Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons have all unveiled moves that they hope will enable them to cope with the spike in demand caused by coronavirus-related stockpiling and ensure the most vulnerable members of society have access to essential goods.
Tesco has introduced a storewide restriction of only three items per customer on every product line, and removed multi-buy promotions. It will also be closing all its meat, fish, deli counters and salad bars so that staff can focus on stocking shelves. Distancing measures are being introduced at checkouts and customers are being encouraged to pay by card to help avoid the virus spreading.
Meanwhile, Tesco is planning to prioritise its online or Click+Collect services for more vulnerable customers, such as elderly people. This customer group will also be given priority access to its stores for one hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning between 9-10am.
In a statement to customers, Chief Executive Dave Lewis said: “If you could help us by limiting demand of essential items and allowing us to focus on the core needs of our customers – we are confident that we can continue to feed the nation. We are delivering food daily to our stores, but this is a very challenging time and we will only get through this if we work together.”
Asda is also capping to three the number of items of basic products that can be bought by each customer. Affected lines involve the most in-demand food, cleaning and toiletry products. The company added that it is reducing services such as cafes and counters as part of its response, and reducing store hours so that it can re-stock shelves as quickly as possible.
“Whilst we are doing everything we can to maintain the availability of products, we are asking our customers to shop responsibly so that everyone has access to the essentials,” Asda said.
Morrisons has implemented a series of measures to make sure it can keep up with the increased demand, including hiring more staff, rationing products, and adding extra capacity to its delivery operations. It has also promised to pay smaller suppliers within 48 hours to assist their cash flows.
“Yesterday’s like-for-like (sales rise) was higher than Monday’s, Monday’s was higher than Friday’s, last week’s was higher than the week before,” said Morrisons Chief Operating Officer Trevor Strain.
He added that it was inevitable there would be pressure in the European supply-chain given the extraordinary demand, although hauliers have said that so far the trucks and ships which bring food to much of Britain were still getting supplies through.
Sainsbury’s is also making similar moves on rationing, food counters, and offering special shopping periods for vulnerable customers. From Monday, the group will also operate an expanded click & collect service, with a significant increase in the number of collection sites across the UK.
“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 numbers of customers,” said Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe.
The supermarket industry as a whole has been working closely with suppliers to keep products moving through the system and is making more deliveries to stores to get shelves re-stocked.
Industry sources have said the government was only just starting to understand the enormity of the crisis. There have been calls to lift restrictions on driver hours and relax competition laws so that retailers can work together more closely to ensure people in all parts of the country can access the food they need.
Morrisons Chief Executive David Potts said yesterday: “There will be legislation that works well around competition in peace time and not so well in war time.”
