Going to the supermarket at the moment is not quite the same experience it was five or six weeks ago.
The deadly coronavirus outbreak – and the lockdown and social distancing rules it brought with it – means there are a host of new measures in-place at our local shops.
Queues have started forming outside, couples are required to nominate just one shopper to go in, and single-file lanes are in operation.
It makes the weekly supermarket shop that little bit more testing, but we all know it's absolutely necessary in the fight to halt the Covid-19 outbreak.
One thing many of us will have been chatting about, and trying to figure out, is when the shops will be at their quietest.
Well, researchers behind the Oxford COVID-19 Impact Monitor believe the best time to do your shopping across the UK is between 9am and 10am on Wednesday mornings. That's when there are least people about. Prior to the outbreak the quietest time was 9am on a Sunday.
The data is put together by university researchers using mobile phone data signals and is totally anonymous.
But what about Edinburgh's supermarkets?
Well a quick look at Google data on the busiest times tells us for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays it's not quite the same across the board – with different stores at their quietest at different times.
If you're planning on heading to the Tesco Superstore on Broughton Road in the coming days, you're probably best doing so before midday on Friday or in the mid-afternoon around 2pm or 3pm. The shop will be at it's busiest around 5pm - 6pm on Friday.
It's a similar story at ASDA stores at Chesser, the Jewel and Straiton with the bet times to visit either in the morning or after 6pm or 7pm. The Newhaven ASDA tends to be particularly quiet around 10am Saturday – according to the data.
The best time to get your shopping done at the Morrisons on Ferry Road is around 8am or 9am on Saturday – with the shop busier in the afternoon.
Sainsbury's at Meadowbank appears to get gradually busier throughout the day on Friday – peaking at around 6pm – while it tends to be at its busiest mid-afternoon on weekends. Again, first thing in the morning is your best bet. It's a similar story at the Murrayfield shop.
Lidl previously produced a traffic light system showing the busiest and quietest times across the board. They said stores are at their busiest between 12pm and 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 1pm to 7pm Sundays. The quietest times are between 8am and 9am, and 8pm and 9pm.
