Coronavirus: Supermarket supply issue will only arise if people bulk buy, Minister told

A high level conference call between the Minister for Enterprise Heather Humphreys and stakeholders in the retail sector including supermarkets, multi-national companies and umbrella groups has been told that supply in supermarkets will return to normal once consumer shopping habits return to normal.

On the call which took place on Friday morning, the industry sought a relaxation in restrictions on delivery times to supermarkets and called for limits on contactless transactions to be lifted to €50 to reduce the amount of contact between staff and customers.

Retail groups are also seeking support from banks and Government to manage cash flow issues that arise.

The conference call which included representatives of Aldi, Lidl, Musgraves - which owns SuperValu and Centra and BWG, the parent company of Spar - repeatedly heard that the most important thing that consumers can do to ensure supply returns to normal quickly is to stop stock-piling.

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Also at the meeting were representatives of multinational producers including Procter & Gamble and Unilever and Mondalez as well as spokesmen for both Retail Excellence and Retail Ireland.

Ms Humphreys was told that there was no issues with getting product onto shelves and problems would only arise if people continued to shop at the levels witnessed on Thursday when the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced the country was moving from trying to contain coronavirus to delaying the spread.

Once the Taoiseach said schools, colleges, crèches and museums were to close and said there would be severe restrictions on public gatherings, people poured into supermarket and shelves were quickly stripped of items people deemed essential for a partial lockdown including tinned goods, dried goods such as rice and pasta and toilet paper.

On Friday morning in supermarkets including both Tesco and Lidl many shelves remained empty.

“People were just buying too much stuff,” said retail expert and TU Dublin academic Damian O’Reilly. “There was no need for it.”

He said he was unsurprised by the reaction of consumers once the announcement of the partial lockdown was made but said he believed things would quickly settle down once people saw shelves being replenished.

“There is only so much food people can fit in their cupboards and when they are full, they are full. Once we moved from containment to delay there was always go to be a rush to the shops. It comes down to loss aversion - if something else gets something and I don’t then I feel left out.”

He stressed that “people have no need to be worried. Shops are going to stay open and there will be enough for everyone.”