17 March 2020. The Guardian, UK: Sainsbury’s is closing its cafes as well as meat, fish and pizza service counters to free up its staff and delivery network for essentials as supermarkets struggle with unprecedented demand during the coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter to customers, Mike Coupe, chief executive of the UK’s second largest supermarket chain, said the counters would close on Thursday. From Wednesday, Sainsbury’s will also be restricting shoppers to buying a maximum of three items of any grocery product and two packets of popular items such as toilet paper, soap and UHT milk. Previously Sainsbury’s had limited customers to five items of the most popular products.
Coupe said: “We have enough food coming into the system, but are limiting sales so that it stays on shelves for longer and can be bought by a larger number of customers.”
Sainsbury’s tighter restrictions are expected to be followed by other supermarket chains as many shelves lie empty across the UK. Over the weekend, shortages extended beyond toilet roll, canned food and pasta to fresh meat, flour, frozen vegetables, eggs, sugar and teabags.
Aldi has introduced a four items per shopper limit on all products, and Tesco cut its limit from five to two items over the weekend on products including toilet roll, long-life milk, pasta and tissues.
Industry insiders said all supermarkets were likely to extend these limits to more products and potentially reduce the maximum number of items each shopper can buy.
The restrictions will not be centrally coordinated by the industry as doing so would breach competition regulations. Insiders said government-backed restrictions would take too long to implement and not be sufficiently responsive.
One industry source said there was not complete agreement on whether restrictions would help. They said: “There can be a problem of people going to shops more often, swapping one big shop for several small shops.”
As they try to keep up with demand, supermarkets are also expected to reduce the range of products on offer, with options such as wholemeal organic pasta disappearing and potential reductions in options such as single pints of milk instead of two- or four-pint bottles.
Waitrose, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have also called on hundreds of head office staff to help out in stores as they struggle to tackle queues. About 600 John Lewis and head office staff have been drafted into Waitrose outlets, and Morrisons said 500 head office workers were now working in its distribution centres and stores.
Waitrose is also asking store workers in 40 outlets to recommend friends and family who can help out for about a month.
In a call with the secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, George Eustice, on Tuesday, retail bosses are also understood to have discussed ways to protect elderly and vulnerable shoppers.
Some chains, including Iceland, have already set aside a couple of hours for older and more vulnerable shoppers to use their stores exclusively. Sainsbury’s said it would set aside the first hour of trading in all stores on Thursday this week for the elderly and vulnerable and would be giving priority to online orders from those over 70 and the disabled.
From next week Morrisons is introducing three food parcel options, which can be ordered by phone for home delivery. The Bradford-based chain is recruiting about 2,500 pickers and drivers to meet demand for home delivery via its online store and Amazon.
The grocery industry is preparing for a busy period – which could last months – after the shift towards home working this week, and the government’s advice to avoid restaurants, cafes and bars has also led to a rise in home catering.
In recent days, demand for fresh produce has surged as people shift from takeaway sandwiches or lunch in the staff canteen to eating at home. In usual circumstances, dining out or takeaways make up about a third of what we eat.
Fresh produce companies said there was currently no problem with supplies from Spain, where much of the UK’s fresh salad and vegetables come from at this time of year.
But there have been some delays in deliveries to the UK as drivers are not keen to leave their home countries, while border crossings have taken longer because of restrictions on movement.
