Supermarkets update

Asda If you shop at Asda, you’ll be limited to buying no more than three of any products across all food items (including beer, wines and spirits), toiletries and cleaning products to ensure availability for everyone online and in stores.

Asda has also confirmed its 24-hour stores will be temporarily closed between midnight and 6am to provide enough time for staff to re-stock and thoroughly clean stores.

Aldi there are no special opening hours for the elderly or vulnerable. The have shortened their opening hours and will close at 8pm except Sunday which is as before.

Lidl is limiting customers to four items on a range of products, including tinned foods, pasta and toilet paper.

Lidl has changed its daily opening hours to 8am to 8pm until further notice to help give staff extra time to restock shelves and clean stores.

The discounter has implemented priority shopping hours for the elderly stores in Ireland between 9am and 11am, but at the time of publishing this hadn't been extended to British stores

Morrisons has capped the quantity of certain high-demand products in its online orders but hasn’t clarified the specific amount available to individual customers.

To accommodate higher demand for its online deliveries, the supermarket is introducing more slots via the online store and Morrisons Store on Amazon Prime Now.

On top of that, Morrisons is recruiting 2,500 pickers and drivers, and will allow customers to place orders over the phone (you can call customer service on 0345 322 0000).

The supermarket will no longer accept returned bags or rejected items at someone’s doorstep, while delivery drivers are not allowed to enter houses or hand over shopping bags.

Morrisons have not confirmed if it will be offering special opening hours for vulnerable people, but it is offering a new range of simple-to-order food parcels from 23 March.

Sainsbury’s, you’ll only be able to buy up to three of any grocery products and a maximum of two of the most in-demand products, including toilet paper, soap and UHT milk.

All of Sainsbury’s cafes, meat and fish counters are closed

Sainsbury’s will soon help the elderly and vulnerable get food delivered by prioritising delivery slots to those over the age of 70 or those who have a disability.

An expanded Click and Collect service will also be offered from 23 March.

Tesco Similar to other supermarkets, Tesco is closing all meat, fish and deli counters, as well as salad bars, to help avoid any waste and allow staff to focus on stocking shelves.

Tesco is also changing its opening hours, with all stores now closing at 10pm to ensure staff can replenish stock and keep everything clean.

Distancing measures are being introduced at checkouts to try and reduce the risk of infection to both customers and colleagues.

Tesco is trying to help vulnerable and elderly customers by allowing them to exclusively shop in store (excluding Express stores) between 9am and 10am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The supermarket also encourages those who can safely leave the house to shop in store instead of using home deliveries or Click+Collect, so more slots are available for those who need them.

Waitrose site is struggling with exceptional demand and is requesting that customers ‘only buy what they need.’

Customers are limited to buying three of any specific grocery item and up to two packs of toilet roll in store. These limits don’t apply to fresh fruit, vegetables and Easter confectionery, beers, wines, ciders and spirits.

There is also a temporary cap on certain products that can be bought online, including anti-bacterial soaps and wipes, pasta and some canned goods.

All Waitrose cafes are closed, while coffees will no longer be made, to help staff keep shelves stocked.

All shops have the option to be flexible with their trading hours, and branches may be closed early.

Waitrose is also bringing forward its cut-off time for order changes to midday and is putting additional steps in place for self-isolating customers who are shopping online.

The elderly, vulnerable and those who take care of them will be able to shop exclusively in Waitrose stores in the first trading hour.

On top of this, a £1 million Community Support Fund will be made available to communities across the UK, which can be used by communities as they wish.

For example, it could be used to set up extra delivery services to support the self-isolating or vulnerable people.

Ocado Online shopping delivery service Ocado has suspended its online food delivery service, blaming higher demand than it can meet.
Ocado said existing customers with orders would still receive them.

If you do have an order and wish to change it you are allocated a number in the queue which they say will take half an hour, although I have not tried it