‘Hordes of shoppers descended on supermarkets at the crack of dawn this morning in a desperate bid to stock up after weeks of coronavirus panic-buying cleared food aisles across the country.
Staggering scenes saw a queue of hundreds of people snake round a Tesco car park at 6am, and even spill out on to the streets of New Malden, London.
Since the pandemic tightened its choke-hold on the UK, fears of an imminent lockdown have fanned mass stockpiling as people brace to hunker down at home.
Pleas from the government and retailers to consider other people and steer clear of panic-buying has been largely ignored.
And those who have exercised restraint have now been forced to flock to the supermarket well ahead of weekend opening times to guarantee they will not leave empty handed.
Individual stores have already taken action to curb the number of products people could buy, while police and private security were even drafted in to stamp out ransacking of high-demand items such as toilet roll.
But still heartbreaking scenes of elderly people and exhausted frontline NHS staff standing helplessly beside empty shelves have continued to flood social media.
This prompted chains including Sainsbury’s and M&S to set aside a golden hour where they can buy essentials before the masses stampede the store.
Boris Johnson will today double down on his call for the nation to stop panic-buying and will be speaking to supermarket bosses about efforts to keep supplies flowing.’
