Retailers have urged customers not to stockpile food and to shop normally amid fears another national lockdown is looming.
There have been rumours delivery slots are running out and shelves are being stripped bare as a second wave of coronavirus feared to be on its way to the UK following a rise in infections.
But major supermarkets have spoken out to reassure customers they are well stocked and more prepared now than at the beginning of the pandemic.
An Asda spokesperson said: ‘We are not seeing any evidence of panic-buying either in store or online, we have plenty of delivery slots available since we have nearly doubled the amount available since the start of March.’
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A Tesco spokesperson said: ‘We continue to have good availability for customers in store and online.
‘We have significantly increased our online capacity from around 600,000 slots in the first week of the crisis to 1.5 million weekly slots now.’
Aldi says it has a range of measures to manage shopper numbers and priority opening times remain in place.
It is understood Tesco and Aldi are not currently experiencing any shortages in products.
The supermarkets emphasised they are following Government guidelines and ensuring social distancing is observed in stores.
Morrisons said it has reintroduced marshals on the doors of its 494 stores to monitor the number of shoppers visiting and remind those coming in to wear face coverings.
Jayne Wall, the grocer’s operations director, told the Guardian thousands of additional cleaners will be hired and vending machine-style cleaning stations put in place outside in order to make ‘customers feel as safe as possible’.
A representative from Lidl said the chain is ‘not currently experiencing any product shortages’ and has ‘good availability in stores’.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: ‘We have significantly increased the number of slots available on our website and can now serve twice as many people as we could six months ago.
‘There is good availability of slots and trading patterns this weekend have been normal. We look forward to welcoming all new and existing customers to our service.’
Major chains are hoping to avoid scenes similar to those at the beginning of the pandemic where shelves were stripped bare as customers bulk bought toilet roll, pasta and hand soap.
Supermarkets were forced to ration certain items in a bid to put an end to the stockpiling.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘Retailers have done an excellent job in ensuring customers have access to the food and necessities throughout this pandemic.
‘Supermarkets have put in place a range of safety measures to protect staff and customers. In the event of future lockdowns we urge consumers to be considerate and shop for food as they would usually during this difficult time.’
It comes as Britain’s top scientists warned that if no action is taken the country could see up to 50,000 cases of Covid-19 a day and an increase in deaths.
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said: ‘At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days.
‘If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated and this grows doubling every seven days. If that continued you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day.
‘50,000 cases per day would be expected to lead a month later, so the middle of November say, to 200-plus deaths per day.
‘The challenge therefore is to make sure the doubling time does not stay at seven days.
‘There are already things in place which are expected to slow that, and to make sure that we do not enter this exponential growth and end up with the problems that you would predict as a result of that.’
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