Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘It’s madness – there’s enough for everyone’
Pictures of supermarket shelves stripped bare have been commonplace across the Canterbury district since the coronavirus hit the UK.
Panic buying has seen stores in the city, Herne Bay and Whitstable emptied of everyday essentials as shoppers rush to fill their fridges and freezers against government advice. But the unnecessary stockpiling is leaving little for those who need it most - the vulnerable and elderly - who face 12 weeks of self-isolation as the infection spreads.
Many supermarkets have put restrictions on the sale of particular items, while others have introduced dedicated opening times for the elderly.
Yet to allocate special opening is Asda, where dozens queued yesterday morning ahead of its 6am opening.
As many as 70 people were spotted waiting for staff to open the doors, but despite attempting to beat the rush they were still met with a shortage of essentials such as canned goods, pasta and meat.
In an attempt to prevent the shop from being emptied, staff were enforcing a three-item limit on purchases.
But 47-year-old James Barnden, who was visiting the store to buy porridge pots and crisps on his way to work, said: “To come in this morning and actually find people queuing to go in is astonishing.
“The queue was a quarter of the way back up the car park; I reckon there must have been a good 60 to 70 people.
“A lot of people are buying alcohol, believe it or not. “When you speak to a lot of people, they seem to be looking for the same things – toilets rolls, etc.” Canterbury glazier Steve Meech, 50, branded many shoppers’ decisions to bulk-buy items “selfish”, adding: “It’s a sad indictment of humanity that we’re actually stooping to this level.
“I’ve never seen it like this. I come here every day on my way into work to get some lunch and the car park’s my own, the store’s my own – it just has people stacking shelves.
“The world’s gone mad; the car park’s full, the shop’s full and the shelves are empty.” Shoppers also gathered outside Sainsbury’s in Kingsmead Road and the Lidl in Sturry Road before they opened at 7am and 8am respectively.
As the doors to the former were unlocked, staff could be heardtellingcustomerstoenter in single file because there had been a “mad rush” to enter the day before.
One shopper, 58, told the Gazette: “I’m literally trying to get in before the shelves are emptied.
“The last time I came here it was 10.30am-11am, and everything was gone. “I’ve been doing little bits of shopping – rather than stockpiling – but I’ve noticed it’s just getting harder and harder to get anything.
“Because my husband and I are in that older age bracket, you can’t help but panic. We don’t know if we’re going to be in lockdown for ages. It’s a little bit worrying.”
At Aldi, which has stores in Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay and Faversham, the restriction to four items on all products came into effect on Saturday. The move was announced on the chain’s social media pages and has been widely praised by shoppers.
An Aldi spokesman said: “All our stores remain open and continue to serve our valued customers. We have good product availability and our incredible colleagues are working tirelessly to restock and replenish shelves as quickly as they can. “As we have seen an unprecedented demand across our range, we will be limiting customer purchases to four units on all products to ensure all of our customers have an opportunity to purchase them.” Meanwhile, Tesco, which has a large store in Whitstable, has introduced a maximum purchase limit of two items per customer on a few items, including anti-bacterial products, dried pasta, tinned vegetables, toilet roll, tissues and UHT milk. Iceland in Whitstable was among the chain’s stores to introduce a dedicated two-hour slot for pensioners.
The firm said it was not a company policy, but it was allowing individual managers to decide how best to meet the needs of shoppers in their areas. Christina Champion, a supervisor at the Whitstable store, spoke to the Gazette as the store opened yesterday morning (Wednesday).
“It’s clearly been very well received and shows there is the demand from those people who cannot get out of town to the big stores, “she said.
“We will do the same from 10am tomorrow after we have had a big delivery and are able to restock our shelves.” Sainsbury’s was set to follow suit this morning and open an hour early for elderly and vulnerable shoppers.
It has also limited customers to five soaps, hand washes, tissues, cleaning products, rice, pasta and UHT milk, and just two packets of pain relief. All branches are to set aside their first hour of trading this morning (Thursday) for the exclusive use of elderly and vulnerable shoppers. Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe says online customers aged 70 or over, or with disabilities, will also be given priority access to online delivery slots.
Those people will be contacted in the next few days with details about how to use the service. Starting the same week the number of ‘click and collect’ sites will be “significantly increased” so shoppers can pick up goods from a car park collection point.
Mr Coupe said: “Please think before you buy and only buy what you and your family need. “If we all do this then we can make sure we have enough for everyone.”