Asda announces 1,000 new Covid marshals to make sure shoppers wear masks
Panic buyers empty toilet roll aisles in supermarkets across the country as Asda announce 1,000 new marshals to make sure shoppers obey the rules
- The supermarket chain said new Covid marshals will be outside all their stores
- They will help enforce the Government’s advice to wear a face covering in shops
- It comes amid concerns from supermarkets that shoppers are panic buying
Britain is once again gripped by panic buying as shoppers today emptied isles of toilet rolls in supermarkets across the country – as Asda announced 1,000 new Covid marshals to ensure that shoppers wear masks.
Frustrated customers around the country have been met with empty shelves as they try to do their supermarket shops – mainly in the toilet roll aisles.
Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson giving a statement announcing new restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus.
And now, shoppers are calling on supermarkets including Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys, and Tesco, to impose restrictions on buying essential items, such as loo roll, in bulk.
It comes as Asda has announced 1,000 new safety marshals to help enforce the Government’s advice to wear and face mask and will give sanitised baskets and trolleys to customer as they enter the store.
Near empty shelves at Asda in Pipps Hill, Essex, in scenes reminiscent of March during the first lockdown
A virtually empty toilet roll aisle in Sainsbury’s in Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire
Near empty shelves at Morrisons in Leicester. Shoppers have once again gone out to supermarkets and stripped them of toilet paper
Asda said that customers who do not have a face covering when they enter a shop will be offered a pack of disposable masks that they can pay for as they complete their shopping.
It comes as supermarkets have urged shoppers not to panic buy after a surge this week in anticipation of the tighter Covid-19 restrictions that were announced by Boris Johnson yesterday.
Anthony Hemmerdinger, Chief Operating Officer at Asda, said: ‘We know that safety remains a key priority for our customers and we will continue to do all we can to keep them and our colleagues safe in store, as we have since the start of the pandemic.
‘These additional measures will make our stores an even safer place to shop and work during the coming months.’
Asda also confirmed that as per the change to Government guidance, all staff will now wear a face covering at work unless they have a medical exemption and they will introduce additional hand sanitisation stations in stores.
Shoppers wearing face masks enter an Asda supermarket in June this year. Safety marshals will now be present outside every store in the UK
An employee scans a customer’s purchases through the till at a check-out desk inside an Asda supermarket in Watford
And the supermarket group will be applying a protective coating to all basket and trolley handles, creating an antimicrobial surface that prevents the spread of bacteria and viruses.
The same coating technology (Bio Master X shield) is already used to kill bacteria and viruses in the NHS Nightingale Excel hospital.
It comes as frantic shoppers were panic-buying once again today as photos have emerged of toilet roll aisles stripped bare across major supermarkets.
In Morrisons in Leicester on Monday, Sarah Milnes snapped an almost entirely empty shelf where multi-packs of toilet roll should have been found.
In a Tweet, the midwife described the scene as ‘utter madness’.
Meanwhile, in Sainsburys in Warrington, Cheshire, a man named Daniel – who did not wish to give his surname – was met with a similar situation, with the majority of the loo roll cleared off the shelves.
The 28-year-old joked that shoppers are ‘obviously sh**ting themselves’.
And in Asda in Pipps Hill, Essex, Daniel Smith shared a photo of an even emptier stack of shelves where toilet roll should have been, while he was doing his shop between 7pm and 8pm on Monday evening.
Shoppers wearing face masks and walking past a banner advising customers to maintain the British government’s current social distancing guidelines
Shoppers were also purchasing bags of pasta, amid warnings of panic buying in recent days
Shoppers queue at Costco today in Bushey, Watford, and come out with trolleys loaded full of shopping
Shoppers have taken to social media to share photographs of supermarkets with the shelves stripped bare (above, ASDA in London)
Daniel wrote: ‘The shop was packed, unordinarily so for 7pm, so people were already panic-buying.
‘This was about three hours after the mere threat of a lockdown.
‘The public need to calm down and stop panic-buying essentials.’
Meanwhile, Twitter account Vape Nation eSports called on Lidl to start putting restrictions on food and other essential items, as the store’s shelves are ‘already starting to empty’.
The account wrote: ‘At Werrington Lidl in Peterborough, Cambs, three-quarters of the toilet paper was gone, all rice was gone, hardly any pasta left, cans were depleted.
‘This is now when panic-buying has barely started, give it a week and it will be chaos.’
A customer service representative from Lidl responded, writing: ‘Our stores do have a limit of six units per customer, however our store managers may use their discretion to set this limit where necessary.’
