A surge of “panic-buying” at supermarkets in the United Kingdom has subsided, but some experts are predicting another surge ahead of the Easter holiday weekend.
U.K. grocery stores have recorded a 20 percent bump in sales since the start of the coronavirus crisis, according to Kantar Worldpanel, but Tesco Chief Executive Dave Lewis said sales are regressing toward the mean.
“Initial panic buying has subsided and service levels are returning to normal. There are significant extra costs in feeding the nation at the moment, but these are partially offset by the U.K. Business rates relief [package],” Lewis said in a press release.
In the first few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, significant panic-buying cleared the supply chain of certain items, Lewis said.
“This has now stabilized across the group and more normal sales volumes are being experienced,” he said.
However, several retail industry executives told Reuters they expected a jump in demand as Britons under lockdown work through their supplies, and in preparation for the long Easter weekend holiday. Large supermarkets are budgeting for a 15 to 20 percent rise in sales volumes through Easter, according to the news service.
Coupled to the forseen rise in demand, new social distancing requirements, and delays in online grocery ordering, could dampen that push.
“The problem is, can you feed 60 million people at the rate you can get people through the stores with that social distancing?” one executive told Reuters.
As grocers reduce the hours they are open and limit the number of customers in their stores, lines of customers waiting to shop are increasing, according to Reuters.
Like other grocery chains, Tesco increased its online shopping capacity, but between 85 percent and 90 percent of all food bought will require a visit to a store, Tesco’s Lewis said.
“There is simply not enough capacity to supply the whole market,” he said.
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