Supermarket giant Tesco has followed Morrisons by limiting the numbers of key items customers can purchase to curb panic buying following new measures being introduced to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday Morrisons introduced rationing on purchases of items such as toilet rolls and disinfectant, with customers only being permitted to buy three at a time.
And Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, followed suit today by stopping people from bulk-buying products such as flour, pasta, toilet rolls and anti-bacterial wipes.
When lockdown was announced in March, shelves were stripped bare of items such as toilet rolls, pasta, rice, hand sanitiser, tinned tomatoes and soup.
Shop as normal
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have got good availability, with plenty of stock to go round, and we would encourage our customers to shop as normal.
“To ensure that everyone can keep buying what they need, we have introduced bulk-buy limits on a small number of products.”
Despite introducing the purchase limit on Thursday, Morrisons were also quick to stress that there were enough essential items “available for everyone”.
To ensure that everyone can keep buying what they need, we have introduced bulk-buy limits on a small number of products.
Tesco spokesperson
The moves by Morrison and Tesco come after supermarket chiefs asked shoppers to buy only what they actually needed, stressing that there are no supply issues.
On Wednesday, Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said panic-buying is “unnecessary” and added that it “creates a tension in the supply chain” that can be easily avoided.
The chief executive of Aldi UK, Giles Hurley, wrote an open letter to customers urging them to “shop considerately” and reassuring them that Aldi stores remain “fully stocked”.
