Mah mah mah my Corona.

 WARNING! - This post contains maximum ranting.

Well as the world goes to (retail) Hell in a hand basket due to that pesky Corona virus and everything grinds to a halt I thought I'd put my tuppence worth in on the current trend of 'panic' buying and stockpiling that seems to have overtaken casual racism, football and Love Island as the nation's post-Brexit hobby of choice.

Apologies in advance cos this may get a wee bit ranty (surprise?) but the whole thing has gotten to a point where I feel like screaming.

And here is as good a place as any.

A mentalist yesterday.

Now shopping at the best of times can be stressful, the noise, the bustle, the mad folk pushing their trolleys into you as groups of (older) men - who've obviously never shopped alone before - gaze angrily at the shelves in the vague hope that the items they need will miraculously appear in front of them all add up to what can be a pretty awful experience all round whether you be an autie adult or a parent/carer out trying to get your shopping done.

Which, lets be honest is a major undertaking at the best of time seeing as we're notorious for being maybe a wee bit rigid when it comes to what we eat.

Obviously many retailers have tried to help with this by instigating Autism Friendly Shopping hours - and by help I mean making the least possible effort in an attempt to grab the hard earned autistic pound by just calling the already deathly quiet 9AM till 10 Am Saturday (sometimes Sunday) morning slot Autism Friendly then patting themselves on the back at how progressive and inclusive they are.

But only once a month in some cases obviously, I mean woe betide that we'd want to go out at normal times.

I've ranted about this before (have a search for Autism friendly shops on here, go on knock yourself out I'll still be here when you get back) so not going to dwell too much on that now.

 

Shake well before use.

 As mentioned previously you'd think that folk wouldn't mind helping out or just being a wee bit more understanding regarding autism and shopping seeing as we're forever being told how great a nation we are (Blitz spirit and all that) but bizarrely when Morrison's first announce the scheme it was met with responses like this:

Lovely eh?

So after years of the sarcastic comments, dirty looks and the like when we're out shopping en masse it's now suddenly totally OK for folk like the ones that commented above to swear, shout, grab anything that comes to hand and basically just think of themselves as the massed herd of arsehole-ness that is 'normal' society collapses at the first sign of a tickly cough.

It's like some hive-mind of mediocrity has taken over that proves once and for all that the caring, sharing empathic nature that you all hold so dear - and that you vilify us for allegedly not having is actually a huge facade.

You want proof?

Supermarkets are actually issuing statements about leaving enough food and provisions for the elderly and vulnerable.

I'm sorry but you should know that anyway, you shouldn't need a reminder.

It's a wee bit like the whole person/condition first thing over again....we prefer autistic person whilst non-autistic folk harp on about 'seeing the person first' almost like you need reminding that we're people because if it's not simply put in front of you you'll forget.

Tho' in fairness if you're having to deal with an autistic kid making a noise in a shop like poor Saxongirl2000 had to then I'm not surprised you forget stuff.

Like basic goodness.

And compassion.

Earlier in the week - and for the first time in a very long while - I had to abandon my trolley in one of the aisles in my local supermarket as the whole frantic, random mentalism of the shop at that time was just too much.

And I'm not one to usually get so overwhelmed by sensory stuff.

So imagine what it must be like for those who are.

Put it simply, you know how stressful you're finding it when shopping at the moment?

That's what it's like for us all the time.

So try to think of something other than how much toilet paper you'll need to buy if you're stuck in your house with nothing to do but wipe your arse for a month.

Oh and another thing, that repurposed decorating mask and those rubber gloves won't keep you safe.

But they will make you look like an utter fuckwit.

Grow up.

Thanks for listening.

As an aside, after my mini-meltdown earlier in the week I Tweeted Morrisons, Sainsburys, Aldi and Asda and the like to see if it were possible to extend Autism friendly shopping hours for those of us (and our kids) with a limited diet seeing as it's hard enough shopping normally without fighting mad folk stockpiling whatever they can get their hands on.

Still waiting for a reply. 

Surprised?

News just in....Whilst nattering to staff today I found out that although

Morrisons are still running their Autism hour at the moment that it's actually the busiest time of the day due to folk stockpiling. so been told it's best to avoid those times.

So again I ask if there's any chance that folk doing this could just stop or that the store be a wee bit stricter? - it's not a case of us not getting the food we want it's actually about us not getting the only food we can eat, for example, one of our brood will only eat pasta, Aldi's own pasta sauce, Aldi or Morrisons

mini pizza and garlic bread.

Currently we can only get garlic bread.

Think about that.