Heatwave sees panic buying of fans, bottled water and BBQs

FANDEMONIUM broke out on high streets across the country with panic buying driving a 50-fold increase in demand for fans – alongside a similar boom for bottled water, ice lollies, BBQs and canned cocktails.

Many stores also faced a spike in demand for portable air conditioners – with several products listed as out of stock as retailers were unable to meet customer demand due to delivery issues.

Aldi said that its online sales of electric fans were up by more than 5,000 per cent compared to last year – while children’s paddling pools and deodorant sales had also reached record heights.

One of the chain’s branches in south

London even took the unusual step of rationing customers to a single bottle of water amid efforts to safeguard supplies.

Sainsbury’s also reported evidence of panic buying, revealing its sales of air conditioners had soared by 2,420 per cent on last week, while fans were up 1,876 per cent and pools by 814 per cent.

Tesco said it had sold 14 times more paddling pools over the past week than it did the week before, while sales of inflatables, sprinklers and water games had increased by 1,568 per cent. It is expecting to sell more than nine million ice lollies this week, as well as more than 900,000 packs of BBQ meat, two million packs of sausages, nearly three million punnets of strawberries and more than 5.5 million bottles of wine.

The grocer is also selling discounted cherries after the high temperatures created an unexpected glut of British-grown produce.

John Lewis reported its own sales of fans were up 256 per cent on last year, while blackout curtains were up 193 per cent as sweltering shoppers tried to guarantee a good night’s sleep.

Waitrose said sales of ice cream were up 20 per cent on last week and sun care products had soared by 220 per cent, while searches for canned cocktails on Waitrose.com had increased by 188 per cent on last month.

Lakeland said sales of a patio midge and mosquito repeller machine were up 53 per cent on last week, while sales of its gas BBQs had soared by 66 per cent – with the figure for its 12-inch pizza oven up 170 per cent.