Emptying the supermarket shelves

[Skippy]

I don't think that bit is quite right. Lorry drivers can only drive for a limited amount of hours before they must take a break but as far as i understand ( unless they've relaxed the law on this point) a driver cannot take his required breaks in a moving vehicle.

[Weedo]

I seem to recall that one of the reasons that it was considered beneficial to "get it over with" while young was because of the added effects of contracting as an adult - mumps was rally not nice for the mature gonads, chickenpox turned into (or regenerated into) shingles and some measles strains could cause birth defects? Personally, I have never had any of the "routine" diseases of old - perhaps the large extended family in frequent close contact created a natural immunity?

[Odsox]

I don't think that bit is quite right. Lorry drivers can only drive for a limited amount of hours before they must take a break but as far as i understand ( unless they've relaxed the law on this point) a driver cannot take his required breaks in a moving vehicle.

I didn't mean that lorry drivers had different rules in Ireland, Skippy.
What I meant was that here we don't subscribe to "Just in Time" deliveries and have large distribution centres with stockpiles instead, just like it used to be.
Plus of course lorry drivers sleep on the ferries while still technically mobile.

[Green Aura]

I'm guessing the distribution that, as you say, is so carefully balanced (JIT) has been drastically affected by several factors - the new restrictions ina referred to, staff shortages due to ill health or need to isolate, all the way through the chain of supply.
The cynic in me also has a sneaking suspicion that rationing these slots encourages overbuying. The supermarkets don't care if we buy too much and then have to throw away stuff. Most people will throw away food that's past its best before date even though it's perfectly edible and nutritious. Stuff that years ago would never have had a date on it.
Social media was full, after the first rush of panic buying, of pictures of wasted food spilling out of bins and piled up next to the kitchen waste recycling bins - all still looking perfectly good.
One thing made me howl the other day. Some chap had signed up to a veg box scheme - presumably a better way of ensuring some food coming in because of the empty supermarket shelves. I'm guessing he wasn't big on eating veg prior to this as he posted a picture of a vegetable which was new to him. What was it? A radish.

[ina]

Oh dear - exotic veg...

I find that I have been overbuying, too - simply because every time you went to a shop, they only had half of what was required, so you just bought things "in case they wouldn't be there next time you wanted them"... However, I very rarely throw anything out, so I'm constantly eating stuff that's way out of date. Ham 3 weeks over, yoghurt a month, cheese smelling rather more cheesy than usual... Veg gets reconstituted in a water bath. And I still don't have a fridge or freezer. Not had food poisoning yet!

[Odsox]

That's where I'm lucky, the only vegetable that we buy are chestnut mushrooms, and they are hardy vital .. just nice to have.
Also luckily the virus started here just when my veggies started to grow like mad. Now it's back to the (normal) case of deciding what goes with today's vegetable, rather than everyone else's decision of what veg to have with their meal.

[ina]

Just had a very successful shopping trip: A walk to the local farm and their egg shed - 6 duck eggs, 6 hen's eggs, 2 goose eggs, 12 quail eggs... And a bunch of flowers.

[Green Aura]

Oooh, I love duck eggs. My local supply dried up after a visit from an enterprising fox!

[Skippy]

I don't think that bit is quite right. Lorry drivers can only drive for a limited amount of hours before they must take a break but as far as i understand ( unless they've relaxed the law on this point) a driver cannot take his required breaks in a moving vehicle.

I didn't mean that lorry drivers had different rules in Ireland, Skippy.
What I meant was that here we don't subscribe to "Just in Time" deliveries and have large distribution centres with stockpiles instead, just like it used to be.
Plus of course lorry drivers sleep on the ferries while still technically mobile.

Oh right i see . Not a big fan of the JIT thing myself although there is the argument thst it has helped to make food and other goods cheaper. The recent fuss about people panic buying is in my view largely a logistics problem more than anything else but the blame has been laid at the feet of shoppers for being selfish and greedy.
I was assuming that irish lorry drivers had the same rules as uk ones . We may not now be part of the eu but the rules used here were set by the eu in the past. Good point about the ferries although the moving vehicle bit refers just to road vehicles as far as i can see and was drafted to stop double manning of a lorry with one sleeping or trying to sleep in the back of the cab.

[ina]

They might still have to stop for sleeping even when double manned - but they could then drive for 16 hours per day (each driver 8 hours), and still have enough time for proper sleep in a motel. I don't know how it works, can't find the article where I first read about it now...