Toilet paper, kitchen roll and face tissue were the top three most unavailable products across leading UK supermarkets in the week ending 19 April, with an average of 41.3% of items out of stock across the period.
This is according to research by Edge by Ascential, which suggests there has been a second wave of ‘stockpiling’ of essential items after the UK coronavirus lockdown was extended for another three weeks.
The firm’s data also reveals that demand for popular food stockpiling items has resumed with shelf-stable products such as tinned pasta (35%), rice (33.6%) and dry pasta (30%) going out of stock during the week. This was most noticeable in Tesco, which had the biggest rise in unavailability, particularly within dry pasta, rising from 22.3% out of stock to 46.4% by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, Ocado experienced the greatest unavailability in frozen foods (7.2%). This was across most sub-categories, including frozen meat and poultry (7.2%), frozen potatoes (8.7%) and ice cream (9.1%).
Chris Elliott, Insight Manager at Edge by Ascential, said: “Stock levels across the supermarkets started to stabilise over the last few weeks, with some retailers relaxing restrictions and consumers even opting to spend on other items aside from the necessities, such as Easter eggs.
“However, it seems that consumers are now running low in essential items that they had stockpiled several weeks ago, such as toilet roll and dry pasta, but could also be a response to the ‘lockdown’ being recently extended for at least another three weeks. However, retailers are now more prepared to handle increased demand, and many have also improved in their ability to replenish these items with ease.”
