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March 28, 2024, 11:04:37 PM

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Grocery shopping

Started by peanutbutter, March 17, 2020, 01:25:57 AM

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Abnormal Palm

Domino 2 X £9.99 each is a great deal, especially because a regular Domino is £19.99. Sometimes if my wife doesn't want pizza, I get the two for 9.99 each to actually save 1p. I just post the spare cunt under my neighbour's door. I normally get the one where the dough is is basically brown paper. I think they call it Mama's Graphene. Max topping:dough ratio, around 6:1, and because Domino is very sweet and the sauce is also quite acid, you get very bad heartburn every time.

I love it!

Sebastian Cobb

Every pizza place seems to have a glaring flaw. For dominoes I think it's that they don't cook things quite enough.

Papa Johns is obviously the sauces (I suppose that tescos 3 pack would fix that)

Pizza hut is well done on top but less good

seepage

Quote from: Abnormal Palm on May 23, 2020, 05:24:13 PM
Domino 2 X £9.99. I normally get the one where the dough is is basically brown paper. I think they call it Mama's Graphene.

Is that the thin 'n' crispy that comes on what looks very much like matzo?

Attila

Usual queue to get into the Waitrose today, but it's getting more crowded. A lot of couples shopping together; at least half dozen people in the queue with small children or children in push-chairs. Kind of difficult to get into aisles and to maintain the two-metres thing when you have a dozey husband blocking the head of the aisle, leaning on the trolley, whilst his missus is fondling every box of eggs on the shelf, &c.


The whole shopping precinct was heaving with people (this was around 11am). Lots more road traffic, as well.

Sebastian Cobb

I've been putting off a big shop for ages, which is a nightmare anyway as I have to duck out of work and overfill my bike.

So I had a look on the internet and managed to bag a delivery slot for tomorrow on morrisons. They seem to have quite late slots as well. Provided they don't do any mad substitutions I'll be using them again.  They were out of the odd thing, but I can get the things they were out of from the tesco garage.

This is good as the thought of all the kerfuffle of going to an actual shop only to find they were out of stuff was enough of a hassle that I didn't really want to do it.

timebug

Just popped over to my local  Aldi, literally ten minutes ago. Scattered shoppers, everyone being sensible about distancing, about a five minute queue at the checkout and away. So things are certainly on the up here. Not drastically, but slowly improving.

Attila

Did my shop yesterday. Waitrose here have got rid of their beefy young bouncer-type security and replaced them with a power-mad, overweight, late middle aged renta-cop. When not acting as if you're trying to cross the border between North and South Korea, matey spends most of his time playing games on his phone, ignoring people who come out of the shop. It's supposed to be one-out, one-in, and dude will not notice three or four people have come out until whatever timid older lady at the front of the queue dares to get his attention.

Then there was the fun dude, late middle age, beer paunch and saggy shorts, bright red cap, strolling down past the trapped audience in the queue bellowing, 'WE'RE GRATEFUL WE LIVE IN [REDACTED]!!! SAFEST PLACE IN BRITAIN!' and more bullshit about how this virus will be gone once we get Brexit squared away. His wife looked as if she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her up.

Captain Crunch

ALDI have been brilliant, I've been favouring the 20:30 slot, late enough to be quiet but not so late you get the last minute panic rush.  It's always really quiet, well stocked, staff are great, can't fault it.  No that's a lie I can fault it, they still leave the rolls of stickers lying around, you know the ones with HALF PRICE on red?  One day I'm going to crack, steal a roll, get all my shopping half price then get caught by the ALDI fuzz and banned for life. 

Malcy

Went to Tesco earlier. Fucking disaster. No queue outside so thought i'd be in for an easy shop. Wrong.

People everywhere including hoardes of staff with cages up and down aisles just standing chatting and doing nothing with them. Struggled to get around. One on her phone having a laugh and blocking the bread aisle. Loads of empty shelves and depressing ones with one solitary item on them. Thought the panic buying had started up again.

Only bonus was i was able to go straight to a checkout. Was in a right foul mood when i left and realised when i got home just how much stuff i didnt get and how much i had forgot to get.

idunnosomename

Quote from: Blue Jam on May 23, 2020, 05:07:54 PM
Was buying a lot of reduced ready meals from Tesco but it's always cottage pie and now I never want to see another cottage pie ever again.


flotemysost

Quote from: Captain Crunch on June 05, 2020, 10:42:29 AM
One day I'm going to crack, steal a roll, get all my shopping half price then get caught by the ALDI fuzz and banned for life.

I know someone who got a six-month ban from Tesco for putting a quantity of 900 bread rolls into a self-service checkout. It could happen.

I love Aldi, but the queue for my nearest one has been practically into the neighbouring borough since lockdown. I'm very conscious that at the moment I'm fortunate I can afford to shop in slightly more expensive supermarkets, so as much as I'd love to stock up on Camembert and angle grinders, I don't want to delay anyone who doesn't have as many options.

Icehaven

Did the weekly shop at Asda yesterday, still have to queue for about half an hour to get in, got to the checkout (using one of the self service ones with a conveyor belt) and when we'd nearly finished realised the guy waiting behind us, who was about 95 and wearing a face mask, was only buying a newspaper and a packet of biscuits. I mean...
OK I get that some strange people have a basic human need to be around others, and maybe he didn't have to queue because he's old, but if you're concerned enough to be wearing a face mask then would you really take the risk of going to a massive supermarket stuffed full of people when you could just go to a corner shop? Plus there was a whole bank of empty smaller self service checkouts but he elected to wait for a good 10-15 minutes behind us scanning and packing a week's worth of shopping. If he's that doolally that he didn't realise what he was doing he probably shouldn't be out by himself.

Blue Jam

I'm mainly shopping at Saino's now because their stores are spacious and they haven't installed a one-way system in any I've been to. Tesco and Scotmid have one-way systems in what were already cramped stores and shopping there now makes me homicidal.

I'm also wondering if it's a coincidence that the shops with one-way systems are also the ones with the most dawdlers, or if those people just get off on holding everybody up and then having a good tut at them when they have to squeeze past.

There seems to be some unwritten rule that social distancing rules don't apply with shop staff, like they're not really people, or they're immune to the 'vid, so they can block an aisle with a big cage full of stock, or stand around having a chat to a colleague and you can squeeze past them and it's all fine. I don't mind that tbh, it feels like a bit of normality.

Sheffield Wednesday

I know exactly what you mean about supermarket staff. It was frustrating at first but it is kind of comforting in a strange way.

Ferris

The thing with the one way system is if you shop absent mindedly while listening to a podcast then say "bollocks I forgot the olives" or whatever, you either have to go to the next aisle, go back down to the other end, then walk back up the one with olives, or you can just nip the wrong way down the one way system if it's only a few feet down the aisle.

It basically means I do a lot more walking around and spend longer in the places. Plus you get the odd smug boomer defiantly walking the wrong way down the aisle and forcing the poor kids who work there to intervene as politely as possible.

I'm not a fan.

Blue Jam

The Scotmid nearest me actually has an enforced one-way system with parts of aisles blocked off so there is only one possible route from the entrance to the exit, like a maze, but one which feels less like a nice trip to Hampton Court and more like a frustrating experience which means you can't possibly go back if you realise you've forgotten an item and the only option is to go through twice.

Sainsbury's is the least stressful but unfortunately the way they don't have too many aisles for the space and they don't pack in too much stock means they also have the smallest range. If I want to cook a proper meal I have to go to the big branches of Tesco or Lidl. Lidl is alright- no one-way system and loads of checkouts- but the queue outside is usually pretty long.

Ferris

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 21, 2020, 02:08:58 PM
The Scotmid nearest me actually has an enforced one-way system with parts of aisles blocked off so there is only one possible route from the entrance to the exit, like a maze, but one which feels less like a nice trip to Hampton Court and more like a frustrating experience which means you can't possibly go back if you realise you've forgotten an item and the only option is to go through twice.

That is insanely frustrating. Surely you go through at a snails pace because you don't want to forget anything? Ughhh and the people in front of you are obviously going to be super slow as well but the pricks behind you will be going way too fast...

Cloud

I've not seen anyone following or enforcing the arrows in Tesco for weeks now. It seems to be an unwritten rule to ignore them.

Aldi - we just got one a couple of weeks ago - is still fairly busy as the novelty hasn't worn off yet.  I like that it's very spacious and feels well ventilated which are exactly what you need in the vid era.  However when I went on an afternoon, once you got to the back where the sort of "fridgey cabinet things" full fish and cooked meats etc are, it was rammed.  Just a wall of people lined up along the cabinets, zero distancing between them.  A big enough gap would occasionally open up and you'd nip in and try to look for something only for someone to start hovering behind 2 seconds later.  Felt too risky so I gave up and left.

However at about 8pm it's excellent.  Very quiet and easy to keep a distance due to the wide aisles and not too many people.  I think the supermarkets are just pushing it and letting too many in at once when it's busy, so you have to time it for distancing yourself.  My only complaint is again those cabinet things.  They have big perspex doors that you have to open, which is a contact point you're sharing with hundreds of other shoppers per day.  Makes it all the more important to remember not to touch your face (should be wearing a mask anyway) and to wash your hands when you leave.  I carry a 3D printed hook and use that and spray the disinfectant on it afterwards.

Speaking of contact points, if there's a "new normal" it really should include proximity activation of pedestrian crossings.  Have those things where you wave your hand in front of it like in some toilets.    I still refuse to touch them and just wait until it's safe to nip across but everyone else seems to use them still.  Hundreds of people a day pushing one little button seems unwise.

Quote from: icehaven on June 21, 2020, 11:06:58 AM
if you're concerned enough to be wearing a face mask then would you really take the risk of going to a massive supermarket stuffed full of people when you could just go to a corner shop? Plus there was a whole bank of empty smaller self service checkouts but he elected to wait for a good 10-15 minutes behind us scanning and packing a week's worth of shopping. If he's that doolally that he didn't realise what he was doing he probably shouldn't be out by himself.

Could be that he's not too worried for himself (or doesn't much care as he's 95 and had a good innings) but is thinking of others.  Masks don't actually help protect you from it much (only something daft like 5-10%), they protect others in the event that you have it and don't realise as you're asymptomatic or still incubating.  And if he's old, it's a bit of a stereotype (because it's true) but old people don't seem to get along with technology very well.  He might find it a bit complicated or intimidating.

greencalx

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 21, 2020, 01:58:56 PM
There seems to be some unwritten rule that social distancing rules don't apply with shop staff, like they're not really people, or they're immune to the 'vid, so they can block an aisle with a big cage full of stock, or stand around having a chat to a colleague and you can squeeze past them and it's all fine. I don't mind that tbh, it feels like a bit of normality.

My local sains has now increased it's delivery capacity to the point where I can now get a slot, but the flip side of this is that if you go in person the aisles are crammed with their online shoppers. It basically makes social distancing impossible.

You would have thought that these staff would be most at risk from catching the virus, given that they spend all day in an enclosed space with the general public waltzing through. Does anyone know if supermarket staff have been particularly affected (ie more than the general population)?

Cold Meat Platter

Still no sign of the yeast. Getting worried that this year's yeast crop may have failed.
Got a big bag of onion powder today so I'm alright.

Blue Jam

#680
I got some very good baker's yeast from eBay. Mauripan brand. Got great results with it. You could also try making a sourdough starter with raisins (or without raisins) or baking with unfiltered bottle-conditioned beer.

I have tried all of these things and they all worked.

Cold Meat Platter

I like saying yeast. Great word. One of the best.

PlanktonSideburns

love one way shopping, go really slow, stare fuck out of shelves, miss NOTHING out there in half the time

Camp Tramp

My local Sainsburys was selling fresh yeast in the diary section.

Ferris

Quote from: Camp Tramp on June 22, 2020, 12:33:24 AM
My local Sainsburys was selling fresh yeast in the diary section.

...but it was nothing to write home about

Quote from: Camp Tramp on June 22, 2020, 12:33:24 AM
My local Sainsburys was selling fresh yeast in the diary section.

The hidden attic above the shop?

Icehaven

Quote from: Cloud on June 21, 2020, 03:18:38 PM
And if he's old, it's a bit of a stereotype (because it's true) but old people don't seem to get along with technology very well.  He might find it a bit complicated or intimidating.

No it was still a self service checkout we were using, just one of the ones with a conveyor belt for a lot of shopping, which made it even weirder that he was using it to buy 2 items.

Head Gardener

It's a one way system round the field at the local carboot, there were stewards a couple of weeks ago pointing folks in the right direction but yesterday they had all gone and it was a free for all. The main concession to social distancing is the stalls are further apart than usual and though about 1 in 10 buyers are wearing masks I never saw any stall holders wearing masks, or gloves.

Captain Crunch

Are you in Essex Head Gardener?

Ray Travez

One way system at the car boot I went to, though it fell apart towards the end. Got told off by one woman for picking up a cardigan by her stall. "Don't touch anything unless you're going to buy it." How the fuck do I know if I'm going to buy it unless I look at it to check the size? People this stupid should have a sign round their necks.

So I had to ask every stall owner after that if it was ok to pick up an item. Of course they're all fine with it. It was just her. I mentioned what had happened to a few stallholders, and they all agreed she was a DICK.

Did pretty well, spent about £30. Should make that back reselling a few items, then the rest of the stuff is paid for by that.