Shoppers panic ahead of new national lockdown

Talk of a second lockdown prompted people to make emergency hair and beauty appointments, scramble to book slots for home deliveries as shelves were cleared of toilet roll and customers queued outside shops.

Saturday brought one last hurrah as nationwide restrictions loomed ahead of Boris Johnson’s press conference.

Salons said they were overrun with customers fearful of a repeat of the lockdown measures introduced in March that led to DIY hairstyles or simply succumbing to overgrown roots.

While in a case of panic buying deja vu, toilet rolls were grabbed from shelves as people were seen queuing outside stores and home delivery slots were fully booked by midday.

Shai Greenberg, co-founder of Gielly Green boutique salon in Marylebone, said he has seen a surge of bookings in recent days.

"We've been very busy today and are fully booked tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday," he told The Telegraph. "We've opened every single slot up and are completely booked up.

"It’s devastating news about another lockdown, we hardly managed to cope with the first lockdown and I fear it will be a death penalty for the industry in many ways.”

Boo Banner-Eve, a colourist at the Shoreditch branch of Taylor Taylor London, said she had originally had three clients booked for Sunday but this had doubled by Saturday afternoon.

“In the last couple of hours, we’re now at almost full capacity for Sunday.

Watch: What you can and can’t do in new lockdown

“I’ve been fully booked today and speaking to customers in the chair they’ve said they could have waited a few weeks but they heard there would be changes coming, so they got their hair done this weekend rather than any other time.

“We’re trying to accommodate them but people want more appointments on Saturday and Sunday rather than accepting for Monday or Tuesday because they don’t know if we’ll actually be open then.”

Vanita Parti, founder of Blink Brow Bar, said it had been “absolutely rammed for fear of lockdown”.

“We are fully booked. Everything is uncertain in our sector so customers are desperate to get what they need done,” she said and added that they had their “fingers crossed” that they would be able to keep their doors open “as safely as possible” and not have to suffer any more closures.

Supermarkets meanwhile, insisted they had panic buying under control despite increased complaints on social media.

In Nechells, Birmingham “over 300” people were filmed queuing around the street corner for Cosco.

While one shopper, Brian Wheeler tweeted that he had “Popped to Sainsburys Hedge End earlier, toilet rolls pretty much all gone. Predictable eh.”

Another posted a photo of empty shelves at Waitrose and simply said: “Things I do not understand: panic buying toilet roll.”

A third man, Rick Toomer, asked Ocado on Twitter: “Can you explain why morning delivery slots have all but disappeared?”

All designated slots for home delivery at Christmas are fully booked on the Waitrose app. Ocado slots were also fully booked for a few days, with no indication when further deliveries were available beyond Nov 3.

The online supermarket replied to Mr Toomer and said “delivery slots are proving very popular right now and they’re selling out faster than usual” but that they were “always releasing new slots” and customers should continue to check back.

Sainsbury’s also failed to show available slots throughout next week in some areas despite saying they had “doubled the number of slots” they could offer.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We continue to prioritise elderly and vulnerable people for home delivery. We have more than doubled the number of slots we can offer across home delivery and Click & Collect and can now serve over 700,000 orders a week. This means there is good availability for everyone.”

A Tesco spokesperson said: "We have good availability in stores and online, with plenty of stock to go round, and we would encourage our customers to shop as normal."

The Co-op said it did “not notice anything out of the ordinary” either.