STORES’ EMPTY SHELVES

Empty shelves have been increasingly seen in supermarkets across Scotland in recent weeks.

The Scottish Grocers’ Federation, which represents the country’s smaller chains of convenience stores, said businesses such as Spar and Scotmid have fared better than larger competitors due to a shift to focusing on using local suppliers.

“Brexit and Covid provided opportunities for them to do this as they are nimbler than the big supermarkets,” said Dr John Lee, the federation’s head of public affairs.

“However, while we might not suffer so many shortages as larger outlets, choice will become more limited. For instance, people will only be able to buy one brand of beans instead of having a choice of three or more.” The Co-op said it had already recruited 3,000 temporary staff to keep both its depots and stores working to capacity and shelves stocked.

The company said: “We are sorry if our customers are experiencing any out of stock products. Like many retailers, we are impacted by some patchy disruption to our deliveries, logistics and store operations but we are working closely with our suppliers to get re-stocked quickly.”