Panic buying

[melmerby]

Asda order arrived.

Rice & pasta OK, salads OK, suitable subs for a few items, not perfect but pretty good. Better than I feared.

 

Went to an M&S food store earlier, to collect my Christmas pre-order, there was a long snaking queue outside (in the rain) but as I had a pre-order I could go straight in.

As far as I could see there were no shortages of anything, all the shelves and cabinets were well stocked, with such things as pasta, rice, eggs & milk in plentiful supply.

[Jol Wilkinson]

6 hours ago, adb968008 said:

The one critical shortage I had was Cadbury Flakes...

 

wot no flakes...

 

anywhere in south london Zone 5..

whats that all about.

I had to Amazon a box of 48 to me.

48 flakes was only a fiver more than the cost of buying 3 at the shop. (If they had them).
 

what am I going to do with 45 flakes ? - I only need 3 for the top of a trifle.

You could send the excess 45 Flakes to HMRC to compensate for the tax Amazon avoids paying.

[adb968008]

3 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

You could send the excess 45 Flakes to HMRC to compensate for the tax Amazon avoids paying.

I could, but then i’d need to declare it on my tax return as a gift.

Edited December 23, 2020 by adb968008

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

You could send the excess 45 Flakes to HMRC to compensate for the tax Amazon avoids paying.

Being pedantic, Amazon pays all the tax HMRC ask of it. If they want more they'll have to change their rules.

All companies, British & Multinational pay as little tax as they are required to do. That's what they have accountants for.

Even the one man band doesn't voluntarily pay tax, only what HMRC makes them.

[adb968008]

7 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Being pedantic, Amazon pays all the tax HMRC ask of it. If they want more they'll have to change their rules.

All companies, British & Multinational pay as little tax as they are required to do. That's what they have accountants for.

Even the one man band doesn't voluntarily pay tax, only what HMRC makes them.

Careful what you wish for.

 

Post Brexit control of tax borders, the easiest way by far to collect excess on Amazon is to increase VAT.. they can call it a level playing field too.

 

25% VAT ?

 

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Why are people panic buying lettuce? Have they found some magic way of keeping it frech?

[Pacific231G]

I think a lot of it this week has been people suddenly finding that their Christmas plans to go and visit family etc. are kyboshed so having to buy extra food. I had to do that for Chritmas lunch yesterday morning so drove down to the local Waitrose hoping to find something a bit more special than my usual weekly shop only to see a queue that stretched for over a hundred yards. Fortunately, the queue at Tesco was nothing like as bad and they were well stocked so Christmas lunch won't consist of baked beans on toast  

The only thing I've not been able to get for months is Vegemite (Marmite just isn't the same!)

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/eat/american-kids-react-to-vegemite/news-story/e42ab021c3612edf1dab5c0ca386578c

American kids can't stand it so it must be good!

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Pacific231G

[Pete the Elaner]

1 hour ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Why are people panic buying lettuce? Have they found some magic way of keeping it fresh?

 

People go crazy just before Christmas & they always have. We have 2 whole days off so obviously we need to buy enough for about 2 weeks. 

 

As a student, I used to work in Sainsbury's. The place got steadily busier throughout December & was absolute chaos on Christmas Eve. I can understand things like fresh turkey, fruit, veg, milk & bread but the amount of cleaning products people buy on Christmas Eve also goes through the roof.

[tomparryharry]

Panic! Panic! I just went out to do some last-minute panic buying, but the shops have run out of panics!

 

S.C. Rooge.

[Metr0Land]

I went to Tesco Carmarthen yesterday at 1:30pm.  The car park was busy but not manic.  Inside, much the same, busy but not panic. The only slight shortage I saw were milk, cream and eggs. 

 

The eggs weren't wiped out but much depleted, you could get some as long as you weren't fussy (just as well as I was out of eggs).  No double cream but plenty of single cream.  I normally get gold top milk for cereal and 2-pint bottles of blue top as that's what works best for storing in my fridge.  No gold top at all.  No blue top in 2pt bottles but there were 1pt bottles and 4pt bottles and 2pt bottles of organic blue top, which I bought.  Other milks seemed the same - you could get something but not all sizes.

 

Mostly it seemed to me like normal pre-Christmas topping up in trollies.  Most people had smaller trollies, quite well filled.  Checkouts were good.  All checkouts open and never more than 2 queueing plus the person actually getting checked out.  All in all not bad for late pre-Xmas fresh shopping.

[big jim]

Dropped My 16yr old off at the butchers where he is an apprentice this morning and the queue there was right down the street with people collecting their Christmas orders, he’s put the hours in this last couple of weeks taking and making up the various orders, been getting lots of overtime but coming home knackered, he said ‘I can see why you sleep so much’ to me last night! 
 

we’ve had no issues with ‘panic buying’ as we have used doms butchers, local farm shops and Lidl earlier in the week for essentials, it’s a strange one tomorow anyway as I’m in work at 15:00 to 02:00 so won’t be getting a Christmas dinner anyway

[ejstubbs]

9 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

drove down to the local Waitrose hoping to find something a bit more special than my usual weekly shop only to see a queue that stretched for over a hundred yards.

 

Seems to be a Waitrose thing: my sister-in-law reported the same about her local Waitrose (one of only two in Edinburgh, and six in the whole of Scotland!) at lunchtime a few days ago.  She went to Sainsbury's  at 6am the next day and reported it to be deathly quiet.

 

I did have to queue for about 20 minutes this morning to pick up our order (i.e. not a panic buy) of a brace of pheasant but that's probably to be expected for a specialist butcher on Christmas Eve.  That was the queue for collection of orders.  There was no queue at all for normal counter service!

[APOLLO]

Tesco Wigan 9pm last night. We went for a Turkey & other bits n bobs. Car park / shop not too busy, no queues, no shortages, no restrictions, quite a good experience for a change. Got everything on list plus a bit more.

 

And that's it. All shopping done, Nice but cold sunny day. I'll wash the cars and have a tipple tonight.

 

Looks like a Brexit deal done - even though I voted out this is good news - we need a deal. We all have to give and take a bit.

 

Lets get this Covid under control worldwide and hope for better things next year.

 

Have a happy Christmas all.

 

Brit15

[woodenhead]

Yesterday afternoon I ventured out for the final bits of stuff before settling down for a long weekend, just a few fresh items like salad and fruit - oh and Caramac items, these were on the must have list for Mrs W as she currently is unable to eat chocolate due to some medication.

 

Went to Tesco, Home Bargains, B&M Bargains, Quality Save, Big Iceland, Aldi, Poundland and Sainsburys, none of these shops were overly busy, no queuing and no grumpiness.  Note please, it was the need to source Caramac that drove me to all these places not me buying a few fresh items!!

 

I was expecting it to be busier but I am left wondering where has all the Caramac based confectionary gone - I was lucky to find bars in Sainsbury so I stocked up plus some packs of Breakaway Caramacs at Quality Save.

 

Maybe the shops are busy today, who knows, or perhaps the lack of big family get togethers means people don't have to shop like they are feeding the Five Thousand tomorrow.

[spikey]

33 minutes ago, big jim said:

 I’m in work at 15:00 to 02:00 ...

 

Could be worse.  Imagine 0200 to 1500 ...

[Jol Wilkinson]

11 hours ago, melmerby said:

Being pedantic, Amazon pays all the tax HMRC ask of it. If they want more they'll have to change their rules.

All companies, British & Multinational pay as little tax as they are required to do. That's what they have accountants for.

Even the one man band doesn't voluntarily pay tax, only what HMRC makes them.

More a case of HMRC charging tax on what Amazon legally declare. A family member is involved in a national UK charity that uses Amazon to sell/distribute some of their more valuable items donated to their charity shop. To say that they make life difficult, to the point of with holding revenue for a period if you fail to ship just one item a day late and make it bl**dy nigh on impossible to readily communicate with them , would be a gross understatement.

 

Starbucks also avoid UK tax through a number of devious activities. They are both socially irresponsible companies, but being US based, what can you expect. All I can do is vote with my feet and avoid dealing with them whenever possible.

 

Rant over, have a happy Christmas. We'll start tonight with M&S Salmon en Croute and a bottle of Chablis (despite the French being in disgrace, again).

[woodenhead]

20 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Starbucks also avoid UK tax through a number of devious activities. They are both socially irresponsible companies, but being US based, what can you expect. All I can do is vote with my feet and avoid dealing with them whenever possible.

 

That's a bit unfair, greed is not restricted to the US though I would agree the US seemingly has the most biased tax system in favour of the rich.  Tax avoidance (as opposed to evation which is illegal anywhere) is something everyone practices, no-one pays more than they have to.  It is for the UK Government to close loopholes that allow companies such as Starbucks to shift their profit overseas where they pay much less tax.  The clear way would be some form of VAT on every drink sold or item purchased through Amazon but that would just shift the burden onto the consumer.

 

Anyway, Happy Christmas

[JJGraphics]

Went to Tesco in Wokingham about 10:00 this morning. Car park and shop was very quiet. Shelves were stacked, aisles mercifully free of staff with those damn great trolleys making up deliveries and the checkout operators were sitting and looking very bored. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes and came home with everything on our list.

 

I think everyone has panic-bought themselves to a standstill.

 

John

[The Stationmaster]

39 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

Could be worse.  Imagine 0200 to 1500 ...

To be honest I'd sooner be finishing at 15.00 than finishing at 02.00.  Starting at 02.00 isn't much of a problem provided you've got your sleep pattern right as effectively it's only a late booking-on night turn.  But it's a really 'dead' time of the night when you're tired after working a shift - always the sort of time when you're likely to drop off to sleep (or have breakfast as was the case in many places where night turns were worked).

 

BTW my late mother-in-law worked in and later managed a Co-op branch for many years and she always said the pre-Easter shopping rush was far worse than the Pre-Christmas rush.  The big difference this Christmas appears to be late cancellation of Christmas plans for many people - as others have already noted.

[tomparryharry]

I expected a rush this morning, but at 09:00 it was very quiet. Milk was a bit low, but everything else was there.  It indeed looks as though people have panic bought into a standstill. Things might get a bit crazy after Boxing day, as our nice First Minister for Wales has decreed a lockdown from  the 28th.

 

Political discussions preclude me from making comments.....

 

 

[hayfield]

48 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

More a case of HMRC charging tax on what Amazon legally declare. A family member is involved in a national UK charity that uses Amazon to sell/distribute some of their more valuable items donated to their charity shop. To say that they make life difficult, to the point of with holding revenue for a period if you fail to ship just one item a day late and make it bl**dy nigh on impossible to readily communicate with them , would be a gross understatement.

 

Starbucks also avoid UK tax through a number of devious activities. They are both socially irresponsible companies, but being US based, what can you expect. All I can do is vote with my feet and avoid dealing with them whenever possible.

 

Rant over, have a happy Christmas. We'll start tonight with M&S Salmon en Croute and a bottle of Chablis (despite the French being in disgrace, again).

 

Jol

 

There are standard agreed both through out the world let alone within the EU about who pays what where. Nation states can and do  have agreements to avoid double taxation and allow taxes to be paid in the host company (for want of a better word)

 

Southern quite legally reduced their corporation tax rates encouraging many multi national companies to move their bases there

 

I worked for a company who above board and legally sold investments to Swedish nationals where the funds were taxed in the UK at a lower rate that they would have paid in their own country. In fact two of our salesmen went to Japan to sell these products to some Swedish nationals and the sales had to be conducted in the Swedish Embassy as neither salesmen were authorised to conduct financial services in Japan. Needless to say one of the salesmen was Swedish and had excellent connections.

 

The tax affairs of the wealthy are shrouded in secrecy and I have been told from a very reliable source deals are struck between the tax authorities and accountants of those with wealth

[John Isherwood]

33 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

Jol

 

There are standard agreed both through out the world let alone within the EU about who pays what where. Nation states can and do  have agreements to avoid double taxation and allow taxes to be paid in the host company (for want of a better word)

 

Southern quite legally reduced their corporation tax rates encouraging many multi national companies to move their bases there

 

I worked for a company who above board and legally sold investments to Swedish nationals where the funds were taxed in the UK at a lower rate that they would have paid in their own country. In fact two of our salesmen went to Japan to sell these products to some Swedish nationals and the sales had to be conducted in the Swedish Embassy as neither salesmen were authorised to conduct financial services in Japan. Needless to say one of the salesmen was Swedish and had excellent connections.

 

The tax affairs of the wealthy are shrouded in secrecy and I have been told from a very reliable source deals are struck between the tax authorities and accountants of those with wealth

 

It all comes down to what's legal, and what's right - the two have no relationship to one another.

 

Since the law-makers have a vested interested in ensuring that loopholes exist and are not closed, the rich will always get richer, and the poor .......

 

John Isherwood.

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, JJGraphics said:

Went to Tesco in Wokingham about 10:00 this morning. Car park and shop was very quiet. Shelves were stacked, aisles mercifully free of staff with those damn great trolleys making up deliveries and the checkout operators were sitting and looking very bored. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes and came home with everything on our list.

 

I think everyone has panic-bought themselves to a standstill.

 

John

That is standard practice for the dot-com trolley pushers. They book on at early at 04.00 or 05.00 in Xmas week, but then are finished and have Xmas eve off.

 

cheers

[John M Upton]

Yesterday (23rd) was busy, lengthy queues for the likes of M&S and Waitrose but as soon as the Sussex is in Tier 4 announcement was made at 16:00 it seemed like the entire country jumped into their cars and went shopping!  The local Co-Op was effectively stripped bare in the matter of an hour.

 

This morning I was expecting it to be busy but it wasn't.  Little if any queues, plenty of stock of everything in all the shops I visited, just lots and lots of people travelling about with suitcases off to spend Christmas with their relatives which I could have sworn they were not supposed to do....

[Hroth]

59 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

just lots and lots of people travelling about with suitcases off to spend Christmas with their relatives which I could have sworn they were not supposed to do....

 

And they wonder why the numbers are rocketing sky-high....