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Panic buying fears grow as Morrisons becomes first supermarket to limit toilet roll purchases

Toilet roll shelves near empty at a supermarket in London - Eddie Mulholland
Toilet roll shelves near empty at a supermarket in London - Eddie Mulholland
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

Panic buying fears have grown as Morrisons became the first supermarket to reintroduce limits on toilet rolls.

The grocer confirmed on Thursday morning it was putting a purchase limit of three items on a range of products including disinfectant and toilet roll.

The move will be seen as an attempt to stave off stockpiling and avoid a repeat of the scenes from March when panicked shoppers emptied supermarket shelves of staples including lavatory paper and dried pasta.

At that time most supermarkets introduced restrictions on the number of certain items which could be purchased at a time.

A Morrisons spokesman said: "We are introducing a limit on a small number of key products, such as toilet roll and disinfectant. Our stock levels of these products are good but we want to ensure that they are available for everyone."

The limits will apply per item, with different pack sizes counted as different items. This means shoppers could buy three four-packs of toilet roll and three nine-packs, for example.

Several other supermarkets said there were not yet any signs of panic buying, but the boss of Tesco warned on Wednesday that “unnecessary” stockpiling would put pressure on supply chains which have been significantly strengthened since March.

Panic buying and stockpiling favourites
Panic buying and stockpiling favourites

One toilet roll manufacturer said there had been a small increase in sales, but nothing compared to the March rush.

Another said supermarkets should be introducing limits to get ahead of any potential issues.

Ramona Shellard, of Star Tissue, said: “Hopefully supermarkets will be monitoring it. I think they should [introduce maximum limits on toilet roll], there's some responsibility on them.

"The thing is we were never going to run out and we won't run out this time, people just need to be calm. After the last lockdown toilet roll sales went completely dead for two to three months because everyone had stocked up."

She added: “I do think this time we are a little more prepared for it as manufacturers. Within three days last time we had seen a huge spike and it was very difficult to recover from that. This time we are ahead of the game."

Meanwhile, Morrisons has also introduced a weekly delivery service for its food boxes, which it said have soared in demand by 56 per cent in the past week.

It said the new service will avoid the need to book an online delivery slot, with these also increasingly in demand this week.

The boxes were launched in March in response to the pandemic, with a cupboard essentials box costing £22. There are a number of different types available.

Aidan Buckley, director of food to order at the supermarket, said: ”Customers use our food box service to get fresh food and cupboard essentials delivered to their doorstep quickly.

“We are making the service simpler and even better value to ensure everyone can get access to affordable food at this difficult time.”

Retailers have spent this week urging shoppers to remain calm as new lockdown restrictions have led to fears for supply.

Supermarkets have more than doubled the number of delivery slots they can offer each week since the start of the crisis and the supply chains are understood to be stronger than ever.