Supermarket queues

Hello everyone.

Today, I went to a local Sainsbury's supermarket near my home, and despite their one-hour priority period having started, at 0800, I was horrified to see such long queues of 'priority' shoppers, namely the elderly and the vulnerable. 

In the current virus-related circumstances, it might seem fair enough to operate a queuing system. However, it took me 30 minutes to gain priority access. That's not acceptable to the autistic in my opinion, especially if extreme weather such as thundery rain or snowstorms were to occur. Those markers would get hidden, especially in bright sunlight, or get blown away.

There was a queuing area outside the store, but those two-metre gaps in the pedestrian walkway areas were allegedly not clear enough, and there were no 'please queue here' signs, unlike in a local bank or building society. 

Have any of you had similarly difficult experiences? If 30 minutes' waiting at opening time is unacceptable, things could have got worse later in the day, and with Easter coming up, I might be better off using a local convenience store with no car park and only minimal queuing areas. My local supermarket would then be used only to buy whatever isn't available at my local convenience store.

This one-hour priority period ought to have been extended to two hours to include the queuing, and other things should be done to support the elderly and the vulnerable. Any suggestions or opinions would be appreciated.

Parents
  • I was in my local Sainsbury's this morning too - I thought the did a good job of organising and controlling the queue.    I'm really not well (no immune system) so I get in with the vulnerable.    We were there at 07:30 so we were about 15th in the queue.     The shelves were relatively well stocked - lots of fresh stuff but the tinned aisle was pretty sparse.

    I thought the staff did well - especially as this is such a departure from their normal jobs - they shouldn't have to be managing the spacing of people in the shop.

    I'd guess the length of time allocated depends on the age demographic in their local area.      We were out by 08:20 and the queue was half way around the building by then.

Reply
  • I was in my local Sainsbury's this morning too - I thought the did a good job of organising and controlling the queue.    I'm really not well (no immune system) so I get in with the vulnerable.    We were there at 07:30 so we were about 15th in the queue.     The shelves were relatively well stocked - lots of fresh stuff but the tinned aisle was pretty sparse.

    I thought the staff did well - especially as this is such a departure from their normal jobs - they shouldn't have to be managing the spacing of people in the shop.

    I'd guess the length of time allocated depends on the age demographic in their local area.      We were out by 08:20 and the queue was half way around the building by then.

Children
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