Government ends Priority Slots at supermarkets

[Tannith]

i just got this email from Tesco:
The government has now asked all supermarkets to delete the data that they gave, which allowed us to provide you access to the 8-hour priority slots.

What this means is that once we’ve deleted this information, you’ll no longer have access to priority slots. This won’t affect your existing Tesco account in any other way.
Has anyone had anything similar from other big supermarkets? It seems the Govt doesn't want the vulnerable to get help with food deliveries any more.

 

[lindisfel]

i just got this email from Tesco:
The government has now asked all supermarkets to delete the data that they gave, which allowed us to provide you access to the 8-hour priority slots.

What this means is that once we’ve deleted this information, you’ll no longer have access to priority slots. This won’t affect your existing Tesco account in any other way.
Has anyone had anything similar from other big supermarkets? It seems the Govt doesn't want the vulnerable to get help with food deliveries any more.

Your right they have just written to the former shielding ones to say that all has now ceased.
D.

 

[KateS14]

Yep, I have had this request to delete all such data at work (not a supermarket, but another organisation that was able to offer targeted support to shielding / clinically vulnerable families). Looks like the whole scheme is being abandoned.
I completely understand this in terms of data retention / GDPR issues, but it feels a little premature still.

 

[Pipp]

Tesco was the only supermarket that provided me with the priority slots after several weeks into the first lockdown, despite being on the shielding list. Other supermarkets would only help out customers with membership of their various loyalty schemes.They have served me well, and I have been grateful, despite the priority slots meaning I would have a delivery somewhere in a approximately 8 hour window. I guess that the powers that be thought that as I was shielding I had nothing better to do than sit at home all day. Which to be fair, in the early days, that is what I did. More recently I have chosen to pay extra for a one hour delivery slot. I still don’t go into crowded places and our local supermarkets do get busy. The one hour slot is suitable so that I don’t have to confine to the house, either myself, or my ‘significant other’ who I need to help with the unloading and putting away of the groceries. Also, Tesco gave the option to pay up front, using their Clubcard vouchers, for home deliveries. This allows customers to book a delivery slot 4 weeks in advance. Can’t grumble at that. It must have been difficult to set up at the start, but I am more than happy with how they care for me, a long standing, but somewhat disabled, vulnerable customer.

I have also been impressed with customer service from local deli / butcher/ greengrocer, who have gone out of their way to deliver and provide excellent service, despite the logistical problems businesses have had themselves.

 

[Riva_Roxaban]

Has anyone had anything similar from other big supermarkets? It seems the Govt doesn't want the vulnerable to get help with food deliveries any more.

I think the three major food chains Woolworth's Coles and Aldi in Australia are the three major employers of people would tell the federal government where to go if they tried that **** here (no more political donations for you).

Woolies alone employ over 200 thousand people in their stores here

https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us

 

[Tannith]

I have a lung condition and live with someone else who is also vulnerable, though not actually on the list. Neither of us goes out at all for anything other than medical appointments (& a funeral). We would not dream of going into a supermarket, so are wholly dependent on deliveries, which are more often than not incomplete over a range of everyday items. We are now stopping even deliveries for a while since the infection rates have gone back to nearly January levels. I know they are not hugely dangerous as transmission is mainly respiratory, but I still prefer not to have a delivery person coming into my tiny front garden, back and forth a number of times from the van, when we have to go out immediately to bring the stuff in. Plus food, especially fresh food, being touched by all the handlers involved. So we are trying to manage on what we have in the freezer/tinned/dried for as long as we can.
The Govt stopping supermarkets from helping vulnerable people when they have run out of food is a symptom of their disregard for stopping the spread of the virus. The longer they do that, the longer we shall all be at risk from it, and from any new variant. The former shielders are the group most likely to suffer the most.

 

[Pipp]

Oh, @Tannith. Have you told your doctor about your fear of catching covid?
Have you had all your vaccine doses? You cannot live off stored food indefinitely.
Are you worrying because the priority deliveries are stopping, or is it because you have fear of somebody in the supply chain bringing infection to you? Whatever it is you do need some emotional and practical support to overcome this.

My own opinion on the stopping priority deliveries for ‘vulnerable’ shielding customers is that I am no longer considering myself to be vulnerable. Yes, I have impairments, but at the very start of the pandemic I resented that information being shared by supermarkets. I did not want to regard myself as a victim. Although we are still not over the pandemic, there is a lot more to feel positive about. Also, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the big supermarkets are not stopping deliveries to vulnerable customers, just putting us on equal terms with other customers, who can book deliveries in the same way, at the same cost. At the start of the pandemic, the supermarkets were overwhelmed with requests for home deliveries. Hence the need to make special provision for those who were told to shield. They have, since, increased capacity to do that, and I can’t fault the service provided by supermarkets and independent food suppliers.

 

[Tannith]

Oh, @Tannith. Have you told your doctor about your fear of catching covid?
Have you had all your vaccine doses? You cannot live off stored food indefinitely.
Are you worrying because the priority deliveries are stopping, or is it because you have fear of somebody in the supply chain bringing infection to you? Whatever it is you do need some emotional and practical support to overcome this.

My own opinion on the stopping priority deliveries for ‘vulnerable’ shielding customers is that I am no longer considering myself to be vulnerable. Yes, I have impairments, but at the very start of the pandemic I resented that information being shared by supermarkets. I did not want to regard myself as a victim. Although we are still not over the pandemic, there is a lot more to feel positive about. Also, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the big supermarkets are not stopping deliveries to vulnerable customers, just putting us on equal terms with other customers, who can book deliveries in the same way, at the same cost. At the start of the pandemic, the supermarkets were overwhelmed with requests for home deliveries. Hence the need to make special provision for those who were told to shield. They have, since, increased capacity to do that, and I can’t fault the service provided by supermarkets and independent food suppliers.

I am bothered that priority deliveries are stopping mainly because we could have another emergency like the one we had at the start of the pandemic, when people couldn't get food/other essentials like washing up liquid. We couldn't, until the priority deliveries started. We totally depended on what we had in the freezer. Even the meagre food boxes (containing rotten carrots most weeks) didn't start for ages. Even with the priority deliveries it was near impossible to get eggs, flour, butter, spread, milk etc.
Also because it is an indication that Govt is ignoring the pandemic and treating it as over when (quite apart from food deliveries) it is still a major risk to us all, especially those of us who are extra vulnerable. Letting it spread maximises the risk of a mutation that dodges the vaccine arising. Then we would be right back where we started.
Separate from that, we have stopped having deliveries for as long as we can manage because we live in the area with the highest covid figures at the moment, and although small, there is a risk of infection from the supply chain. This is nowhere near high enough to go without food, but, for the time being, while we have some in the freezer we shall avoid any unnecessary contact with the outside world.