"It's like a smash and grab in here," a man standing next to me exclaims to his little daughter in Morrisons in Whitefield.
It's 4pm on a Monday evening, not first thing in the morning, but as the supermarket on Stanley Road is open until 10pm - it does seem very empty with six hours left to go until closing time.
Milk is running low but over in the fruit and vegetables aisles all I can see is a sea of empty plastic green trays.
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There are zero iceberg lettuces, ditto brussel sprouts, and the onion aisle is woefully lacking.
The impressive sounding cannonball onion is completely out of stock and what onions are left look more like a sparse pile of peel than actual vegetables.
I have seen scenes like this at tea-time in supermarkets before - but usually in the height of summer when a rare day of glorious sunshine sees all the salad leave the building in record time. It strikes me as unusual to be so short of lettuce on a nippy day in October.
Berries are in limited supply with raspberries and strawberries completely empty and a depleting stock of blueberries.
A sign reads: "Our growing suppliers in Spain have experienced unusually poor weather, affecting broccoli, courgettes, aubergines, grapes, blueberries and stone fruit.
"We're working hard with them to get the shelves restocked soon."
Add to the mix a shortage of HGV drivers and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the empty shelves speak for themselves.
Apples and pears are also run down to the bare minimum with just one solitary pear - being anything but what it's name suggests - remaining in one of the trays and no wonky apples to be seen at all.
As I stand in the greengrocer aisles the vast majority of green on display is from the empty plastic trays as opposed to the actual fruit and vegetables that should be on offer.
Morrisons own brand ready meals are also in short supply with just shepherd pie remaining in a small stack where the choice of various dishes normally are.
Over in Aldi on Higher Lane in Whitefield things fare a lot better.
But berries are once again noticeably short on supply or absent and olive oil also seems to be low. The Kalamata Olive Oil shelf is completely empty and a sign says it is temporarily out of stock.
A short distance up the road on Valley Park Road in Prestwich, Tesco appears to have had a mass exodus on berries.
One man stands in front of the wall of almost entirely empty trays and looks bewildered.
"I'm not sure you are going to get much in the way of berries here," I offer helpfully.
"All gone," he says, picking up a rare packet of blueberries and then putting them back down again.
Isolated icebergs and white cabbages look like they are social distancing with just one on display in a number of cardboard boxes.
I ask a couple if they are aware if Tesco, which is open until midnight, is usually so depleted in the fruit and veg aisle at 5pm but they are just passing by so don't know.
"It could be the time of the day or the HGV shortage or perhaps a combination of both, " they say. "But whatever it is, we can't get much salad."
A spokesperson for Morrisons said there had been a good and steady level of sales in store.
