Tesco limits online shoppers to maximum of 80 items per order amid surge in coronavirus panic buying
Supermarket chain Tesco has pulled out drastic measures amid the mounting coronavirus crisis and limited its online shoppers to a maximum of 80 items per order.
As people up and down the UK continue to panic buy items amid the chaos caused by the spread of the deadly disease, supplies via online shopping are also in high demand.
In order to stem the tide, the supermarket giants have taken the decision to limit shoppers to no more than 80 items, in order to avoid a complete wipe-out of reserves.
Supermarket chain Tesco will now only let online customers order a maximum of 80 items
A spokesman for the supermarket said: ‘We know that it’s difficult to get a delivery slot for online shopping at the moment due to high demand, and we ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so that we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.
‘We’re looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available and by introducing a limit of 80 items per online order we’ll be able to get more orders on to each van, helping us to ensure all customers can get the essentials they need.’
The supermarket giants have now removed all shrink wrap off multi-pack items, with food stock now being split up accordingly in order to accommodate ever growing demand.
‘You won’t find any four multi-pack of beans now, they will each all be split,’ a Tesco spokesperson told Mail Online.
‘Existing packs of items, such as multi-packs of crisps are still classified as one item online within the order.
‘The item limit is purely down to the quantity and done on numerical basis, not per a bag of shopping, we cannot limit to bags and the online orders are not weight dependent.
‘This way we are still able to get out six to eight orders per van for delivery, in order to keep up with the placements. Item substitutions are still happening where it makes sense, and there is no time frame given to how long this process will continue for.’
Hundreds of thousands of people have now taken to online shopping, after the madness in stores reached new levels with scenes of customers fighting over remaining products and refusing to follow a queuing procedure.
Panic buying has led many people up and down the country to instead turn to online orders
All supermarket stores now ask daily customers to queue while adhering to social distancing
As reported by Mail Online, supermarkets are already struggling to keep up with a rapid surge in demand, and have been swapping essentials for some very unusual alternatives.
Customers have taken to social media to show the bizarre items they have been sent as demand for basic products such as toilet paper and hand sanitiser skyrockets.
One man wrote on social media that his grandparents had been sent an LED home bulb as a replacement for 16 loo rolls from Sainsbury’s.
He said: ‘Grandad’s eyes lit up when he tried it though.’
With the rise in panic buying showing little signs of levelling off, supermarkets have now drawn up contingency plans to ‘feed the nation’ in the event of a sudden escalation.
Ocado has emailed customers to warn it is running out of home delivery slots due to ‘exceptionally high demand’ and ‘particularly large orders’.
Waitrose reported ‘seeing more demand for… cleaning products and hand sanitisers’, and Tesco’s website sold out of hand gel entirely.
Lidl said it is ‘experiencing a significant increase in demand for durable products and disinfectants’.
Sales of hand sanitiser across all supermarkets more than tripled last month after an explosion of cases in Europe caused panic of an outbreak in the UK.