Online shopping and click and collect and first hour of opening one day a week-priority for elderly, disabled

[Hoofprints]

Hi all.

I hope you are all holding up during this period of mayhem.

My partner received an email from Sainsbury's early today setting out measures to help those over 70, those with chronic illness/disability and those having to self-isolate. It's a longish email bit please note that starting from tomorrow, the first hour of opening will be reserved for elderly and vulnerable customers.

From next Monday 23rd March, home delivery slots will be given to the over 70s and those with a disability. And for those who can travel to the store to collect shopping, the online click and collect service is being expanded.

I have not checked what other stores are doing, but hopefully something similar.

Best wishes all 💐

Email reads as follows:

I wrote to you last week to tell you about some of the steps we are taking to support increased demand for food and other essential items.

After I wrote to you last week, many of you replied. You wrote to share your concerns about our elderly and vulnerable customers and to ask if we can do more to restrict the number of items each person can buy. I have listened to feedback from you and from Sainsbury's colleagues across the country and wanted to share some of the extra steps we are taking to make sure everyone has access to the items that they need:

A number of you suggested that we reserve an hour in stores for elderly and vulnerable customers. In response to this request, we will set aside the first hour in every supermarket this Thursday 19th March, for elderly and vulnerable customers. I hope that you can respect this decision and will work with us as we try our best to help those that need it the most. If you or an elderly family member, friend or neighbour would like to shop during this hour, please check online for your local supermarket opening hours.

We will also help elderly and vulnerable customers access food online. From Monday 23rd March, our online customers who are over 70 years of age or have a disability will have priority access to online delivery slots. We will contact these customers in the coming days with more details.

For any online customer who can travel to our stores, from Monday 23rd March, we will operate an expanded 'click and collect' service. We are significantly increasing the number of collection sites across the country over the coming days in preparation for this. Customers can place their order online as usual and pick it up from a collection point in the store car park. We believe this will also work for people who are self-isolating.

As we work to feed the nation, we are also focusing all of our efforts on getting as much food and other essential items from our suppliers, into our warehouses and onto shelves as we possibly can. We still have enough food for everyone - if we all just buy what we need for us and our families.

To help us get more essential items onto the shelves, from this Thursday 19th March, we will be closing our cafes and our meat, fish and pizza counters in supermarkets. This means we can free up warehouse and lorry capacity for products that customers really need. It will also free up time for our store colleagues to focus on keeping the shelves as well stocked as possible.

I mentioned last week that we had put limits on a very small number of products. Following feedback from our customers and from our store colleagues, we have decided to put restrictions on a larger number of products. From tomorrow, Wednesday 18th March, customers will be able to buy a maximum of three of any grocery product and a maximum of two on the most popular products including toilet paper, soap and UHT milk. We have enough food coming into the system, but are limiting sales so that it stays on shelves for longer and can be bought by a larger numbers of customers.

Finally, I wanted to end by saying a huge thank you to Sainsbury's colleagues across the business. Everyone is working flat out in difficult circumstances to do their best to serve our customers. If you're able to say thank you to them when you see them, I know they would hugely appreciate it.

Best wishes

Mike

[Lupiknits]

Excellent!

[eekt]

Thank you! Though this morning my nearest Sainsbury's had no slots available at all!

Ocado has just shut it's website until Saturday to make more slots available!

xxx

[Hoofprints in reply to eekt]

I'm sorry. Hopefully that will change and please look at other supermarkets 💐

[eekt in reply to Hoofprints]

A Tesco slot on 3rd April, hooray!! How on earth can butter beans and anchovies be rationed LOL!?? xxx

[suemh2]

Just received the same email. I've got an online delivery already book. When I find out how to notify Sainsburys hubby and I fit the bill I'll post an update x

[Hidden in reply to suemh2]

Hiya, you can update your delivery instructions in the "my account settings" they mentioned to add the fact if your self isolating. I did this and also added the disability details as well in case they use this to contact their customers with a disability, in the future. Still not clear yet how they will do it, I think its defernetly worth mentioning if your self isolating though as they do request you mention it to them.

Regards

[Hoofprints in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much. Do you think it's worth posting that info as a separate thread,? Not sure how to best make it clear to anyone struggling who might not look all the way down the thread? I'd do it for you, but might mess it up! No... Probably would mess it up 😅😂😀🐎

[suemh2 in reply to Hidden]

👍 thanks

[maggielee]

Tesco has come on board with similiar offer... Also, making space in store for key food, etc. Closing deli, fish, meat counters so staff can be reemployed & closing at 10pm restock & clean store...

Hope for me then....when I need it..ml

[Hoofprints in reply to maggielee]

Great!

[Hoofprints]

Ha! Thank you for your help

[Banditqueen]

I am disabled and my husband is coming out of hospital on Saturday or Sunday. I can't get to the first hour of the day. He has had a serious operations. He has to stay home and is 67, is immune deficiency as he also has cancer. How can shops help me?

[maggielee in reply to Banditqueen]

Good question.... Folks are still cuing up at stores. Can you go before then? Or go to smaller stores for food to hold you over until madness stops...?

ml

[maggielee in reply to maggielee]

Sorry just noted you like the rest of us maybe self isolating to avoid the virus...

This is the time to contact local etc. and see what they say, if they can help or local voluntary organizations....

Make sure your husband has the meds he needs before he leaves hospital or at least prescriptions as pharmacies are under pressure.. I had this problem this morning for my sister who also just got out of hospital... ml

[Banditqueen in reply to maggielee]

Forgot, yes, got his meds before he went in. Cheers.

[Banditqueen in reply to maggielee]

Hi Maggie, not able to self isolate at the moment as its not possible but semi isolated. I am using smaller shops as much as possible, we are lucky enough to have a number scattered around. I think we have everything for a few weeks at the moment. I have made my self well known in local h and b, who put a couple of things to one side and am thinking ahead all the time.

I got a bit annoyed when some self righteous idiot who had been served started spouting in Poundland that stores like this should be closed down and only essential stuff sold by government staff!

Many people around here depend on them rather than the big supermarket as much poverty and they are very good. What is essential for one person may n ot be for another. My husband will be on a restricted diet that is not the same as most diets. What's essential for him might be difficult to get without stores like that.

She was really being very rude and it took all I could do to ignore her.. The assistant told her to leave. Result.

I was only buying three tins of corn beef and a tin of mashed potato. That's his staple. She had a big load of shopping and was lecturing everyone! Good on the lad at the counter for not putting up with her.

I really can't see me shopping at 7a.m. I think we will get by on what we have now for a time. Time to do some creative cookery.

Do you want a good laugh. The shops are full to the brim of easter eggs. We can always live on chocolate unless we can't for dietary reasons. I don't know. Maybe a big box of chocolates and a bottle of wine😂😂😷😷💝💝💝

[maggielee in reply to Banditqueen]

I was thinking about the chocalate survival food instead my husband pointing to green leaves outside & saying we can always eat that instead... Yah right...

Sadly, I currently can't digest food well, so very sympathetic to your hubbies needs & my twin is the same boat right, trying after op to eat easy to digest food...

I have lot knorrs chicken soup & add egg,=egg drop soup (protein) & extra noodles... I lived by tuna since uni. days & taught my daughter ...pasta, tuna & mushroom soup...new entry for tomorrow. HU- survival food.

The stores are really trying to get their act together & this question was asked of the health minister tonight on question time, as well as elders & sick, they are going to also add nhs worker bees to have separate times to buy food as well.

Early morning selected as they just restocked the shelves I assume...

Hoping it will calm down (store madness) a little soon...when I run out of milk at least...looking at making yogurt at home which is another easy digest food...

Ah being creative 😊....ml

[Buckley123]

How do you prove your health x

[Sara_A in reply to Buckley123]

This is what I was thinking, with sainsburys online proving u are entitled to a special slot and going into the store early especially with us lupus pts 'looking so well!!!!' Ha ha!! Story of our lives! I do carry an old steroid card still actually so could just show that?

The first hr is a bit of a tricky one I suppose esp for elderly people and people with health problems that may take a while to get going on a morning (I'm not complaining tho cos we need to be grateful for being considered) and everyone is doing their best x

[Sara_A]

Who do u think will be receiving these letters?? I'm on methotrexate and long term steroids. Or is it the much higher risk people like cancer pts and transplant patients etc?? U may not know as I don't!

[loopy-lou]

I am also wondering how we prove our health for high priority slots for online shopping? I haven't received an email from Sainsbury's. I am on PIP +blue badge. Not able to go to a supermarket so need an online shop.

[Banditqueen]

I carry a Disabled ID but that's not much good if you can't go in. Hopefully they will accept our word. Hope everyone gets what they need. Good luck.

[Lulutopical]

Here in Australia they are also opening at 7am for the elderly and disabled. There have been a lot of complaints about how early it is and after lining up for an hour, they find the shelves are still empty. We are told that supply issues are temporary.

I couldn't possibly make it there in time to join the special hour, but agree that looking well and youngish with Lupus might make it hard to get in the door anyway!

Here you must have a government issued aged card (anyone over 60/65 can receive) or a health care card (must be on a government payment) so those of us under 60 with a disability and blue badge who are self funded aren't able to access these shopping hours.

We have had people take tour buses to the regional supermarkets and buy everything there, so people in small isolated towns can't buy anything either. It is mind boggling!

Lulu.

[Hidden]

Not good. I’m sorry.

Our grocery lines are around the building before the store opens (from what a cashier told me last Friday, and a friend who is a cashier in another state has emailed as well). And shelves are empty 2 hours after opening. Can’t be in crowds like that anyhow. Luckily we are good for at least a week from today, and if we eat frozen and canned veggies instead of fresh (and the canned were bought for times like these. We don’t normally eat them), and fruit too, we could go another couple of weeks, at the very least. The friend who works at a store in another state said they are only receiving 1/5 of their orders due to all of this. So you have more demand and less product. She lives in a very, very small country town in Idaho with a population of about 2,000. Idaho is known for it’s potatoes. But she said there will virtually be no potato crops this year because the pickers are from south of the border, and they won’t be allowed in the country since everything is on lock down. 🥔

We actually could go months without grocery shopping if needed. We have emergency food in the buckets full in the garage, just in case. I guess now is the just in case? Though, I haven’t honed those things to my new AI diet needs. But we would survive (lots of TP, Kleenex, hair, skin, toothpaste products, soap, etc) I guess I keep my own little inventory, though, have built up over the years, not the mad rush of the past week.

[Lulutopical in reply to Hidden]

Yes we too cook all of our own meals so have quite a bit on hand anyway. It isn't actually too bad here yet, everyone is smiling and friendly. This has impacted me in that I have had to spend every day out trying to buy groceries at different stores. I have to drive and visit multiple stores to get my family food. I normally stay in all day because I am photosensitive. So I am currently having trouble breathing as my lungs get congested after light exposure, have a temp, sun rash etc. But I am thankful I have my mobility, that there are still supplies available (even if they are harder to find) and I'm very thankful that we can cook! I really feel for those who don't know how to cook, shop, etc. They are going to have a tough time when all the restaurants are shut.

[Hidden in reply to Lulutopical]

Our restaurants are open, but for take out only, no dine in. As a matter of fact, the restaurant industry is pushing p/u so they don’t go out of business😱.

Going to all those stores us no good for you. I’m sorry. I hope you have protective gear? Or can go during isolated hours? Even then, it’s a concern, I guess. Darn, I was suppose to be in New Orleans this week playing around and having fun. Thank goodness for Netflix and Apple TV 😁

[Hidden]

Nice that you are taking such steps!

[Hoofprints]

This newspaper article sets out planned times and help for disabled. Still lacking in detail, but covers the outline plan. So tired!

theguardian.com/business/20...

[Hoofprints in reply to Hoofprints]

Mean covers more supermarkets than Sainsbury's and what they are doing to help in UK x