Tesco has become the latest supermarket retailer to say the recent spike in demand for groceries is easing, with its operations benefitting from thousands of extra staff.
An update to its customers by Chief Executive Dave Lewis stated that fresh food stocks have returned to almost normal levels, while the recovery in packaged groceries will take a few more days. The group added that most stores will have stock of just about everything, but it may still have some gaps in a few product areas.
Tesco’s store-wide limit of three items per customer on every product line remains, as does the ban on multi-buy promotions.
Aldi, Morrisons, Waitrose and Lidl have this week all started loosening their product purchasing restrictions.
Market data released yesterday by Kantar and Nielsen showed the recent surge in demand for groceries was driven by people making additional shopping trips and buying slightly more each time, rather than people panic paying in one hit.
Meanwhile, Lewis revealed that Tesco has recruited 35,000 additional workers in the last 10 days to help get it to cope with the surge in demand. This included pickers and drivers for its home delivery and click & collect service where capacity has increased to around 780,000 slots, up from 660,000 two weeks ago. It plans to increase this by another 100,000 in the coming weeks.
Lewis also announced that Tesco was donating £30m to community organisations under pressure from the coronavirus crisis.
He concluded his statement to customers by saying: “As the Prime Minister has said, it looks like we are nearer to the beginning of all this than the end. We are still learning, and still adjusting, so that we can provide you with the food and essentials you need.”
NAM Implication:
- ‘Some gaps’!!: Those that mind, don’t matter. Those that matter, don’t mind…
