[Closed] I'm going shopping at 3am..

A friend booked her Christmas eve home delivery slot back in November. She's been adding stuff to it for weeks in order to make sure she didn't forget anything. However sh needed to check out by midnight and forgot!!! Guess who's going shopping with the mayhem now!

I’m off in about 20 minutes. Wish me luck!

Rachel

Good luck!

On the positive side - my wife has a calendar item back in early November to book the Christmas food delivery slot. So we're avoiding the mayhem that is the pre-Christmas supermarket. I did Waitrose one year and it was like trolley rugby played by women of a certain age, all intent on getting that last pack of Heston's mince pies.

On the negative - one online retailer omitted to send out the top we bought for the youngest daughter. So I had to brave Oxford Street on the way home from work. It was like the seventh circle of hell - how anyone finds pleasure in that frenzy I have no idea.

I went 2 days ago and a top yesterday for bits they didn’t have. Off to the butchers soon so I can spend the rest of the day enjoying myself.

Saw a fight yesterday in Iceland between two grannies over a jumbo pack of Yorkshire Puddings 😯

Filled my freezer, cupboard and fridge with all the essentials for 3 weeks last week, sod going food shopping anytime around christmas and new year. I still bear the scar from 2013 when a yummy mummy took me out with her trolley racing me to the till queue 👿

wifes had her asda order and delivery slot for weeks. yesterday she looked and it said there were no turkeys or mince pies available and offered alternatives. how sh1t is that for planning??

cancelled the whole order in a grump and now having to go elsewhere by foot today.

I'll be going late tonight for a few bits.

Christmas is a nice, simple, cheapish thing for me these days. 😀

Used to be a time when I hadn't fully financially recovered till February.

Utter bliss in comparison now.

Best thing is Christmas is almost over which is the best bit about it. 😀

My sister's Xmas shop was delivered last night, they substituted the turkey with a chicken

Just back from mine. MnS = fine, Tesco is just rammed full of personal shoppers for the home delivery service.

drove into tesco carpark yesterday morning, drove back out - folk were queueing to park and had generally lost their festive cheer and goodwill 😀

heard later that once folk got parked, they were then having to que to get a trolley 😀

i might go up to tesco today just to watch what people turn into when it comes to parking the day before xmas eve 😆

Done. Butchers was getting busy as I left Lidl was dead. I now have a chicken the size of an ostrich and a lovely bit of sirloin. Time to get the mulled cider on.

Well, that was much easier than I feared!

Rachel

Drove past the large Tesco’s hyper store at 0650 this morning. The car park was FULL. I’m stuck at work for a 12 hr shift so I may have to brave it for supplies and I’ll report back later

Went to Aldi Wetherby at 7pm last night. Was surprised that it was much less busy than on a normal Saturday morning. We now have everything we need except a turkey, which we always buy an hour before closing on Xmas eve when they are half price...never failed yet!

We did the last minute stuff last night fearing the worst, about 9pm. There was 10 people in the whole store, job done.

We haven't bought anything yet and were planning on going this afternoon. Hopefully everyone will have panic shopped earlier and we won't have to queue.

I’ll pop to Waitrose 30 mins before closing tomorrow to pick up any bargains

We're making a roast dinner. I bought some sprouts yesterday. Going to buy carrots today. Probably from a greengrocer. Life in the fast lane!

Mostly sorted, just bread and some bacon to get. I’ll actually enjoy the fevered look in peoples faces as a saunter last with a basket!

Back in my schooldays I worked at Sainsburys stacking shelves a couple of evenings a week and on Saturdays.
There was always loads of overtime going around Christmas and shop opening hours back then weren't what they are now either, much more limited.

Anyway, working Xmas Eve and the store was putting out announcements saying tills close in 5 MINUTES!! There were fights breaking out over the last straggly bits of turkey in the freezers, people stacking the trolley with 30L of milk and a dozen loaves of bread... It was insane but also very funny.

I went at 5.30am a few days ago and the place was packed. Not with shoppers but with staff re-stocking the shelves.

Best thing is Christmas is almost over which is the best bit about it.

Amen to that!

My list...

-Enough Booze? Check
-Someone who I can reliably call round to on Xmas day to eat their leftovers in exchange for a cheap bottle of wine? Check

Or if the weather is any good... I’m off for a big ride and the rest can wait for another day!

You still go out to shops? How quaint 😉

Unpacked the Booth's delivery last night job jobbed.

We went to Tesco at 11pm on Thursday, when the in-laws arrived.

Was busy but not too bad, got everything we wanted,bar prawns, so pretty good.

Has to drive 10miles to another toysrus yesterday, when our local one let us down on click and collect for the eldest main present! but been quite civilised this year and everything else is ready.

Taking kids to a birthday party at soft play this morning (hellish) then bike ride this afternoon (heavenly, well bit muddy)

mboy - Member
-Enough Booze? Check

We're making a roast dinner. I bought some sprouts yesterday. Going to buy carrots today. Probably from a greengrocer. Life in the fast lane!

Exactly Christmas dinner is just that a roast dinner surely? Never really got the fuss about the actual meal. I prefer a nice steak so that's what the taxi family is having this year 😀

Never really got the fuss about the actual meal

I know. Well, at least the mad rush. I like a get-together and to take special care in preparing something spesh. But it's still just a bloody roast dinner not the end of the world! They crazy out theya!

But to be fair there was a tad of excitement [s]yesterday[/s] Thurs night when I enquired about chestnuts and they weren't sure if they had, so passed me over to a more knowledgeable assistant.

Turns out that they did indeed have chestnuts. Saving me from cycling 16 miles in the traffic of hell (I refuse to drive into the city at most times of year, let alone these few days before Armageddonmas)

It was a flutter of danger.

Got the kids up & were in Tesco for just before 7am. It was fine, full shelves, no queues. Parking spot by the door. 🙂
Job done.
No green cabbage though, so Xmas is ruined.

Shopping arrived last night! ( Mrs Wookster is a planning and organisational legend!!) Trip to the Butchers to pick up the Turkey and that's us....hopefully..... 😆

Asda was chaos yesterday mind you!! So glad I was passing by and not shopping!!

asda was busy at midnight, queues for tills were not good but I got out the selfserve pretty quick
As for the home shopping,the driver/s was out to midnight everyday this week, and everyone had a lot of substitutions, including chicken in place of turkey.
Quiet today though, and al over now till next year.

Off down the street as I forgot to get Snowballs for the kids tomorrow night. There may be mulled wine consumed.

I shall be attending shoprite as soon as the driver returns with my malaria ridden colleague from the clinic.

I'm not sure who has the worst deal.

ShopRite on a Saturday is like a never ending rugby scrum.

Just been buying veg after feeling ill from eating too much junk food and chocolate cake.

Was busy, quite a few hotties out too.

Only busy bit in Morrisons was the Christmas food to order collection point. Queue of 30+ people, just starting to get fractious.

Can confirm B&M and the petrol station in Orton, Peterborough are empty.

Got AA batteries and air in my tyres very painlessly.

Cycling into Didcot now to laugh at the carnage.

Was pretty empty in town this morning.

Ok, just been for a couple of miles walk to the nearest village shop for mushrooms, sugar and kindling, very festive purchases. Definitely no queue at the till 😀

I was going to get a few bits after an 00:50 til 11:56 shift. Was not looking forward to it but thought it better than the Mrs dragging the wee man round the shops. Got up at 23:30 last night, text at midnight telling me my job had been cancelled but as I was dressed and ready to leave I decided to go and do the shop there and then. Back to bed for half two, merry Christmas! Trouble was, I couldn't sleep...!

Just back from Aldi.

Half empty, but there's a home game on this afternoon.

Chaos yesterday apparantly.
🙂

We haven't bought anything yet and were planning on going this afternoon. Hopefully everyone will have panic shopped earlier and we won't have to queue.

Ha ha, ha ha ha. Ha.. My thoughts are with you.

It was ok at 3am, I am still alive. When I'd gone earlier (about half ten) a mate who works there was on a fag break and saw me get out the car. I just heard "You don't wanna go in there" echo across the car park. He said that the night before people were parked on the grass and in the entrance road, even filling the delivery entrance. It's a small town and Tesco is the only 24 hour place here.

[i]I[/i] thought we had everything last week to be honest, save for a few bits of veg but it would seem I was sorely mistaken..
I got the core stuff sorted weeks ago as I like to think of a holiday as having time to kick back with a nice bit of food and drink. Not rushing about spending too much, that isn't chilled.

I'm just grateful that the missus doesn't know an M&S food hall(?) opened here last month..

just nipped to the hardware store on church road in bristol to get a key cut. was the only customer.

My local butcher was relatively quiet as a stocked up on chicken breasts, sausages, bacon and a ham.
As was the off licence I use (who gave me 2 bottles of Loose Cannon's Christmas ale - to be drunk within 4 days as it was decanted straight from barrel to bottle.). Meanwhile 400yds away Sainsbury's is bonkers...

Just been to aldi on a beer run and it was surprisngly quiet, maybe more so than a normal saturday.

Maybe they are putting people off with product names like this though...

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Aldi also had some weird tea flavors martini and expresso tea.
everything will be half price from 2pm I've been told that's when the real fun will begin.
I'm looking foward to opening the big waxed cheese I got onion and balsamic vinegar ummmmmmmm

Did our shopping 9PM tonight at Hastings Sainsbury’s- no problem at all. Fully stocked, lots reduced, loads of turkeys left

Got my tree yesterday at b&m, £4.99
Everything else at sainsburys in Nairn at lunchtime, busier than normal but not bad and everyone being nice.

Left home at 10am today. Local butcher / farm shop, then a cheese shop (woohoo!), then Aldi, then ASDA. Expected hell ,but everywhere was pretty quiet considering.

Either everyone round here is really organised, or is leaving it the absolute last minute...

(having said that, the supermarkets were both in Corby, so if it wasn't in batter or a liquid in a can or bottle no-one wanted it)

I had a million things to do today but had to go to London Bridge to get some cycling gloves and some gin from the distillery in Bermondsey so headed in for 8.30am

Not many people about apart from those wheeling cases and getting trains out, borough market was not yet busy but the queues at the cheese shop was already at about 30 long and no doubt grew.
Got to go to Waitrose with the GF tomorrow, can’t say it’s going to be a pleasant experience.
Will not be buying loads to only bin it later, don’t understand that mentality.