Panic buying could restart, warns Tesco

[Silver]

Tesco has warned government officials that empty supermarket shelves caused by a national shortage of HGV drivers could lead to panic buying across the UK in the lead up to Christmas.

“Our concern is that the pictures of empty shelves will get 10 times worse by Christmas and then we’ll get panic buying,” Andrew Woolfenden, Tesco’s head of distribution and fulfilment in the UK, told a Cabinet Office meeting last week.

Despite offering bonuses worth £1,000 since the summer, Tesco, which is the UK’s largest supermarket, is still facing a shortfall of 800 drivers, Woolfenden said, adding that the company had struggled to hire more drivers than it had lost to rival firms in recent months.

Co-op warned last week that shoppers were likely to suffer price hikes and a more limited range in the run-up to Christmas as a result of driver shortages. “There won’t be the same level of choice as there has been in the past,” the Co-op chief executive, Steve Murrells, said.

Tesco warns of Christmas panic buying if driver shortage persists | Tesco | The Guardian

Edited September 23, 2021 by The Silver Shroud

[Wepwawet]

It started a few days ago. The shelves have been getting barer and barer week by week, and when the CO2 issue hit, I've noticed that the bottled water isles in several supermarkets, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, have been striped almost bare, as well as ready meals and tinned veg. I might invest in a spear, bow and arrow and camping equipment, like a primus stove in case the gas is turned off. I can still remember how to skin a rabbitt, boil tree bark so it's sort of like chicken, and know which shrooms to avoid.

[Essan]

I hope Tesco are prepared for the panic buying that their statement will cause .....

[Essan]

I must admit though, the idea that we will only have 9 different varieties of baked beans to choose from, instead of 23, and 16 types of bottled water instead of 95, does seriously worry me .....

[spartan max2]

1 hour ago, The Silver Shroud said:

Despite offering bonuses worth £1,000 since the summer, Tesco,

You don't say .

You're telling me a one-time bonus of 1k isn't enough to convince people to do it.

[L.A.T.1961]

I guess this all comes back to the idea that letting in 20,000 EU truck drivers will fix the problem.

Yet there are no 20,000 truckdrivers going spare in Europe and lifting restrictions could only be expected to have a minimal affect providing more. 

Any solution to this problem will have to be a domestic fix, reversing the backlog of driver testing after covid virtually stopped it for more than a year.

For example.

[+Desertrat56]

3 hours ago, The Silver Shroud said:

Tesco has warned government officials that empty supermarket shelves caused by a national shortage of HGV drivers could lead to panic buying across the UK in the lead up to Christmas.

“Our concern is that the pictures of empty shelves will get 10 times worse by Christmas and then we’ll get panic buying,” Andrew Woolfenden, Tesco’s head of distribution and fulfilment in the UK, told a Cabinet Office meeting last week.

Despite offering bonuses worth £1,000 since the summer, Tesco, which is the UK’s largest supermarket, is still facing a shortfall of 800 drivers, Woolfenden said, adding that the company had struggled to hire more drivers than it had lost to rival firms in recent months.

Co-op warned last week that shoppers were likely to suffer price hikes and a more limited range in the run-up to Christmas as a result of driver shortages. “There won’t be the same level of choice as there has been in the past,” the Co-op chief executive, Steve Murrells, said.

Tesco warns of Christmas panic buying if driver shortage persists | Tesco | The Guardian

It already has started.  Costco is limiting amounts of several things you can buy, and the shortage was not originally panic buying, it was transport.    Today when I ordered my canned goods from an online company (have for years from this company, that produces their own product)  the usual things I order were out of stock.   Some are stockpiling again in a panic.   I hope everyone has enough toilet paper to last a while.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Desertrat56

[+susieice]

I've noticed that several things I usually buy haven't been available in the stores for the last month or so. Canned cat food has been ridiculous to find for months. I usually order mine online and so far, so good.

[Essan]

Ony things I have noticed a shortage of is some tinned fish (pilchards and sardines) and my usual pipe tobacco (which seems to be out of stock nationally - presumably import issues).  The shelves in my local Tesco have been getting steadily less full but for the most part I'm wondering what was on them in the first place?   Plenty of meat and the fruit and veg shelves groaning with produce.   

I am slowly building up reserves at home though (just the odd extra item each time) - as I did back in March 2020.   Not panic buying, just being prudent.   Becuase worry would be if we ran out of whisky and wine.  Then I would be in trouble  

[quiXilver]

Without trucks and drivers we'd be scrounging.

Think about any items you purchase and use in life.  Most likely to get to you it was carried by truck from where it was created/grown, to where you could purchase it.

 

Truckers are of paramount importance to society.  Not to mention how often they move dangerous and heinous materials safely and without incident (which is a marvel in some of the cities I've lived in, given how folks behave behind the wheel). 

I always make room for trucks on the road.