Fights in supermarkets

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

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 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 .

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.

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!

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.

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.

Why can't people make their own pigs in blankets?

I’ve worked on the checkout and what people don’t think about is when they complain or have a moan at the cashier,there probably not the only one before them..your can only take so much

Don't think there would be any fights in Asda today. Only went in for a prescription but couldn't say no to the free veg on offer. Loads of carrots, broccoli and sprouts for nothing. They'd obviously over ordered. This was in Barnsley superstore but others may have done the same.

Most of the reduced items sit in the fridge to be thrown out later.
I never buy reduced unless it what I went into the shop to buy in the first place.
The quality in Tescos is not that great anymore.
Prefer to go to waitrose,m ands, Aldi.
We are getting quite greedy nowadays.
I prefer the crown to the whole bird.
In saying this I have never seen customers fighting over food but suppose it could be drinks as this plays a part in the build up to xmas

Merry Christmas to all the lovely ladies on here. I just looove to flick thru the banter here, so much more congenial than Mumsnet where they're always on one!
Ref the puds, back in 2018, we bought 4 x 454 gm puds/18 month Matured Puds from Aldi due to them being a "Good Housekeeping' Best Buy. Yesterday, doused with extra brandy, warmed in the micro, they did very well.
Figured if they can mature them for 18months then another 12 months won't hurt. Delish! Can fully recommend them as being, light, full of fruit, almonds and brandy. Not at all stodgy.
This year Aldi did pigsinblankets in a yard long ring, which sold out in days. They missed a trick there not having a larger stock level. Happy holidays

I have never seen any altercation in a supermarket. Not even a tussle over sprouts!

@Canalboatgranma Ironic that Wetherspoons were short of pigs in blankets. A lot of food suppliers rely heavily on immigrant labour (especially from the EU) and the owner of Wetherspoons backed Brexit big-time.

A few years ago now, but one Christmas Eve about 10 am in a well known supermarket shoppers were jostling and shouting as the sprouts section was empty. As assistant was trying to calm the situation explaining an assistant was trying to make his way through the store to fill up but customers were blocking the way. Folk did not want to listen and refused to move away in case they lost their space. Manager turned up and declared sprouts would now be located at entrance. Stampede to door and the assistant quietly filled up original area. Store announcement that sprouts were now available in vegetable aisle. Who says we don't like sprouts some looked as if they would kill for them!

That's exactly what I was thinking, CarlyD7

As to why people can't make their own pigs in blankets - I can, but choose not to. I can't be bothered if I can find them (which I did, very easily) ready made. Anyone working full-time and running a house will have even less time than I do. It's a strange question - a bit like asking why people 'can't' make their own clothes or cut their own hair.

No punch ups in Gerrards Cross but there were some looks and tuts.

?Same here Lily

My student granddaughter has a part-time job in Asda. Apparently some people will linger in the store for ages, waiting for the reductions to be done. She hates being told to do them, and has feared for her own safety, a few times, as people try to be first to grab things as she tries to re-price them. She says that they crowd in so closely that she has difficulty in getting the job done. Some people aren’t interested in ‘fair shares’ and take the entire stock of whatever they can get hold of - even things that are only suitable for use on that day. I wonder how many of the ‘grabbers’ are really in dire straits, and how many are just plain greedy.
The up side of her job is that she sometimes brings me leftover flowers. Even though they are supposedly out of date they still last at least a week, and usually cost her the princely sum of 10p!

One of the staff at the tesco near my old home told me about the issues they had with reduced food. She said they had various "regulars" who hung about waiting for bargains and would then grab as much as they could. One day she spotted one couple of regulars grabbing the food out of another ones trolley as fast as he was throwing it in! That incident apparently didn't end well.

I totally agree - not just at Christmas but any time. We all have so much now - smartphones and flat-screen TVs are commonplace, and there is so much food available that we waste it without thinking - that people get bogged down with trivialities, forgetting how damn lucky they are. The only thing worth fighting over would be the last package of gratitude - and like all the best things, it's freely available to everyone!

This reminds me of a Christmas long ago when I was in m&S and a lady was upset because the beetroot salad had run out because I heard her ask. A couple of minutes later she took one out of another ladies trolley as she turned around to get another item off the shelf!!

Shoppers were jostling and shouting as the sprouts section was empty
Dear me! How uncouth1
You'd never find gentlemen behaving like that because we know that deep-frozen sprouts are best for everything, available all year round, cheaper and not susceptible to seasonal price hikes. Give them a go!

*Some people aren’t interested in ‘fair shares’ and take the entire stock of whatever they can get hold of - even things that are only suitable for use on that day. I wonder how many of the ‘grabbers’ are really in dire straits, and how many are just plain greedy.
The up side of her job is that she sometimes brings me leftover flowers. Even though they are supposedly out of date they still last at least a week, and usually cost her the princely sum of 10p!*
You have answered your own question here. Things do not go off immediately on the sell-by date (the same as your flowers).

Also, reductions are not charitable donations to people in dire straights, and there are no 'fair shares'. They are a way for the store to recoup some cash instead of throwing them away because they are not allowed to sell them after they have reached their best-before or sell-by date. If they were intended as donations they would be given to a charity, as some stores do, not sold to customers who have every right to buy them.

I dread to think what would happen if there were a real food shortage.

This must have mindset is completely crazy. Would anyone’s family REALLY mind if there were no sprouts or pigs in blankets?

I wonder what our grandmothers would have to say about all this consumerism these days when they would have grown up in times of real hardship ?