Petition WAG Let Parents Buy Essential Goods

[The Lone Gunman]

So, can anybody who has been moaning about measures which, after all, are only going to be in place for less than a fortnight now, come up with any item classed as non essential which they feel they will have desperate need for before 9 November - not forgetting of course that these can, almost certainly, still be purchased online.

As a moaner, before I answer your question I have a quick one for you: have you been in any supermarkets since Saturday?

[the other bob wilson]

As a moaner, before I answer your question I have a quick one for you: have you been in any supermarkets since Saturday?

Yes, did my weekly shop yesterday morning and was able to get everything I wanted.

[The Lone Gunman]

Yes, did my weekly shop yesterday morning and was able to get everything I wanted.

And how was it in there? Were the staff managing to keep the hordes of non-essential shoppers at bay?

I've been in three supermarkets since Saturday. On the way home from work yesterday evening, I called into Morrisons in Llanishen to get some milk and cereals. The first thing that greeted me as I passed through the barriers was a large display of toys positioned where they usually stack boxes of bottled beers. The Sky article you linked suggested supermarkets are not able to sell books or stationery, but these were readily available in Morrisons along with DVDs and CDs. The aisle where these items are stocked was operating as normal.

They sell a limited range of clothes in Morrisons these days, mostly stuff for young kids, but the aisle where these are stocked was blocked off, as was the aisle where the homeware is kept. They were blocked at either end by large pallets stacked with boxes of unwrapped produce. One of the knock-on effects of this was less room in the shop's central aisle. The other was that the store had to abandon the socially-distanced queuing system it's had in place for the last three or four months because those queues usually begin in the aisles that are now blocked off. Great work, WAG.

Onto B&M next door, where I was after some sweets I'm particularly partial to. This was hilarious. I wondered what the staff would manage to do in there as almost everything sold in B&M could be classified as non-essential. Their answer to the WAG's policy was to put a bit of gaffer tape at chest height across a couple of the aisles with hastily-printed pieces of A4 paper attached saying 'Please Only Buy Essential Goods'. There weren't many people in the shop (it was 7:15pm) and those that were there had completely ignored the signs. Literally everybody who was queuing up for the tills had items that were almost exclusively in the non-essential category. Naturally enough, the staff couldn't have cared less.

Today I popped over to Lidl in Splott to get my stock of canned drinks for work - something I do once a week. All of the central display units which usually stock all of the weird and wonderful non-food items that Lidl sells were turned back to front. This set me wondering how many people ever actually go into Lidl with a specific non-essential item in mind. I doubt it's many. I only ever go there for food or drink, but I come out with all sorts of shit.

To me, the whole thing looks exactly what it is - a pointless, petty shambles which has been put in place for no good reason.

Here's a question for you and any other non-moaners: earlier in the year, when the virus was at its height in Wales, supermarkets were free to sell non-essential goods. We also weren't required by the WAG to wear face coverings while shopping in these stores. So what has changed? Why was it OK for supermarkets to sell non-essential good in March, April and May, but now it is allegedly outlawed? It's almost as if this measure hasn't been thought through properly.....

[Rjk]

And how was it in there? Were the staff managing to keep the hordes of non-essential shoppers at bay?

t the store had to abandon the socially-distanced queuing system it's had in place for the last three or four months because those queues usually begin in the aisles that are now blocked off. Great work, WAG.

Clearly Morrisons llanishen didn't HAVE to abandon their queueing system, they could quite easily have moved everything out from that aisle, or put plastic sheets over it or whatever.

[The Lone Gunman]

Clearly Morrisons llanishen didn't HAVE to abandon their queueing system, they could quite easily have moved everything out from that aisle, or put plastic sheets over it or whatever.

Ever been in this particular store?

[Rjk]

Ever been in this particular store?

yes, many times

[The Lone Gunman]

yes, many times

So you'll know that the hand basket checkouts back directly onto the small clothes section, which is why the queuing system started there.

[the other bob wilson]

And how was it in there? Were the staff managing to keep the hordes of non-essential shoppers at bay?

I've been in three supermarkets since Saturday. On the way home from work yesterday evening, I called into Morrisons in Llanishen to get some milk and cereals. The first thing that greeted me as I passed through the barriers was a large display of toys positioned where they usually stack boxes of bottled beers. The Sky article you linked suggested supermarkets are not able to sell books or stationery, but these were readily available in Morrisons along with DVDs and CDs. The aisle where these items are stocked was operating as normal.

They sell a limited range of clothes in Morrisons these days, mostly stuff for young kids, but the aisle where these are stocked was blocked off, as was the aisle where the homeware is kept. They were blocked at either end by large pallets stacked with boxes of unwrapped produce. One of the knock-on effects of this was less room in the shop's central aisle. The other was that the store had to abandon the socially-distanced queuing system it's had in place for the last three or four months because those queues usually begin in the aisles that are now blocked off. Great work, WAG.

Onto B&M next door, where I was after some sweets I'm particularly partial to. This was hilarious. I wondered what the staff would manage to do in there as almost everything sold in B&M could be classified as non-essential. Their answer to the WAG's policy was to put a bit of gaffer tape at chest height across a couple of the aisles with hastily-printed pieces of A4 paper attached saying 'Please Only Buy Essential Goods'. There weren't many people in the shop (it was 7:15pm) and those that were there had completely ignored the signs. Literally everybody who was queuing up for the tills had items that were almost exclusively in the non-essential category. Naturally enough, the staff couldn't have cared less.

Today I popped over to Lidl in Splott to get my stock of canned drinks for work - something I do once a week. All of the central display units which usually stock all of the weird and wonderful non-food items that Lidl sells were turned back to front. This set me wondering how many people ever actually go into Lidl with a specific non-essential item in mind. I doubt it's many. I only ever go there for food or drink, but I come out with all sorts of shit.

To me, the whole thing looks exactly what it is - a pointless, petty shambles which has been put in place for no good reason.

Here's a question for you and any other non-moaners: earlier in the year, when the virus was at its height in Wales, supermarkets were free to sell non-essential goods. We also weren't required by the WAG to wear face coverings while shopping in these stores. So what has changed? Why was it OK for supermarkets to sell non-essential good in March, April and May, but now it is allegedly outlawed? It's almost as if this measure hasn't been thought through properly.....

I went to Lidls as well yesterday and they had done the same thing, but it was it was impossible to get at or even see what the goods were. I never go into Aldis or Lidls with the intention of buying anything "non essential" either, but I always have a look at what's there and about once every six weeks or so, I see something I decide to buy. Although I don't spend as much time looking in the non essential areas now as I did pre Covid, it can sometimes add five or ten minutes to my shop and, so it may be that I'm the type of shopper the Government wants to discourage with their non essential goods decision.

If Drakeford had come out and said no non essential shopping until the spring, I could understand the reaction of some, but we're talking about seventeen days out of people's lives here (plus another seventeen in the New Year I'd guess), so I can live with that.

As far as the wearing of masks goes, attitudes towards them have changed in countries like here and America from the scepticism we saw at Government level in the spring. That's the thing, although there are an awful lot of people who talk like they know it all about this virus, the truth is that none of us do because barely anyone still alive can remember the last time something like this happened. I've been very critical of the UK Government over the last few months, some of that has been with the benefit of hindsight and it'll be the same if the Welsh Government are proved wrong about their firebreak lockdown - I'll admit they got it wrong, but, for now, none of us can know for sure whether they have or not.

I notice no one has answered my question asking what non essential goods are the critics going to be desperate for before 9 November - I suspect that's because they know that, in truth there is nothing outside of the definition of "essential" in that article that they really have to get in the next twelve or thirteen days.

[The Lone Gunman]

I notice no one has answered my question asking what non essential goods are the critics going to be desperate for before 9 November - I suspect that's because they know that, in truth there is nothing outside of the definition of "essential" in that article that they really have to get in the next twelve or thirteen days.

I've already answered that by explaining that this policy will make no difference to me on a personal level whatsoever. Like many people, I'm not pissed off because this nonsense will have any direct, material effect on me as an individual. I'm pissed off because it's complete and utter nonsense - petty, pathetic, pointless nonsense. To me, it just underlines the hopeless nature of the government in this country. They bring in a measure that has no viable benefit with no warning, which causes anger, confusion and places more strain on people like shop staff and managers who are already under enough pressure as it is.