So Who's in Self Isolation?

[daffy]

Ventured out yesterday for food shopping, first time in 10 days, and noted a few changes.

Food stocks at Tesco better, with no shortages of the things we needed, and most stock looks to be high. All good there then.

Now the bad signs:

Very few people wearing either gloves or masks compared to my last trip.

Most shoppers only seemed to by buying small amounts, a carrier bag or two's worth, suggesting more frequent shopping trips.

More instances in store of members of the public being far less bothered with the '2 metre social distancing' rule, or following the one-way system around the store.

More instances of couples rather than lone shoppers, even some with their young children in tow.

More cars on the road in general - this was between 10:30 and 12:00am.

—————

Worrying trends, given that daily cases in the UK are still being reported at over 4000 a day, and recorded hospital deaths are still high (last 24 hours 360).


This is not the time to be complacent, and the virus will take advantage of any weakness in the strategy to control it.

[Bealman]

I tend to agree.

Several restrictions are being lifted here over the course of the coming week, and Australia's virus statistics are much lower than the UK's.

Economies and peoples' livelihoods have of course to be taken into account, but I would prefer governments to err on the side of caution rather than rush into this.

[Skyline2uk]

More instances of couples rather than lone shoppers, even some with their young children in tow.

This is a key point that has to be covered. There are far too many "grey areas" in the advice / laws in the U.K. for my liking and it's causing problems.

I agree with @daffy in that couples with children should not all go shopping now. I am certainly going shopping on my own for the entire household.

HOWEVER

Having a close family friend "shamed" by a store worker because as a single mother she has NO CHOICE but take her young daughter with her REALLY gets me 

Judging people without knowing circumstances is plain wrong. We are all really "in it" right now and the last thing anybody needs is some jobsworth having a pop.

Be kind and safe.

Skyline2uk

[port perran]

It's certainly getting busier around here.
For a few weeks the lane at the bottom of our road was very quiet. The last week has seen a significant increase in the amount of traffic going by.
One thing I noticed in Morrison's last week was the huge increase in the amount of employees acting as "pickers" for home deliveries and clicK and collect. We counted a good dozen (probably more) all with extra big trollies really getting in the way of us ordinary shoppers and generally making life difficult in trying to social distance from them. Incidentally none were wearing gloves or masks.
It seems to me a good idea to employ the pickers when the store is closed.

[Mr Sprue]

Out of the house at 07:30 this morning for the rat run to Tesco Metro. Our local store isn't massive but is still quite big and stocks pretty much all what we require.

I've found early Tuesday or Wednesday mornings the best time to go. Today I estimated about 8 shoppers in there, which makes things a lot easier for social distancing as most still seem to be ignoring this government order!

Mrs Sprue has done an excellent job with food management, limiting my trip to the store down to just once every 10 days.

When the lockdown was imposed we decided that only one of us goes out for provisions to hopefully limit the risk, which I was volunteered to do. Its only when you get involved with shopping you begin to realise what the other half has to put up with every week.

Filling that trolley up and bagging up the goods has made me really appreciate this task she does and one that I have taken so much for granted! 

[Bealman]

A positive outcome, then. 

[Mr Sprue]

A positive outcome, then. 

I think that would be an understatement! 

[The Q]

One thing I noticed in Morrison's last week was the huge increase in the amount of employees acting as "pickers" for home deliveries and clicK and collect. We counted a good dozen (probably more) all with extra big trollies really getting in the way of us ordinary shoppers and generally making life difficult in trying to social distance from them. Incidentally none were wearing gloves or masks.
It seems to me a good idea to employ the pickers when the store is closed.

Most companies the majority of the picking is done when the store is quiet but the huge increase in demand has meant this is not possible. 
For instance Tescos pre virus maximum of click and deliver was 560,000 orders per day,  it's now over a million and with expected expansion of the service to be 1.2 million orders per day in a couple of weeks.

Outside  London some of the companies have non customer stores only used for click and deliver.

[Trainfish]

I've never known supermaket shopping to be so enjoyable. With my wife being an NHS nurse it means she goes at 'special' times and I'm not allowed to go. Plus she gets 10% off at Morrisons for being NHS. I've never had it so good!

[themadhippy]

Very few people wearing either gloves or masks compared to my last trip.

Wonder how many glove wearers wash or disinfect there gloves between  use? I refuse to use morrisons since the cashier couldn't/ wouldnt  clean or change there gloves between customers.

[gc4946]

In vulnerable NHS category due to (mild, well under control) asthma, I'm fortunate my employer asked all but about 60 staff (fortunately not me!) to work from home.
I'm still going out for early morning daily exercise and essential shopping trips - that's OK according to Asthma UK's website.
However people have criticised me for not travelling far - I haven't used public transport for about 5 weeks and the furthest I've been since lockdown has been about 1/2 mile radius from home on foot.
Fortunately I have a wide choice of medium sized supermarkets and mini convenience stores where I don't need to stand in a queue for long! 
My nearest Iceland store has the 5-6 pm slot exclusively available for NHS staff

[Trainfish]

My nearest Iceland store has the 5-6 pm slot exclusively available for NHS staff

I send the wife there too especially for shrimps 

[daffy]

Very few people wearing either gloves or masks compared to my last trip.

Wonder how many glove wearers wash or disinfect there gloves between  use? I refuse to use morrisons since the cashier couldn't/ wouldnt  clean or change there gloves between customers.

Evidently a lot of people don't wash the gloves. They just chuck up on the car park floor where they were parked.

I have three masks my wife made, and that's one to wear, one to wash, and one kept in the car in case I forget to take one with me.

[Dorsetmike]

I got a pack of 300 plastic gloves, gave half to a mate, keep some in the car, new pair going into Tescos or other shop bin them when I get home. Amazon had masks listed but reviews were dire and delivery was about 4 to 5 weeks so didn't bother, I only go out when I run out of milk, usually 8 or 9 days, plus a couple of runs to collect some gardening stuff, paid for over phone; on one run the stuff was heavy bags of compost, so he said open the back and get back in the car which I did and he loaded it for me.

[Newportnobby]

Tesco shopping quite civilized this morning, apart from the usual dolts who can't read directional arrows. Got everything needed for Mum and self apart from Vitamin D tablets which were completely sold out.

My nearest Iceland store has the 5-6 pm slot exclusively available for NHS staff

I send the wife there too especially for shrimps 

How frequent are the flights?