Tesco brings in 80-item cap on online orders to boost safety

Tesco has announced it would cap online orders at 80 items in a bid to increase the number of customers it can safely deliver to.

The supermarket chain, which has already limited all products to a maximum of three per customer both online or in stores, said online orders already placed would be unaffected unless customers try to make changes to them. Anyone altering an existing order will become subject to the 80-item limit.

A spokesperson for the brand said: “We’re at full capacity for the next few weeks and we ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online.

“This will help us to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.”

The move comes as a leading supermarket boss urged healthy people to go against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advice and visit supermarkets in person to free up delivery slots for the elderly and the vulnerable.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said the company has “done their best” to restrict online orders to those most in need, but any new slots released were being “quickly snapped up”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In a seminal address to the nation, the Prime Minister urged everyone to use food delivery services wherever possible. The reality is that current demand vastly exceeds supply.

“I’d actually urge the opposite of the PM, in that, if you are healthy, not in a vulnerable category, please do shop in store.”