Vocal Voices

Did the final shop before Christmas today (although I have to admit some of the purchases were in anticipation of Lockdown 3.0 arriving on Boxing Day )

Iceland around 10:00 was a shade busier than normal but still quite quiet; it was well stocked up with Christmassy food items but annoyingly no gammon joints, so I settled on pork. If there were eggs on sale, I didn't see them, but then I can never remember where they display the eggs anyway. Got a 9-pack of toilet rolls. Even got a large head of fresh broccoli, marked down to 38p.

Waitrose around 18:30, in contrast, was rammed. Had a small queue to get it, first time I've encountered that of an evening. Security on the door was officious . Loads of ditherers around the store which made moving about and social distancing difficult. Generally, it was well stocked up, but things were flying off the shelves - and the replenishers were out in force. Not a lot of eggs on display, but they trundled out a new trolley-load while I was there. No apparent restrictions and no particularly noticeable gaps - I got all we needed.

Hopefully we have enough to take us through to the first week of January. Glad I've got it done now.

How did your last minute shopping before Christmas go?

I did my last few bits at Sainsbury’s at 6.30 last night. Very little fresh veg, wine shelves stripped almost bare abs no bread!!! No queue to get in and not really very busy.

Fortunately I was only going in for a couple of things I’d forgotten. I’d been to Iceland on Monday around 5pm. Shelves fully stocked and very quiet.


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I'm heading to Sainsbury's today; two elderly neighbours need few everyday things - nothing to do with Christmas but daily essentials that they forgot on their last shopping lists. And same for me - besides Prosecco the bits I'm going for are daily essentials vs Chrismas stuff - so hoping those aisles will be less busy.

But it's a case of swallow that patience pill and just get on with it.

We are going out this morning for veg some meat for lunch and two more cards. We got another one from a neighbour and we haven't got any left.

Did mine at Sainsbury's last night, just after 5. I had a collection slot to pick up the turkey, ham and some prepared fresh veg, so I got the rest of what we'll need while I was there. It was quiet, and no signs of any shortages.

Did mine yesterday morning. Pingo was a little busier than normal, but all the shelves were full. The only thing I couldn't get was butternut squash, so had to settle for pumpkin Went to the smaller Alentejana, but they didn't have any either, and it was very quiet. But it is just the local corner shop, really.

Got my Tesco delivery com8ng this afternoon. They don’t notify you beforehand of any out of stocks or substitutions but I’ve checked the bank account and the amount paid is below the estimated cost when I submitted the order late last night, looking through the items I’ve ordered there’s no fresh cream available, no bread, no bacon, no toilet rolls and no eggs

Yesterday I did a round trip of Asda, Morrison's and the Co-op so am set till the first week of January. There were no big queues, though Asda was checking numbers in and out, and little sign of panic buying. A few people were going a bit OTT with things like tins of tomatoes and beans but that was about it.

The roads are quiet and looking at my neighbours' cars it appears that many of them have already broken up for the holiday period. No doubt there will be a last minute rush, there always is, but I think most people are relieved to have it all over and done with - I know that I am.

We had our last grocery order delivered yesterday but it was two crates short mostly veg and another few bits. It was due between 9-11 in the morning and arrived around 4.15pm! I didn’t mind that too much although it did mess up my day. So then I got on the phone, expecting to have to wait a long time but spoke to someone straight away. The driver arrived back out after 8pm, still 10 items short. He gave me a number to ring, told me who speak to and said she would be there from around 6am this morning, so I set the alarm for 7am only for a recorded message saying they take calls from 8am Phoned just after 8am, she said she would ring me back within the hour, which she did, and said they would be delivered this morning. I told her we would not be here this afternoon but she insisted it would be here this morning. Once that arrives, we’ll be fine and can top up locally until our next delivery on the 31st.

Reasons that I will not entertain online grocery shopping are the number of horror stories about missed items, substitutes fresh items rubbing up against use-by dates and delivery times. I suppose that I am lucky in that as there is only me I can go after 8 pm a couple of times a week when it is quiet and just keep topping up.