Britain’s Coronavirus Panic Buying: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi Restrict Shoppers to Three items amid Stockpiling

ONE OF BRITAINS LARGEST SUPERMARKETS, TESCO, HAS ANNOUNCED PLANS TO INTRODUCE A THREE ITEM LIMIT ON ALL GOODS IN A BID TO STOP PANIC BUYING FROM ITS STORES.

Asda and Aldi are following suit with a similar range of measures aimed at halting the stockpiling of food by shoppers across the UK. At Sainsbury’s, a cap of two is being imposed on the most popular items, such as toilet roll, soap, and long-life milk.

Tesco will restrict all customers to a maximum of three items per product from Thursday, as it copes with the high demand from the coronavirus pandemic. The store announced earlier this week that it is reducing its hours at all 24-hour stores and will now open between 6 am and 10 pm in a bid to combat coronavirus demand.

Asda has also announced it is restricting all customers to buying up to three items on all food, toiletries and cleaning products amid a surge in demand.

The supermarket chain also said it will close its cafes and pizza counters to free space and staff in order to help keep shelves fully stocked.

The retailer has also temporarily reduced the opening hours of all its 24-hour stores so that they will be closed between 12 am and 6 am each day for re-stocking.

Sainsbury’s announced earlier on Wednesday that it has intensified its coronavirus rationing in a bid to thwart panic buying. Meat, fish and pizza counters and cafés are being closed from Thursday to free up lorry and warehouse capacity, as well as shelf-stacking time, for essential items to be replenished.

As of this morning, customers will only be able to buy a maximum of three grocery products, and two of the more popular products including toilet paper, soap, and milk.

ALDI was one the first supermarket to introduce rations on all its products in a bid to keep shelves stocked and cope with continued panic-buying from customers.

The discounter announced that it will be limiting customers to four of each product throughout its stores although it is thought this may soon change.