Shoppers fail to heed supermarket pleas to stop panic buying
PLEAS for shoppers not to panic buy fell on deaf ears yesterday amid scenes of chaos.
Supermarket shelves were stripped bare, with some of those stockpiling branded “locusts”.
Shop staff bore the brunt of people’s frustration at long queues and being told there were limits on how much they could buy.
Attempts by store chiefs to reserve time slots for the elderly and vulnerable were in some cases ignored.
Supermarkets and their supply chains are buckling under the pressure of unprecedented demand caused by the coronavirus crisis.
Some stores are cutting back on product ranges and moving staff from other duties to try to get stock on shelves as fast as possible.
Shoppers queued from dawn yesterday to be first in line when supermarkets opened their doors.
A Cabinet minister warned shoppers to “be considerate to others”.
Insisting the UK has enough food to go around, Environment Secretary George Eustice told MPs that firms and officials were “working around the clock” to ensure food was available.
He added: “We have significant resilience in our food supply chain in that food manufacturers are used to coping with increases in demand, not least every year during Christmas. There isn’t a shortage of food.”
Asda boss Roger Burnley said: “We’re
BY GRAHAM HISCOTT doing everything we can to keep our shelves stocked and our deliveries coming.”
While supermarkets were extremely busy, the public were urged to visit smaller shops which in many cases have plenty of stock.
Online supermarket Ocado has been forced to temporarily halt taking orders because of unprecedented demand.
“We have had hours in the week with 100 times the normal level of transactions,” said finance director Duncan Tatton-Brown.
People took to social media to express alarm at what was happened.
One person said on Twitter: “I was in a store last night and the shelves were bare. The locusts had descended.”
He posted a picture of full shelves yesterday morning, adding: “Your night-shift shelf stackers are heroes.”
Yet shopworkers union Usdaw says supermarket staff are being verbally abused when they stop people from buying more than they are allowed.
Spokesman David Williams said: “Shopworkers are on the front line. There are incidents of mass scrabbling when stuff goes on to the shelves.
“People are working out when the lorries arrive at the stores and are waiting for the products to come out.”
Meanwhile, flat-pack furniture giant IKEA announced it was temporarily closing its UK stores from today at 6pm in a bid to limit the spread of the virus.