What is causing the gaps on supermarket shelves?

‘Perfect storm’ of the ‘pingdemic’, truck driver shortage and a heatwave is giving UK supermarkets a headache.
Empty shelves and signs on the soft drinks aisle of a Sainsbury’s store in Blackheath, Rowley Regis in the West Midlands. Supermarkets have urged customers not to panic buy (PA)
PA Wire
Josie Clarke23 July 2021

Supermarkets have reassured customers there is no need to panic buy following pictures of half-empty shelves and reports of temporary shortages.

A “perfect storm” of aggravating factors lies behind the problem. What are they and how long will the situation go on for?

– The test-and-trace system, aka the ‘pingdemic’

On Thursday the British Retail Consortium (BRC) spoke on behalf of the UK’s supermarkets warning that staff shortages, caused by huge numbers of healthy workers self-isolating after being pinged by NHS Test and Trace, was “putting increasing pressure on retailers’ ability to maintain opening hours and keep shelves stocked”.

The empty sausage and burger section of the freezer aisle at a Sainsbury supermarket (PA)
PA Wire

Iceland managing director Richard Walker has said staff absence rates are now double the usual number, with the figure rising 50% “week on week” due to people being told to self-isolate by the NHS app.

Other than supermarkets, staff shortages are being felt in factories, bakeries and meat processing plants. The British Meat Processors’ Association said a shortage of workers has seen some factories struggling to fill one in six roles even before the ‘pingdemic’, which had now forced between 5% and 10% of their workforce to self-isolate.

– The lorry driver shortage

Exacerbating supply issues for supermarkets is a shortage of haulage drivers in the UK, with experts warning a “perfect storm” is brewing due to several factors.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) believes there is a shortfall of about 60,000 drivers after around 30,000 HGV driving tests did not take place last year due to the pandemic.

Some petrol stations are also seeing deliveries delayed because of the driver shortage (PA)
PA Wire

The managing director of distributor Nationwide Produce, Tim O’Malley, warned last month that the “acute shortage” of HGV drivers was behind “perfectly good, graded and packed fresh produce being dumped or left rotting in cold stores, waiting for wheels to go under it”.

Hauliers blamed the shortage on a large proportion of drivers being foreign nationals from European countries who had returned to the EU, combined with truck drivers not being included on the Government’s list of skilled labour, leaving new arrivals needing immigration paperwork.

– The heatwave is not helping

Grocers say the heatwave has led to a run on certain products such as ice lollies, soft drinks, bottled water, beer and salad – normal under the circumstances but difficult to plan for in advance.

Shoppers have reported incidents of shelves being bare of bottled water, for example, but grocers have reassured customers that shortages are isolated and quickly remedied.

– How long will the situation go on for and should I think about stocking up?

The BRC says there is no need for the public to be stockpiling. Tesco and Sainsbury’s, the UK’s two biggest supermarket chains, have assured shoppers they have plenty of food and all grocers have urged customers to shop as normal.

Shoppers queuing outside a supermarket at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 (PA)
PA Archive

However, BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson called on the Government to “act now before the situation does get more serious, so that we don’t see more empty shelves in more places”.

Retailers have started to recruit thousands of temporary staff for the summer. The Government has said certain industries will be able to apply for staff exemptions, but it has yet to publish its guidance.

It has also announced a consultation to allow drivers to take one test to drive articulated and rigid lorries to speed up the process of attaining licences for all types of HGVs..

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in