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

Arnie Pye said:
I'm beginning to think I've forgotten ordering something. I jumped to the conclusion when I received the text that it was something to do with food parcels because of the wording that was used.
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Was the text from superfood? Or the courier/Royal Mail? As courier texts usually don’t name the customer but companies we’ve bought from often do
 
I'm not sure if these have been posted anywhere but there are some replies now to the APPG letter on meresearch website.

This helpful one from Tesco:

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Dear Sonya,

Thank you for your email and for sharing the concerns of the adults, children and young people you support who have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Dave has asked me to reply on his behalf.

We know that it’s difficult right now to get a delivery slot for online shopping due to high demand. We’re looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available and to help support those most in need, including recruiting 8,000 new colleagues in driving roles, and training them as fast as we can. We’ve already expanded our Home Delivery and Click & Collect capacity to around 780,000 delivery slots this week, up from 660,000 two weeks ago, with plans to increase this by another 100,000 in the coming weeks. As we increase our capacity, we will also set aside more of these slots for our most vulnerable customers.

As you will be aware, the Government has asked our industry to help people that they have identified as particularly vulnerable and who don’t have their own support network. We will prioritise orders for these people and we will be in touch with them by email, as we receive the list from the Government.

We will continue to look at every way to increase our delivery capacity, and we are also continuing to ask those customers who are 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. As part of this, we are asking customers who may be able to shop in store to ‘think before you click’.

In response to your question about our priority shopping times, we have introduced a priority shopping hour for vulnerable or elderly customers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am. This priority hour is available for all vulnerable customers, so we are extremely sorry to hear your feedback that some of those you support have been unable to access the stores during these hours. I have shared this feedback with colleagues, and we continue to do everything we can to ensure that these hours run as smoothly as possible and enable vulnerable and elderly customers to shop in store.

At Tesco we also participate in the sunflower lanyard scheme, which helps customers with hidden disabilities subtly identify themselves to our colleagues. If those you support have such a lanyard they may find it useful to wear it if they are visiting one of our stores, so that colleagues can understand that they may require extra assistance. The lanyards are available in stores at our customer service desks.

Kind regards,

Andrew

Andrew Marshall

Government Relations Manager

Group Legal

]
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One from Iceland:

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Dear Sonya,


Thank you for your letter of 27 March to our CEO Tarsem Dhaliwal, who has asked me to reply on his behalf.

We are doing our very best to reserve all our online delivery slots for the elderly, vulnerable, and people who are self-isolating; our website now features a pop-up asking customers to confirm that they fall into one of these categories before they can place an online order. Clearly those unable to leave their homes because of M.E./C.F.S. fall into the ‘vulnerable’ category.

As with all other online retailers, we are conscious that demand for our service currently exceeds supply, but we are working hard to increase the number of online delivery slots available. We have recruited several thousand additional store assistants and home delivery drivers in the last two weeks to achieve this, and expect to see a significant improvement in the availability of our online delivery service in the days and weeks ahead.

The priority shopping period for elderly and vulnerable customers in our Iceland stores was always offered at the discretion of individual store managers, who best understand the needs of their local communities and are also the best judges of their ability to enforce a priority period effectively. There have regrettably been far too many instances in which our store colleagues have been subjected to abuse, intimidation and even physical assaults by able-bodied members of the public unwilling to respect the advertised priority period. In the light of this, and the Government’s advice that elderly and vulnerable people should remain in their homes, there has been a significant reduction in the number of Iceland stores offering this priority period in the last week, and customers should check with their local store.

All our 121 The Food Warehouse stores across the UK currently do offer a priority shopping period for elderly and vulnerable people from 8am to 9am each day, and can be located via this website: https://www.thefoodwarehouse.com

We have always urged colleagues to show compassion and recognise that people may have hidden disabilities when seeking entry to stores during priority shopping periods, though if people affected by M.E./C.F.S. are able to download and carry a document demonstrating that they are indeed in need of access to these periods it might prove helpful to them.

Best wishes

Keith

Keith Hann Director of Corporate Affairs

]
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and from M&S:

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Dear Sonya,


Thank you very much for emailing Steve Rowe about our special opening hours. I work in our Executive team and I am replying on Steve's behalf.

I am grateful to you for writing and sharing your ideas on how we could be supporting some of our most vulnerable customers. The health and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues is our main priority, and our colleagues across the business are working tirelessly to serve our customers, support our colleagues and our communities.

After reading your email, I have been liaising with the right colleagues in the business and I can confirm that the customers you have described in your email, would be able to visit our stores during the special opening hours for our vulnerable customers. You have mentioned that you have downloadable resource that could be provided to our store colleagues, but if it helped to reassure everyone, a copy of my email could also be provided if questioned.

I note your suggestion to include these customers in our priority access group of our online services; however, this service is currently specific to Sparks customers and offers priority access to events we may run throughout the year.

I hope my response will help all of our customers that contact Action For Me and I wish you and all of your wonderful colleagues well during this extremely difficult time.

Thank you again for getting in touch with Steve and our team.

Kind regards

Lindsay Poole Executive Team Your M&S Customer Service

]
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Also this today from Tesco on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52211912

[

Coronavirus: Tesco tells people to visit stores to get food

Tesco has said that most food will still need to be purchased in-store amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The supermarket giant said it wasn't able to meet demand as more shoppers stay at home, despite the fact it has increased its online grocery shopping capacity by more than 20%.

It said in the first weeks of the virus, there was "significant panic buying", with sales up almost a third.

Tesco said that had now subsided with food stocks "returning to normal".

"Between 85% and 90% of all food bought will require a visit to a store and here significant changes to the store environment have been implemented to maximise safety for colleagues and customers," chief executive Dave Lewis said.


The chain said it would continue to try and "prioritise home delivery for the most vulnerable in society".
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Referring to my posts from yesterday about the mystery parcel that I was promised by text... What can I say? :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I went and checked my order page on Amazon and there it was... I ordered two boxes of teabags ages ago, and because both my husband and I had ordered a few things since then the teabag order had slipped down the list and been completely forgotten. The text about the parcel had nothing to do with being vulnerable or not, and it wasn't a generic food parcel. It was just teabags... :facepalm:

I used to be able to get these specific teabags from Tesco but they stopped stocking them, so I decided to buy them online.

My memory sucks...
 
From Scotland's daily briefing 8th April, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister said this:

'We don't want anybody to be falling through the net'

"Outside the shielded group, there is a bigger group of vulnerable people who are not necessarily in that category but still require assistance," says the first minister.

"They may be older people or have other health conditions that are not in the shielded group.

"Over the last few days we have been doing work to put in place a service for them, if they don't have friends or family that can help.

"We don't want anybody to be falling through the net."

Don't know any more details
 
Someone from my local ME group posted this online this afternoon - I've not tried it yet myself but apparently it does work:
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Tesco's are now offering priority slots to people with ME (and therefore 'vulnerable' as a neurological condition), don't have anybody to do their shopping for them and have an account with them.

There's a number on their website. A bit of a wait on the phone to get registered, but once you are you get access to reserved slots which appear to be a couple of weeks apart.

I registered yesterday and have a delivery coming tomorrow, including hot cross buns in the nick of time for Good Friday. Marvellous!
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Wonko said:
Those in the 'vulnerable' or 'at risk' categories who have been told they should 'self isolate' and get shopping delivered, for at least 12 weeks. Not full on 'shielded' people as these 'should' be in the 'extremely vulnerable' category - but all of the ones that were told that if they are offered a flu shot then they should not go out, at all, for at least 12 weeks, when this started.
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Were they? My caree qualifies on that basis, but hasn't been notified of anything :(

My not-so-local Sainsbury's (which I visit because the local one is a no-no for various reasons I won't bother going into) let me down badly tonight. I had to queue so long I only got in maybe 15 minutes before it closed. So they announced the store was closing and would we all make our way to the tills. I went for the small self-service ones (2 tightly packed rows of 3, with 3 on one side and the central one on the other side deactivated), to leave the conveyor belts to the people with more shopping, put my stuff down to mark my place and then realised I hadn't got milk, which was just a few yards along the aisle. When I got back, I found some woman with a trolley had inserted herself in the queue in front of me :( - she went and grabbed the till at the far end, leaving me with the one closest to the queue.

I scanned my shopping, apart from one reduced item which the machine didn't want to scan, so I had to get a member of staff over to do it. He wasn't wearing gloves, and put his fingers all over the item while he was doing so, so I hope his hands were as clean as they should have been. Then in order to get everyone through as quickly as possible another staff member decided to activate the corresponding tills on the opposite row (think the "4" on standard dice), which I was reasonably fine with - it was possibly not quite 2 metres between each, but probably near enough if you weren't going to be there for long. Then she went and activated the two middle ones as well! So they now correspond to the "6" on a dice. 3 small till units right next to each other on each side: I was almost knocking heads with the woman at the adjacent till as she took her shopping out of the basket while I was putting my purchases into my bag. Social distancing? What's that?! I was appalled at the possible risk they were exposing their customers to. I only hope she (and I) didn't have the virus, as we were effectively sharing breathing space. Completely irresponsible.
 
meg22 said:
Someone from my local ME group posted this online this afternoon - I've not tried it yet myself but apparently it does work:
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Really? They are actually acknowledging people with ME? Is it just any contact phone number? Or a special one? I have no idea when I’ll be able into make the call but I really don’t want to be queuing for hours in a wrong phone queue. I’m currently psyching myself up for the 2-3 hour phone queue on Monday to ring in my prescription at my docs :(

If Tesco’s really are prioritising people with ME, I think they should automatically shoot to the top of the popularity contest above all others :trophy@
 
Wits_End said:
Were they? My caree qualifies on that basis, but hasn't been notified of anything :(
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It was all over the TV for about a week.

Those with some pre-existing conditions are 'vulnerable, and 'at risk' of more serious consequences requiring hospitalisation if they contact the virus, should remain inside for at least 12 weeks.

How do you tell if you're one of those people?

If you are offered a flu shot, says various governement people, and dragged in 'experts'..

They talked about virtually nothing else on bbc news24, and various sofas, for about a week.
 
Hell..hath..no..fury... said:
Really? They are actually acknowledging people with ME? Is it just any contact phone number? Or a special one? I have no idea when I’ll be able into make the call but I really don’t want to be queuing for hours in a wrong phone queue. I’m currently psyching myself up for the 2-3 hour phone queue on Monday to ring in my prescription at my docs :(

If Tesco’s really are prioritising people with ME, I think they should automatically shoot to the top of the popularity contest above all others :trophy@
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I woke early this morning so decided o try it out and rang just gone 7am when I thought the lines might be quieter. I tried the normal contact number on their website but got a recorded message again and then cut off. I then found this number 0800 917 7359 on their website - they've set up a special helpline which is for people on the Govt list OR existing customers who can't safely shop in store.

I rang and after a 10 minute wait got through. I explained that I had a neurological condition and that I was reliant on home deliveries. The conversation was a bit muddled if I'm honest as my brain wasn't working properly so early in the morning. I also said I thought I was on the Govt list and the woman checked but said I wasn't. (She had got my name wrong though and later couldn't find my Tesco account either!). I then explained that on the Tesco website it says that they are prioritising vulnerable people who can't get to a store and she then said she was going to ask me some questions. From memory these were: Had I been a customer before 6th April? Do I normally shop in store? Did I have anyone to help with my shopping? She then said that I would be put on Tesco's priority list and that it would taken 24hrs for slots to appear in my account.

The delivery slots are not like normal ones - they give you an 8hr window and then on the day they text you a 1hr slot - a bit like DPD deliveries.

So Tesco aren't specifically prioritising people with ME just vulnerable people who can't get to a store and you don't have to be on the Govt list either to be able to get priority access! I think they may have redeemed themselves a bit!!
 
meg22 said:
I woke early this morning so decided o try it out and rang just gone 7am when I thought the lines might be quieter. I tried the normal contact number on their website but got a recorded message again and then cut off. I then found this number 0800 917 7359 on their website - they've set up a special helpline which is for people on the Govt list OR existing customers who can't safely shop in store.

I rang and after a 10 minute wait got through. I explained that I had a neurological condition and that I was reliant on home deliveries. The conversation was a bit muddled if I'm honest as my brain wasn't working properly so early in the morning. I also said I thought I was on the Govt list and the woman checked but said I wasn't. (She had got my name wrong though and later couldn't find my Tesco account either!). I then explained that on the Tesco website it says that they are prioritising vulnerable people who can't get to a store and she then said she was going to ask me some questions. From memory these were: Had I been a customer before 6th April? Do I normally shop in store? Did I have anyone to help with my shopping? She then said that I would be put on Tesco's priority list and that it would taken 24hrs for slots to appear in my account.

The delivery slots are not like normal ones - they give you an 8hr window and then on the day they text you a 1hr slot - a bit like DPD deliveries.

So Tesco aren't specifically prioritising people with ME just vulnerable people who can't get to a store and you don't have to be on the Govt list either to be able to get priority access! I think they may have redeemed themselves a bit!!
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Thank you, that’s really helpful! Just need to be able to make that phone call now :banghead:
 
Haven't seen the fact that there is now a countrywide shortage of flour mentioned; online there is some speculation that this is due to people doing a lot of homebaking at the moment.
Coronavirus: Flour mills working 'round the clock' to meet demand
With the nation confined to their homes amid the coronavirus lockdown, a rise in home baking appears to be contributing to shortages of flour on supermarket shelves.

Grocery sales of flour were up 92% in the four weeks to 22 March compared to the same period last year, according to consumer analysts Kantar.

The National Association of British and Irish Millers (Nabim) says the industry is "working round the clock", milling flour 24 hours a day, seven days a week to double production - but is still struggling to meet demand.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52212760

this will probably have a knock on effect on availability of bread and other baked goods.

eta: even wholesalers supplying to trade seem to be out of stock.
 
Oh my god, I’ve done it. I have no idea how but I actually made the call. That was excruciating. It’ll take 24 hours to kick in. He asked if I can get to a shop myself, if I have anyone at all to help etc. I’m so relieved this is one of the few supermarkets I’ve had a long term account with.

Very important to say you have zero help, at all in any form. He said he had to turn a lady down who was starving because she had someone popping in once every 3 weeks.

Thanks so much for the heads up @meg22

Talk about timing. My chest freezer has just arrived too. Downstairs. May not be as essential now. Though saying that Tesco’s is still fully booked it seems for next few weeks so my frozen meals arriving next week will still be useful.

When/if this crisis ends, I’ll donate the freezer to someone who needs it.

ETA: The Tesco’s member of staff I spoke to said he was working from home sitting on the couch in his pyjamas :laugh:
 
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meg22 said:
I woke early this morning so decided o try it out and rang just gone 7am when I thought the lines might be quieter. I tried the normal contact number on their website but got a recorded message again and then cut off. I then found this number 0800 917 7359 on their website - they've set up a special helpline which is for people on the Govt list OR existing customers who can't safely shop in store.

I rang and after a 10 minute wait got through. I explained that I had a neurological condition and that I was reliant on home deliveries. The conversation was a bit muddled if I'm honest as my brain wasn't working properly so early in the morning. I also said I thought I was on the Govt list and the woman checked but said I wasn't. (She had got my name wrong though and later couldn't find my Tesco account either!). I then explained that on the Tesco website it says that they are prioritising vulnerable people who can't get to a store and she then said she was going to ask me some questions. From memory these were: Had I been a customer before 6th April? Do I normally shop in store? Did I have anyone to help with my shopping? She then said that I would be put on Tesco's priority list and that it would taken 24hrs for slots to appear in my account.

The delivery slots are not like normal ones - they give you an 8hr window and then on the day they text you a 1hr slot - a bit like DPD deliveries.

So Tesco aren't specifically prioritising people with ME just vulnerable people who can't get to a store and you don't have to be on the Govt list either to be able to get priority access! I think they may have redeemed themselves a bit!!
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Thanks for describing your experience of this service.

I signed up to the government list, and as previously discussed my daughter received a NHS shielding letter as my named carer. I have a delivery pass with Tesco (as the only supermarket in my area that delivers all of their in store items) but still haven't been recognised as requiring priority delivery. So I am going to ask my daughter to phone the telephone line on my behalf. I'll give an update when and if she succeeds!
 
Wow, that was good timing. I think someone’s looking over me today.

Ex arrived to help getting freezer up the stairs. It’s in huge polystyrene packaging and weighs a ton.

I literally have no idea how I would have helped him get it upstairs. It’s safe to say both me and the freezer would have been destroyed in the process.

I was standing at the top of the stairs and could hear him chatting to someone. It was a DPD driver. Who he knew and used to work with.

The DPD driver helped him carry it up and I shuffled it into my flat.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

I just hope the freezer is okay, the delivery men delivered it upside down and then rolled it to upright position when they dropped it off.

I’m going to leave the freezer wrapped in the corridor for now before I start the fun of deciding where the hell to put it :confused:
 
If it's been rolled, as in not kept top side up, then it's probably a good idea to leave it for several hours/overnight/to the turn of the century (delete depending on how bored you are and/or how big the puddle of defrosted stuff is) once it's been unpacked and is position.

Leaving it to sit in the hall for several days before unpacking it doesn't count - it's time since it was last moved that counts ;)

Or so everyone since the dawn of time keeps telling me.
 
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