Shop in store and leave deliveries for the elderly, supermarkets tell young

Martin Evans, Laura Onita

Helena Horton SUPERMARKETS are urging young people to ignore Government advice and visit stores in person, so they can free up online delivery slots for the elderly and vulnerable.

Following Monday’s announcement of a national lockdown, Boris Johnson, urged the public to only shop for essen- tials and rely instead on food delivery services “where you can”.

As a result, supermarkets were inundated with orders and have been warning some customers it could take a month for their delivery to arrive.

The problem is particularly acute for the elderly and vulnerable, who have been told not to leave their homes under any circumstances for 12 weeks.

Many have been struggling to get food and other essentials and the Government is urgently trying to identify those who are most in need.

Supermarkets are now suggesting the best way to ease the crisis is to encourage young, fit and healthy people back into their stores and allow the vulnerable to use delivery services. In recent days supermarkets have introduced strict safety measures to ensure customers are able to maintain social distancing while out shopping, including restricting the number of customers in a store at any one time, and placing grids on the floor to keep people apart when they are queuing.

Tesco is launching a new advertising campaign this weekend to reassure those who are able to visit stores that it is safe to do so. The supermarket is also restricting the number of items a customer can order online to 80.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so that we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.

“We’re looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available and, by introducing a limit of 80 items per online order, we’ll be able to get more orders on to each van, helping us to ensure all customers can get the essentials they need.”

Richard Walker, Iceland Foods’ managing director, also said it was time people returned to stores in order to allow delivery services to prioritise those most in need. He said: “I would urge the opposite of the PM. If you are healthy, not in a vulnerable category and adhere to social distancing guidelines, please do shop in-store.”

Mr Walker told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Iceland would seek to prioritise online shopping for customers who needed it most.

Only a tenth of the chain’s sales are made online, Mr Walker said, and, even doubling its online delivery capacity, it cannot fulfil demand.

Supermarkets are working with the Government and local authorities to identify those people most in need.

Sainsbury’s has its own database of 270,000 customers in the elderly or vulnerable category and is seeking to prioritise their deliveries. Waitrose is using information from its customer database to contact the vulnerable directly, so they do not need to wait in long online queues to book a slot.