Re: on topic

====

What I don't understand is, if you are already in a shop, what does it matter what you buy???

Only Essentials!!! Why???

The law does *not* limit you to buying "essentials". The regulations included a "reasonable excuse" to leave home "to obtain basic necessities, including food and medical supplies". They didn't say that you could buy only those while there.

Similarly there are restrictions which shops can open but not on what they can sell.

Took time for some police and others to cotton on to this.

Or catch skin cancer from queuing in all that pesky sun we had recently.

I understand from a distancing pov why they aren't offering key cutting

but I would have thought that comes into the category of really essential

tim

the advice to only buy the essentials seems to have come from B&Q

presumably to shorten the length of time each person spends in the store so that queue of people waiting outside can move along faster

seems reasonable to me

tim

It comes from the Government guidelines (re shopping).

" 1. When am I allowed to leave the house?

You should only leave or be away from your home for very limited purposes:

shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible"

No mention of shopping for interior paint or shelves ... whatever the

Also reducing the risks of being out in your car.

It's only likely to seem reasonable to reasonable people.

Others will want to test / question the common sense of it all for their own selfish ends.

Cheers, T i m

I've not seen that advice from B&Q. And they have famously been selling bedding plants, hanging baskets etc for some weeks now.

That guidance deals with /why/ you can be away from home. It does not deal with /what/ you can then buy. The difference matters - as the trading standards officer who told shops they couldn't sell chocolate Easter eggs soon found.

It does.

It also does that.

Of course.

A mate of mine runs a PC shop and has been open all the time. By open I mean 'doorstep drop off / pickup' of repairs and add-ons (webcams for School lessons etc).

He has had 3 visits by the Police because people (possibly rivals) who have 'complained' that he is still trading. Each time the Police were happy with the letters he showed them from both Trading Standards and Environmental Health. The local hospital also requested he stay open to maintain their staff machines.

So, OOI, what part of "... shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible" isn't clear to you?

If you are out shopping for medicine and happen to pick up a cream egg at the till then I doubt anyone is going to care (assuming they would sell them to you. Not been out to try for the last month).

In the same way that if you drove for 20 mins to stand and do star-jumps for 1 before driving home again, then that would be against the guidelines.

If you went to B&Q to get some *essential* hardware to maintain the weatherproofedness of your dwelling (say some roof tiles) and whilst you were there, picked up a packet of woodscrews, again I don't suppose you would get locked up.

Going to get some woodscrews and buying some roof-tiles while you were there as a way of justifying such is being antisocial (even if not illegal because of how difficult it might be to prove).

Cheers, T i m

They hope to stop buyers of 'non-essentials' coming to the store in the first place.

It was in the article as linked

"Despite this, B&Q initially decided to close.... It has since reopened, asking customers to focus on buying essential goods"

presumably everybody else commenting upon this item didn't actually read the article before so doing

not chancing holding my breath for apologies

tim

Actually I did read that but felt that "focus on" was not the same as "only buy".

Better late than never eh. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

meaning?

That the penny re all of this guidance might finally be dropping for you?

It doesn't matter what the law states if it's not your aim to break it and you won't break it if you actually understand and follow the guidance.

The mate who offered for the Mrs and I to take his fancy Merc out for a run for him (just to run it) and to use the 'excuse' of food shopping if stopped is an example of someone who hasn't really thought it through.

If we aren't driving for no 'essential' reason we don't need any excuses do we?

Cheers, T i m

A lot of people seem to be confusing guidance with law.

One thing I'm not clear on. If I go out to get food, can I stop at eg screwfix if it's along the way?

NT

On 03/05/2020 00:49, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: <snip>

And people misunderstanding the guidance out of an excess of enthusiasm (or something) - though they seem never to explain what they mean by "essentials". Eg does that mean no newspapers and books? no crayons and paper? no deodorant? no meat?

FWLIW I think on balance you couldn't now (after the changes to the regs) justify that unless you could have justified a separate trip to Screwfix alone.

I thought screwfix were closed to walk-ins (C&C only)

tim

It could depend on how essential the item was to ensuring the weatherproofedness / security of your house?

See, if during the detour to Screwfix (even C&C) for say something that wasn't 'essential' and you had an accident, the emergency services would be taken up for that 'non essential' detour (however minor / unlikely).

If you were in a grocery store buying your essentials (say you bought

Going out for just the treat wouldn't be considered 'essential'. Going into a shop just to buy a treat, even if walking past whilst 'exercising' is still against the spirit of the guidance as you would be increasing the exposure / transmission risk.

It's like the driving to then exercise thing. A 3 min drive to get you to a 1 hour walk is acceptable (but it would still be better to avoid the drive if possible).

Cheers, T i m

Indeed. 'Essential' is a 2 part concept, ie A is essential for B, and B is not fully clarified.

'supplies for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household,' being the key phrase. So I guess technically one could take a huge outdoor pool home if a screw were essential to stop a light arcing, though I'd expect any such act to be dragged into court to be tested! Obviously many of us are facing more realistic versions of getting nonessentials while somewhere to get essentials.

NT