BRITS are being urged to "shop as you normally would" after some supermarkets appeared to be raided by panic buyers.
Reduced-price food aisles and hygiene sections at some stores were left depleted in scenes familiar to March and early April, after a rise in Covid-19 cases in the UK.
But coinciding with the latest set of lockdown restrictions, more shoppers have reported similiar scenes with essentials in high demand.
On social media, people in the North-East reported panic buying towards the end of last week.
Toilet Paper Apocalypse 2.0 in the local Morrisons. Before anybody says it, it's not fake either. I popped out for a few bits of shopping and this is what social media creates... Madness! #panicbuying pic.twitter.com/AY4RwwRyK3
— Stevie G (@Renegade_Vibes) September 22, 2020
While others highlighted that they were unable to secure the supermarket delivery slots that they had previously been available.
Yep in North east, shelves have been empty last few days, delivery slots are plus one week now
— Marcus Dempsey (@marcusdempsey) September 22, 2020
Scenes pictured above have prompted the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to urge consumers to be considerate of others and “shop as you normally would".
Despite scenes at some stores, supermarket giants Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Aldi told the PA on Monday they had “good availability” and had not experienced any shortages yet.
Tesco added its online capacity had almost doubled from 600,000 weekly delivery slots in March, to 1.5m in September.
Director of food and sustainability at the BRC, Andrew Opie, said: “Supply chains are stronger than ever before and we do not anticipate any issues in the availability of food or other goods under a future lockdown.
“Nonetheless, we urge consumers to be considerate of others and shop as they normally would.”
He added that retailers have done an “excellent job” making sure customers have access to food throughout the pandemic, while installing perspex screens and other social distancing measures.
“As such, retail remains a safe space for consumers, even under future lockdowns,” he said.
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