‘Here we go again’: Boris Johnson lockdown announcement sparks fears of panic buying

Concerns have been raised that shoppers may be resorting to panic buying again, after it emerged that Boris Johnson was about to announce a second national lockdown.

There were widespread reports on social media of larger-than-usual queues outside major supermarkets across England on Saturday, as the nation waited for the prime minister to announce a return to stay-at-home orders from Thursday.

Some shoppers also noted that toilet roll had sold out in certain stores. 

“Seems the local Coop is now cleared out of toilet paper (not that we need any),” wrote author David Hewson on Twitter. “Panic buying seems to be a national sport.”

However, this phenomenon – which sparked significant ridicule and angst during the first coronavirus lockdown and was widely derided as selfish and potentially needlessly depriving frontline workers and the vulnerable of food – thankfully did not yet appear as widespread as before.

The apparent return of panic buying came despite the fact that supermarkets are deemed essential and will remain open, as they did in March.

It also came despite the fact that the only reported shortages of goods in March, such as pasta, rice, milk and hand sanitiser, were caused by the practice of stockpiling itself, rather than any significant threat to supply chains – which had in some cases been luckily bolstered ahead of a looming no-deal Brexit.

This apparently did not stop people from flocking to their local shops. 

“Currently in Tesco doing my weekly shop where there’s a queue outside and a fight inside,” wrote BBC journalist Anna O’Neill.

Her colleague Lewis Goodall shared a picture of queues outside a Sainsbury’s store, captioned: “Here we go again. It’s like the spring but really rainy and grim.”

Gianluca Avagnina shared an image a queue outside Waitrose, writing: “Aaand ... we’re back to panic buying?”

Another social media user in Wolverhampton wrote: “I’m in a queue for Morrison’s and if I get in there and y’all have bought all the pasta, toilet roll and tinned tomatoes again I will be APOPLECTIC.”

They later posted a picture showing half-empty shelves of pasta, captioned: “You are on SHAKY ground, Oxley.”

Another Twitter user wrote to Home Bargains, saying: “A big thank you to all the staff at the Whitstable store today I only popped in for some essentials and it was like March all over again and everyone was working so hard and still polite.”

While the scale of panic buying did not seem to have yet reached the levels seen in March, the sight of long queues prompted some questions over the potential barriers to accessibility the winter weather could play in the coming weeks if customers are forced to queue outside for long periods.

Mr Johnson’s announcement at Downing Street about the new rules – which will ban households from mixing, pause foreign travel and shutter pubs, restaurants, bars and non-essential stores – was pushed back twice during the afternoon as No 10 scrambled to hash out the details and plan a delivery strategy deemed palatable enough for a weary populace.

At the time of writing, prior to the briefing, products available online at all major supermarkets appeared in safe supply, with only a handful of pasta, rice and toilet roll products sold out.

However, some Tesco customers complained of being unable to place orders on its website. The Independent was told this was a momentary issue which had been fixed. 

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said that their stores are not currently restricting products.

“Customers can continue to shop safely and with confidence in our stores, where they will see we have good availability,” the spokesperson said.