Tips for how to avoid queuing at supermarkets?

od244051

Another thing I have thought of. The big 4 and Waitrose its packing at the till. If you drove to the supermarket in a car, pack at the car instead. If everyone did this, people will queue up for shorter times. As it can take several minutes for some people to pack at the till or packing shelf in Aldi/Lidl, as put their cans in one bag, bread products in another bag.

These shops have to wait for the slow packers to leave the store before someone enters.
This morning I was at Lidl and there was a man packing at his car next to mine. I packed my shopping and put the bags on the back seat furthest away to him.

maman

molerat said:

Two people ahead of me in the Lidl checkout queue aisle today, worst it has been so far !!

I only had a short queue at the checkout in Lidl BUT that was because they had so few checkouts open the queue outside was horrendous. 🤔

Good idea about packing in the car park. I'm well practised at packing my open bags at the checkout. I can easily keep up with the cashier. But as that's not allowed now I'll be packing outside while the weather is dry. 😁

ladyholly

I havent had to queue since the first week of lock down. I go at various times but always seem to walk staight in. In Mr T I do have to join the very long queue to pay as they have a single line system . Not very successful in social distancing as the  line is next to the butter, fruit juice and milk so people are permantly pushing between people waiting to pay to get their items.

Packing in the car park isnt much help to people who dont have cars and personally I can pack as fast as most till operaters can scan (except in Lidl where they are much faster).

NeilCr

I just had an email from Waitrose telling me as "one of their most valued customers" the quietest shopping hours at my local store. Nice touch, I thought. 

KellyLiam

never have been in a situation like this

parcival

Went to our ASDA yesterday and no control over people going in. Much busier as well with very little social distancing. They have signs up saying that social distancing guidelines have changed but still to be careful.........

MACKEM99

The Tesco store near me used to have arrows on the floor for a one way system.  This week it has gone.  Asked a member of staff who said did not know why and said it makes them feel less safe?

maman

I've only used Sainsburys and Aldi regularly through lockdown. Midweek there are no queues in Sainsburys any longer (excuse pun 😉). I've gone back to my preferred mid afternoon on a Friday at Aldi too. No queues but shop is much fuller since traffic light system replaced the guy at the door and far more couples and families taking up space unnecessarily as they aren't being 'policed'.
It'll be interesting to see how many masks /face coverings appear next week. The traffic lights won't be managing those either. I'd have liked Aldi to spare an employee at the door in the interests of better security. 

od244051

MACKEM99 said:

The Tesco store near me used to have arrows on the floor for a one way system.  This week it has gone.  Asked a member of staff who said did not know why and said it makes them feel less safe?

Some stores' one way systems are badly designed. They have bottlenecks. Should have got about 3 colleagues that shop after work or on days off to design a flow which works, Mum shops at Asda and there's so much confusion in the produce section. thanks to the badly designed one way system. She does a top up shop at Lidl, which I do my weekly shop. There's no route and if you need some apples, you push your trolley around the produce island and get the plums, peaches etc first. Sometimes, I can get the apples from the peaches. if i get a bag from the back of the display as its a few supports.

Also having no one way system in some supermarkets means if you just want a few items, you just go down those aisles in question.

The Sainsburys which I use to collect Argos items allows only 30 customers (couples count as 1) and customers have said to me and a friend that works there that they feel safe shopping in there. My friend that works there - only having a week off in May says since the restricted number of customers, not seen any customers not adhering to SD. 

maman

I went back to my usual Aldi store this week for the first time since lockdown. I don't know if this is general but they seemed to have put the chilled aisles back as they were previously. So cheese is now back opposite the fresh meat instead of around by the milk and yogurt. I preferred it as it's bad enough trying to keep to social distancing without a new layout as well. 

The veg aisle is always difficult to manage. I can't help but dodge back and forth from the root veg to the soft fruit, broccoli and other greens opposite as I buy both. 🤔☹️