There is no need for shoppers to panic buy grocery supplies after Britain imposed new restrictions to stem a second wave of COVID-19, the boss of Tesco, the country's biggest supermarket chain, said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the British people on Tuesday to work from home where possible and ordered restaurants and bars to close early to tackle a spike in the pandemic, with new restrictions lasting probably six months. That prompted speculation over whether there could be panic buying of groceries similar to that which stripped supermarket shelves bare in March and led to the rationing of certain items.
Shopper numbers across all British retail destinations fell by 3% last week compared to the previous week, dented by the government imposing new curbs to stem the spread of COVID-19, market researcher Springboard said on Monday. It said although footfall in the week to Sept. 26 rose 1.1% and 0.9% in retail parks and shopping centres respectively, it was down 6.8% in high streets. Springboard said that following the government’s announcement on Tuesday to work from home where possible, footfall declined by an average of 11% from Wednesday to Saturday.On a year-on-year basis footfall across all retail destinations last week remained 28% lower than 2019.
British supermarket Aldi has seen increased demand for key items since the government imposed more curbs to stem the spread of COVID-19 but does not currently see the need for limits on shopper purchases, its boss said on Monday. "We have seen an uptick in certain areas and that did continue over the weekend...in areas like toilet paper, pasta, rice and tinned food," chief executive Giles Hurley told reporters. "At the moment there's no need to introduce those (new) restrictions, our availability is good. As long as customers continue to shop as they normally do, which is buy what they need when they need it, then availability will continue to be excellent," he said. Last week rivals Morrisons and market leader Tesco both imposed restrictions.
Greece's food retail sector saw a 3.2% increase in employment in the first half of 2020, largely due to increased staff numbers at supermarkets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wider retail sector, employment numbers were down 0.4% in the same period, according to IELKA, Greece's consumer goods research institute, using EL.STAT data, reports esmmagazine.com IELKA estimates that the number of food retail jobs increased by 7,000 in the first half of 2020, compared to the previous year. According to the group, employment numbers rose for a number of reasons, many of which were related to the coronavirus pandemic.
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