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
  • The problem as I see it is that there isn’t a solution that actually sorts the issue. An extended priority shopping time I don’t think will work because the vast majority of people want to be there first thing to maximise their chances of getting what they can and further limiting the non-priority customers isn’t overly helpful either - as this just condensed the majority of customers into an even tighter time frame. Really people need to all take responsibility and do their bit by either shopping less often where possible, picking up stuff for neighbours etc... that’s my opinion anyhow

Reply
  • The problem as I see it is that there isn’t a solution that actually sorts the issue. An extended priority shopping time I don’t think will work because the vast majority of people want to be there first thing to maximise their chances of getting what they can and further limiting the non-priority customers isn’t overly helpful either - as this just condensed the majority of customers into an even tighter time frame. Really people need to all take responsibility and do their bit by either shopping less often where possible, picking up stuff for neighbours etc... that’s my opinion anyhow

Children
  • I'm not sure what the answer is either. I usually shop later in the evenings when it's less busy, but that seems to be the worst time for going as the shelves are pretty empty by then around where I am. And I'm not very good at rethinking my entire food plans on the spot in the middle of the supermarket! So usually don't buy enough (or anything at all if I can't find anything I was looking for...). I'm hoping once the food situation settles down I'll be able to cut down on my trips to the shops, but every other day is the best I'm managing now