UK - Resources for help getting food during quarantine and other supermarket related problems

Arnie Pye said:
One thing I haven't been able to get hold of for weeks is eggs. I haven't seen any for sale for nearly a month. Nor have I seen pasta for weeks. I can live reasonably happily without pasta, but having no eggs has created a lot of problems for me, in terms of the food I usually eat.
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Eggs seem to be available where I live, but that might be due to there being a lot produced locally. In my village the farmer leaves them on a wall with an 'honesty box' for payment. This was before the coronavirus, so I'm not sure if they've had to be more restrictive with them now.

Have you tried local farm shops and butchers, or is this not possible? I've noticed my local ones are now offering home delivery and/or collection from outside their shops.
 
I'm back home in Liverpool now. Missing my views of Snowdon!

We knew our butcher did home deliveries, but OH used to pop in when he did a Sainsbury's shop on Thursday/Friday/Saturday mornings so he could get something to roast on Sunday and other meat to eat in the week. Never used their delivery service.

So today he checked their website, and they are doing the only let 2 people into the shop thing, but they are encouraging people to phone them to make an order. Took several tries, but once our order made (paid by credit/debit card) they said it would be delivered within the hour. Might have been marginally over the hour, but it did arrive really fast. Left on doorstep, they rang bell, van outside for a few minutes.

Might be worth checking out your local butchers to see if they do something similar? OH has been visiting this butcher for years in person, but nobody checked if he was previous customer. I think they do eggs (which I see some people are having problems accessing) though we didn't order as we still have a few in, and possibly cheese as well. Dunno if there was a minimum order - guess most places are likely to have that, but given the cost of meat it won't be impossible to meet. :rolleyes:

We bought a small piece of beef to roast on Sunday, apple and pork sausages, and some lambs liver (to have with onions and bacon on Saturday). They were out of lambs kidneys, but they often are. (we eat liver or kidneys once a week when we can - with bacon and fried potatoes and fried onions, or sometimes with mash and onion gravy. Plus veg of course)

Just thought I'd mention in case any others of you have a local butcher prepared to deliver.

We're still on the hunt for local veggies, hoping there'll be some that deliver coming online soon.
 
Arnie Pye said:
I live in the centre of a fairly large town - no butchers or farm shops exist in my area at all. I wish they did.
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I'm very sorry to hear that @Arnie Pye. We live in the suburbs of Liverpool. No farm shops here either. Across the Mersey on The Wirral it's different (My dear now dead Mother in Law in West Kirby used to visit Farm Shops some years ago).

Just was trying to make the suggestion that sometimes local shops, whether butchers or others, might be prepared to deliver. It wouldn't surprise me if more local independent shops start offering deliveries just to try and keep themselves afloat. I hope that you can find some local deliveries. Or can get a decent supermarket delivery soon.

This is off topic, but might give you a smile. My Grandfather used to be the delivery boy for his dad's business - a bakery in Wales. He delivered by pony and cart to the Big Houses in the area, which is how he met my GrandMother! She was a Ladies Maid in one of those Big Houses. Random meetings and without that I wouldn't be here!
 
I sent the following email to Dave Lewis CEO of Tesco

[/Dear Mr Lewis,

I am contacting you as there seems to be no other way of contacting Tesco at the moment. I have tried to contact Tesco by both telephone and email but have been unsuccessful.

I am a longstanding customer of Tesco having had my groceries delivered by Tesco for the last 18 years. I am also housebound and severely disabled with the neurological condition ME/CFS. I live alone without support and am completely reliant on having all my groceries delivered.

I have a delivery booked with Tesco next week, which I booked a fortnight ago, but every time I have checked since there are no more delivery slots to book in the following weeks. None of the other supermarkets have any delivery slots available in my area either and I am becoming increasingly worried about how I am going to obtain food after next week.

In emails I have received from you and on the Tesco website it says that priority is being given to vulnerable customers to book delivery slots but it does not say how these are being identified or what vulnerable people like myself should do. I understand that some of the supermarkets are going to be using the Government's list of people clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus to try and identify vulnerable shoppers, The problem with this is that it only identifies people with a very restrictive list of qualifying conditions not vulnerable people in general so many people like myself are not going to be given priority by the supermarkets for delivery slots. I have written to my MP, Clive Betts, who is in the process of writing to the Government to highlight the limitations of the scheme being used by supermarkets to identify vulnerable shoppers.

I have attached a copy of my disability benefits award as proof of vulnerability and I would be most grateful if someone at Tesco could register me as vulnerable in your system so that I might be given priority access to delivery slots.

I also attach a copy of a letter from a number of ME charities together with MP's and peers with a particular interest in ME which highlights the wider problem.

]
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I received the following reply back
[/
Thank you for contacting us.

I am very sorry you've been unable to book delivery slots for online shopping recently. I fully understand how frustrating this must be for you during this extraordinary time.

We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation, where we need to react very quickly to changes in circumstances for our customers and colleagues. We know this is a very challenging time and we are listening to our customers and government announcements to meet as many of our customers’ needs as possible.

We appreciate that slots are being booked up very quickly just now and we're looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available. By introducing a limit of 80 items per online order, we’ll be able to get more orders onto each van, helping us to ensure all customers can get the essentials they need. As we increase our capacity, we'll also set aside more of these slots for our most vulnerable customers. We hope to be able to share more information about this shortly.

We ask any customer who is able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so that we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.

All of our available slots will show online. The timing of slots being released will vary, depending on your location, so we encourage you to keep checking the website.

I hope this information helps and thank you for persevering with us during this exceptional time.
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So basically a complete waste of precious energy. I've sent a similar one to Mike Coupe at Sainsbury's but I'm not hopeful.
 
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I've also written to my local Tesco store and Sainsbury's store with a copy of my PIP award and the letter from the AFME website asking to be flagged up as vulnerable in their system.

I've signed up to the Govt list but have heard nothing.

There are no slots at all with any of the supermarkets in my area and I've checked frequently at different times of day. Sainsbury's still keeps saying I haven't been identified as vulnerable. If this doesn't work I'm going to have to start staying up until midnight everyday to try and get a slot although ASDA keeps reducing how far ahead you can book - 3 weeks down to 2 weeks last week and now down to only a week ahead.
 
Hi @meg22 thank you for trying the Tesco chief. That reply is patronising waffle, and I suspect is a standard reply being sent to everyone. I hope you have more luck with your local store manager, though i suspect you will get a standard reply from them too.
 
Yes @Trish that's what I thought as well. What's more annoying is that I had a marketing email form Tesco early in the week which says this:
[We want to help as many people as possible who truly need our delivery service, so we have deliberately not restricted new online customers. We hope our existing online customers understand our approach, in these challenging circumstances.]

.
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So new able-bodied customers who have never shopped online at Tesco before are welcomed with open arms but their longstanding vulnerable disabled customers who rely on their deliveries can go whistle
 
meg22 said:
Yes @Trish that's what I thought as well. What's more annoying is that I had a marketing email form Tesco early in the week which says this:


So new able-bodied customers who have never shopped online at Tesco before are welcomed with open arms but their longstanding vulnerable disabled customers who rely on their deliveries can go whistle
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On that note; I'm off to register at tesco... :whistle:
 
Turns out I already had an account and had no idea :woot: Then managed to lock myself out of it as I had no idea what the password was. All sorted now :thumbup: Literally have no memory of signing up to tesco in the past, this was the shop where my mam used to do my shopping from, back in the olden days lol.

Eta: this has my mind boggled!!!! Apparently I opened the account back when I was still living with my parents over 12 years ago!!!! And the delivery address is their address and home phone number.

Another very boggling thing... One of my alternate delivery addresses is for my friend in Scotland! Lol o_O
 
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WOW I just had a phone call from someone at Sainsbury's Executive Office. They are going to flag me up as vulnerable in their system!!! He's also sent me an email and said to contact him if I have any further problems. So my email to Mike Coupe worked!!

I think I'm going to be moving my custom from Tesco to Sainsbury's in future!
 
We are very lucky. A lot of local businesses have adapted by taking orders via phone/ social media and delivering.
Two large wholesalers, who have seen their restaurant and pub trade collapse are doing domestic deliveries. Min order on one of £40, but can split with neighbours.

There is a local volunteer service for those housebound for food and prescriptions etc.

I have had a farm shop veg box ( not all items dut to overnight 200% increase in demand), but they are working with other local suppliers to ramp up next week.

I get meat delivered anyway , but butchers and farm shop butcher delivering.

Even the bakers has a delivery service !

I just hope some of the new customers continue their support when this comes to an end
 
50% of 2 places that I have tried in the last month have eggs 33% of the time.

Iceland has none, Sainsburys have some some of the time.

Farm shops seem not to be an option here (East Anglia) - there are a few but the ones that have sites don't allow ordering or give prices. Their market is primarily people with cars and whilst one will deliver they require that the phone is used and the order will be couriered, or left outside their premises in a box, for pickup by a courier, once payment has been made over the phone.

My substitutes email from sainsburys has arrived - I'm only getting 2L of milk (out of the 4 I ordered) but at least it's filtered so should keep. Eggs, meat, basic white bread and potatoes I can have, they've given me 1kg of white flour (so I could make sauces, if they'd have given me enough milk), I'm not allowed rolls or english muffins (to put around a burger) - I'm getting crumpets which should be entertaining. Kidneys beans and chopped tomatoes are back in stock, and I'm getting bonus rice and pasta (e.g. 1Kg of rice ordered, 2Kg bag turning up). It looks like they may have recovered some stocks of tinned stuff (I didn't order much, just enough to replace what I've used, but it looks like it's all arriving).

I am fairly chuffed that not only did I remember to order frozen pastry (I'd normally make it, but no flour), but that it's being delivered - as I've kept forgetting to order it.

No cleaning stuff, let alone antibac,this is probably over a month now that I've been ordering it and not getting any.
 
meg22 said:
WOW I just had a phone call from someone at Sainsbury's Executive Office. They are going to flag me up as vulnerable in their system!!! He's also sent me an email and said to contact him if I have any further problems. So my email to Mike Coupe worked!!

I think I'm going to be moving my custom from Tesco to Sainsbury's in future!
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I'm still waiting for Sainsburys to flag me up as vulnerable, so I may try your approach with them.

I noticed that they said they are going to cross-reference the government list with customers who have shopped with them in the past, but didn't specify whether these customers needed to have used their online service. I do use Sainsbury's at least once a month in store (as my Nectar card should show) as my prescriptions go to the pharmacy there (they are out of town and have a large car park with plenty of disabled parking available). This monthly outing leads to several days PEM, but causes me less problems/illness than having my prescriptions irregularly delivered by the local pharmacy!

However, I've been using Tesco for my weekly home delivery as my local Sainsburys only offers a very restricted choice for delivery compared to what is available in store or via click and collect. I'll give them a few days to see if they pick me up with their cross-referencing and if they haven't, email them with my PIP evidence and the letter the NHS sent to my daughter.
 
meg22 said:
WOW I just had a phone call from someone at Sainsbury's Executive Office. They are going to flag me up as vulnerable in their system!!! He's also sent me an email and said to contact him if I have any further problems. So my email to Mike Coupe worked!!

I think I'm going to be moving my custom from Tesco to Sainsbury's in future!
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:)

Definitely a positive sign - I sent him an email a few days ago and haven't heard anything yet, but at least I now know they are reading them :thumbup:

(I didn't supply a phone number, only an email)
 
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