AS STUDENTS AND YOUNGSTERS PARTY ...THE PANIC-BUYING’S ALREADY BEGUN TALE OF TWO CORONA BRITAINS
IT was a weekend of contrasts that displayed the reckless arrogance of youth – and growing concern among older Britons.
While students spilled out of bars and thronged in the streets on Freshers’ Week, shoppers were stripping shelves bare.
In scenes that harked back to the stockpiling earlier in the year ahead of March’s lockdown, Britons were seen leaving supermarkets with their trolleys piled high with bumper packs of toilet roll.
Amid fears of ‘lockdown-lite’, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) insists grocery supply lines are much stronger now and is confident shortages can be avoided.
But there has already been a massive increase in demand for online shopping slots and home deliveries, while photographs have been posted online of empty shelves at stores.
Morrisons is putting more marshals on doors to manage queues and help customers.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said it was important that people are considerate when shopping.
‘Supply chains are stronger than ever before and we do not anticipate any issues in the availability of food or other goods under any future lockdown,’ he said.
‘Nonetheless, we urge consumers to be considerate of others and shop as they normally would.’
Tesco said it has good availability in stores and online, and has not experienced any shortages.
A spokesman for the chain said: ‘We have more than doubled our online capacity from around 600,000 weekly slots at the start of the crisis to 1.5 million now.’
There have so far been no reports of renewed panic buying anywhere in Scotland.
But with new restrictions expected to be put in place today,
fears are growing that shelves north of the Border will also start to empty.
However, the thought of another lockdown seemed far from the minds of young people as they congregated in the streets.
In Manchester, three young women linked arms and giggled as they staggered through the city centre.
And a Sunday night in Newcastle looked like business as usual, with flocks of revellers gathering outside pubs – despite the 10pm curfew in the North East.
There have also been reports of students attending banned mass parties in Manchester, Oxford as well as newly-arrived students in Glasgow attending Freshers’ week bashes.
A group of students were found hiding in cupboards after police stormed a house party in Glasgow last week.
Police were called to the party at an address in the Hyndland area of the city in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Officers, who were being shadowed by Mail on Sunday journalists, began opening doors to cupboards and bedrooms at the house only to find ‘grinning students’ who had attempted to hide – some of whom were ‘demanding to see warrants’.
To try to avoid any virus outbreaks, another top university is urging its students to do their socialising in specially-erected marquees, rather than the usual crowded pubs and bars.
Professor Tim Quine, deputy Vice-Chancellor for education at the University of Exeter, said that he hoped students would use the well-ventilated marquees on campus instead of heading to the city centre.
He said: ‘We’re looking at ways that students can use those socially in the evening to try and keep within the rule of six, but also give them opportunities to spend time on campus rather than going into the city because we are aware that our neighbours are nervous about the arrival of students.’