
 

Jamiescott1

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My local Waitrose has finally removed the last remaining zigzag queue barriers, and reinstated car parking in the area they'd occupied. It's at least six months since I saw anything beyond the last (short) zigzag being used anyway.
Conversely, the nearby Sainsbury's, which had removed everything a few weeks ago, has since reinstated barriers in the entrance porch to re-separate entry and exit streams. It's not a big deal, since they only extend the walking route by a few metres, but it's not clear to me what issues their return is meant to address.

Our local ssinsburyd reinstated barriers a few weeks ago and then removed them again a couple of days afterwards
 

Mcr Warrior

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Have to say, having shoppers exit the supermarket through a separate set of adjacent doors from those entering, did seem like a fairly sensible idea at the time. :|
 

DelayRepay

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Have to say, having shoppers exit the supermarket through a separate set of adjacent doors from those entering, did seem like a fairly sensible idea at the time. :|

This is the one thing our local Tesco has kept. They have two adjacent sets of double doors, and at the start of Covid made one into the entrance and the other the exit. It does seem to make it easier to get into and out of the shop that way so happy for it to stay (but I suspect the real reason is they only bought one traffic light!)
 

DelW

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Have to say, having shoppers exit the supermarket through a separate set of adjacent doors from those entering, did seem like a fairly sensible idea at the time. :|
In the case I mentioned above, there were always separate entry and exit doors into the building proper. But outside those is a sort of porte-cochere, a porch open at each end but with the third side glazed, which was originally accessible throughout but last year was split in half by barriers. They were removed earlier this year but have recently been reinstated, which means that if you arrive from the "exit" side you have to walk around the porch instead of through it, and then turn round to go in at the far end.
It probably adds about twenty to my step count each time I go there, so not a big deal ;).
A nearby Homebase has a similar porch and door layout, but their barriers were removed at around the same time and haven't reappeared.
 

Baxenden Bank

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In the case I mentioned above, there were always separate entry and exit doors into the building proper. But outside those is a sort of porte-cochere, a porch open at each end but with the third side glazed, which was originally accessible throughout but last year was split in half by barriers. They were removed earlier this year but have recently been reinstated, which means that if you arrive from the "exit" side you have to walk around the porch instead of through it, and then turn round to go in at the far end.
It probably adds about twenty to my step count each time I go there, so not a big deal ;).
A nearby Homebase has a similar porch and door layout, but their barriers were removed at around the same time and haven't reappeared.
My local B & Q Warehouse has two glazed entrance lobbies. They both have doors at each end. One lobby was always used to enter the store, the second lobby is at the rear of the tills so is (mainly) used to exit. For most of the pandemic restrictions, the door on the entrance lobby nearest to the public road (IE the one most convenient for pedestrians like myself) was permanently locked, with the door at the far end provided with the usual cleaning equipment and a covid marshall. The extra distance was a bit more than the few paces seen at supermarkets but only a minor inconvenience in the scale of things. Glad to see when I visited last week that normal access has returned.

Inside the store there were, at one point, arrows on each aisle and a barriered zig-zag holding area for those wishing to enter the paint aisle - with a separate covid marshall controlling access to that aisle alone. The holding area and that marshall disappeared once the initial rush after the lockdown one store closure eased. The aisle arrows disappeared at some point. Except for one aisle - which I marched down at some speed last week and then noticed the big, recent, bold arrows on the floor. Don't know what that was all about, it wasn't an especially busy aisle. So mostly back to normal on that aspect.

At the tills there was initially a separate socially distance marked queue for each till, meaning you had to guess which queue was going to move quickest, as per a food supermarket. That changed to a single socially distance marked queue for all tills, at 90 degrees to the tills, where you were called forward when a till was free. The tills furthest away were equipped with big hands on sticks that the till assistant would wave, whilst shouting, to attract your attention! Pleased to report that till arrangements are back to pre-covid normal except Perspex screens remain.

Mask wearing was high (nearly all customers) despite the store being a cavernous portal frame shed and, at the time of my visit, not at all crowded.
 

DelayRepay

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At the tills there was initially a separate socially distance marked queue for each till, meaning you had to guess which queue was going to move quickest, as per a food supermarket. That changed to a single socially distance marked queue for all tills, at 90 degrees to the tills, where you were called forward when a till was free. The tills furthest away were equipped with big hands on sticks that the till assistant would wave, whilst shouting, to attract your attention! Pleased to report that till arrangements are back to pre-covid normal except Perspex screens remain.

In my local B&Q, during the early days, they had the single socially distanced queue (which ran the whole length of the store and back again!), with a marshal directing people to the next till.

At the till, you had to push your trolley into a square that was painted on the floor. You then had to stand back in another painted square while the assistant came out from behind their perspex screen to scan the shopping. When the assistant was safely back behind the screen you were allowed to leave your box and approach the till to pay. They'd re-positioned the printer on the customer side of the perspex so the assistant didn't need to take the huge risk of handing you a receipt.

If you didn't have a trolley, e.g. if you were only buying one item, you had to put it on the floor in the painted box!

It sounds like madness but at the time everyone thought it was a great idea!
 

Tramfan

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This is the one thing our local Tesco has kept. They have two adjacent sets of double doors, and at the start of Covid made one into the entrance and the other the exit. It does seem to make it easier to get into and out of the shop that way so happy for it to stay (but I suspect the real reason is they only bought one traffic light!)
My nearest big Tesco Extra has also kept the separate entrance/exit doors, which are at opposite sides of a single lobby. Unfortunately, the door they've picked to be the entrance is the one closest to the tills, and the exit door is the side closest to the first aisle. What with that and there still being a fair number of people stopping to sanitise their basket/trolley handles in the entrance area, it creates considerably more congestion than previously as you have a constant stream of people crossing paths/navigating around the basket/trolley sanitising people.
 

Baxenden Bank

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My nearest big Tesco Extra has also kept the separate entrance/exit doors, which are at opposite sides of a single lobby. Unfortunately, the door they've picked to be the entrance is the one closest to the tills, and the exit door is the side closest to the first aisle. What with that and there still being a fair number of people stopping to sanitise their basket/trolley handles in the entrance area, it creates considerably more congestion than previously as you have a constant stream of people crossing paths/navigating around the basket/trolley sanitising people.
Is the side used as the entrance also the one facing the quieter part of the car park?

My local Tesco has the same arrangement, causing those entering and exiting to cross each others paths - like a poorly trained motorcycle display team. But back when there were barrier systems and long queues just to be allowed in, it made sense, from a 'standing in the car park safely' point of view. To have the queue the other way would have meant people queuing in the area used by motorists to get to the collection point. It also happened to be the side with more overhanging roof for shelter and the trolley park is on that side.
 

Tramfan

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Is the side used as the entrance also the one facing the quieter part of the car park?
Not as such, but

But back when there were barrier systems and long queues just to be allowed in, it made sense, from a 'standing in the car park safely' point of view.
I suspect this was the original logic behind it, as the lobby to this one (Kingston Park, Newcastle) is at the very edge of the shop, and presumably people would have queued along the length of the shop in the early days of the pandemic. Would've made sense to have swapped them over now that there is no need to queue to get in though
 

317 forever

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Both the nearest Morrisons have stopped selling tins of Grant's Peri Peri Chicken. However, I did find them in a Morrison's in Edinburgh in June and also Booth's in Clitheroe in July.

I hadn't seen them in many supermarkets, and now even fewer places are continuing to sell them.
 

MikeWM

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Tesco in Ely last night appeared to have quite a severe staff shortage - there was just one staffed till and no self-service tills open. Needless to say the queue for the one till was quite long!
 

_toommm_

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Tesco in Ely last night appeared to have quite a severe staff shortage - there was just one staffed till and no self-service tills open. Needless to say the queue for the one till was quite long!

Theres lots of people moving to/back to uni, so that will remove some of the staff. There’s probably still some people who haven’t had their second jab plus two weeks, so some may be isolation.

The store I’m working at has lost quite a lot of university-age people so we struggled yesterday.
 

Jamesrob637

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Smallest queue in the world for the large Tesco near me around 2pm. Was just about long enough and slow enough to constitute a queue. Probably added 2 mins to my shopping trip if even that.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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The only spirit in most shoppers nowadays is supermarket vodka.
The mention of "supermarket" alcohol takes me back quite a few years ago to a business visit to Halewood International based in Huyton, Merseyside, the brewers of the noted extremely cheap alcoholic drink called "Lambrini". The works manager showing the guided tour around knowing how very cheap it retailed for the the area supermarkets jokingly made the comment...."They put it on their cornflakes in Huyton".
 

jamesst

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The mention of "supermarket" alcohol takes me back quite a few years ago to a business visit to Halewood International based in Huyton, Merseyside, the brewers of the noted extremely cheap alcoholic drink called "Lambrini". The works manager showing the guided tour around knowing how very cheap it retailed for the the area supermarkets jokingly made the comment...."They put it on their cornflakes in Huyton".

Having lived in Huyton I cant argue with that!!!
 

Sleepy

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Sainsbury's joining some of the others not opening on Boxing Day this year - sadly staff expected to use annual leave or have it unpaid !
 

Peter Sarf

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One supermarket executive was quoted that bottled water is the first thing they drop when there is a shortage of delivery capacity given its low margin and bulkiness. Certainly in our local Sainsburys it has been fairly thin on the ground in recent weeks. There are also plenty of other gaps on the shelves and items more spread out to hide said gaps as presumably the shortage of drivers its making itself felt.
I struggled to get 5l water last time I was (planning to) going camping. The only time I buy plastic with water in not fresh from the tap. The empty bottles we use to fetch water from the nearest stand pipe. So it was going to be a bit of a crisis. Now i know why there might have been none.
Just been to Sainsbury’s & no issues at all. Plenty of everything I needed & didn’t see any bare shelves.
Thats terrible, what are issues btw ? :D.
 
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