Fights in supermarkets

DazedAndConfusedByLife
I have seen two sides of this.
Locally our Coop and Tesco give the sell-by dated food at Christmas to the Homeless organisation.
Some years ago I worked for a very famous Charity and we were given the sell-by dated food from one of the up-market supermarkets every Friday. I often had to drive to the central place to pick it up. The Managers used to cream off anything good for themselves. It made me feel ill. I did not stay at this job. It was about 30 years ago though.

Greciangirl Thu 26-Dec-19 11:10:43
I couldn’t find a Christmas pudding in several shops, they seem to be sold out just about everywhere.

Same here Grecian Girl. I eventually found some small ones in Morrisons. My daughter told me shops weren't stocking them anymore because no one liked them. Nooo. When I asked, they HAD sold out. So much for her theory.

My friend used to work in Sainsburys, and one Christmas, a very haughty lady said to him in a peremptory manner: " Give me some tongue!"
He couldn't resist crossing his eyes and waggling his tongue at her, and ended up being severely reprimanded by the manager, although even he had trouble keeping a straight face!

My DIL is working in the Co-op today and has some desperate customers in looking for turkeys and pigs in blankets, which have all gone. But no fights - yet.

I work in our local Tesco on the deli counter and after we had done the reductions on Christmas eve there were a couple of men fighting over them because one of them "pushed in "It's really pathetic there was plenty of food to be shared .

Some Tesco tills were not working - I went to a small Tesco where just one was not working and it was a complete nightmare.

I thought the posher and more expensive shops such as Waitrose and M&S were meant to attract a better class of customer!

Aye, the Spirit of Christmas. Alive and well unless you work in retail or catering. This is the time of year I definitely do not miss my work.

i shopped in Asda at 4 am xmas eve and apart from a few staff and around five customers, it was bliss. i did once see two women fighting in a shop queue who was first, really? i couldn't be bothered

Our local Aldi gives their perishable food to the Christian Fellowship on Christmas Eve for distribution amongst the needy, I saw it mentioned by them on Facebook and just to turn up to the local town's theatre for it to be given out. They had turkeys, veg and Christmas Puds to give away. I did wonder how many people turning up there actually fit the criteria or were just first to jump in their car! <world-weary cynic>

My local Tesco and other major supermarkets start displaying 'Christmas' ie puds/ chocs/cakes etc from September.We only have ourselves to blame if come xmas eve we find they have run out.Not everyone hangs on hoping come xmas eve these items will be half price.

Apparently fights in a Tesco car park here. I don't go near shops from t!he 23 rd Dec and hate the grabbing at sales so have always avoided them. There is absolutely no pleasure in last minute shopping for me and never has been. I can't and won't leave things to the last minute. We have 365 days to prepare for Christmas why oh why do people leave it to the last minute????

I think it is better for shops to run out of items of food rather than be left with an excess that has to be destroyed as often happens....

I couldn’t find a Christmas pudding in several shops, they seem to be sold out just about everywhere.

Usually I can find them after Christmas at a reduced price.
Will have to hunt further afield.

Theres a supermarket near me where fights and arguments seem to be the norm. Its also known that the place s targeted by thieves. I suspect that many of the fights are to distract customers and security staff

Jane10 - having worked in customer service for over 10 years , I am not surprised at what your friend has to deal with.
My boss always used to say that it can't be taken personally, but that is a little hard when you are sworn at, or they are nearly climbing over the desk towards you, yelling at you and pointing at you saying that it is your fault that you can't magic up an item that has been out of stock for weeks or you no longer sell!
One of the local supermarkets regularly has to call police when fights break out over the reduced section - there apparently is a Facebook group, that publicises when the store is reducing items.

I popped into our local Morrisons on Christmas Eve, for dil veggies! not me! however I did want a couple of "bottles" for friend of gs... last minute decision.

lovely assistants,,very helpful,,, and then I decided I wanted some fudge for ds,, and a gentleman, yes, he was a gentleman looked on the shelves for me, as they were blocked with "stacking" ... couldn`t see any, so I wandered 2 or 3 aisles down, he came after me having found some fudge somewhere else, and took me and showed me!!

everyone was happy, well everyone was pleasant at our local Morrisons.

She had probably had a pig of a day and the lack of sprouts was simply the last straw.

My friend works in the checkout at M&S. She's a lovely, kind, quiet Japanese lady. She gets very upset when there is trouble between customers in her queue and especially when they take out their frustration on her. It's not her fault if the shop runs out of certain items or there's some other problem. She takes it all to heart. It's hard to believe anyone would behave in the ways she tells me about.

It's probably just as well I do my grocery shopping online. I'm told I channelled a very aggressive form of Margot Leadbetter the Christmas Eve my Chantenay carrots failed to arrive.

All quiet in our M & S food on Sunday- plenty of everything and the pre order service worked well.

I once saw a woman burst into tears in M & S on Christmas Eve because they had sold out of sprouts!

I can’t think of anything that would be worth a fight over certainly not food

The fights are few and far between and only hit the headlines because it is Christmas.

Best recommendation, I know of, to avoid shopping on Christmas Eve.

Well they do get paid to be punctual and efficient AuntieFlo

I give the sales a wide berth now, can't be doing with all the hustle and jostle. I used to love them when I was younger and fitter.