Shoppers are queuing for hundreds of yards across fields and car parks in a last-minute dash to stock up their coronavirus stockpiles for the bank holiday weekend.
With the major supermarkets all closing tomorrow, customers are flocking in their droves today to pick up food and toiletries.
However, plenty have also made their way to other stores to pick up seemingly non-essentials including plants, pictures and DIY gear.
In Hackney, east London, there were even long lines for lattes as shoppers waited to be served at Gail’s Bakery – a small business offering home deliveries and click-and-collect orders for items including artisan sourdough bread priced at £13.
One local told MailOnline: ‘The queue for coffee is down the street. It is mobbed.
‘I have phoned 101 but nobody has turned up yet. The street is like a festival today. Not good.’
A customer wearing a mask stocks up on goods from The Range in St Albans, pictured, with stores set to close tomorrow
Customers filled their trolleys with gardening and DIY products, pictured, ahead of the rest of the bank holiday weekend
The shopping spree at The Range, pictured, comes despite continued government guidance for people to stay at home to limit the spread of coronavirus
People queue across Clapham Common in London, pictured, to enter a butcher’s to stock up on lockdown essentials
Supermarkets such as this Tesco in Dorking, Surrey, pictured, have seen long queues before they are told to shut tomorrow for Easter Sunday
A shop in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, pictured, has also seen a number of people waiting outside to top up their stockpiles
A bakery in Hackney, east London, pictured, has attracted such long queues that mean the street looks ‘like a festival’, according to locals
Elsewhere in the capital, queues for customers wanting to enter a butcher’s have been snaking their way across Clapham Common, while there were similar scenes outside a shop in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, and a supermarket in Dorking, Surrey.
Many appear to be obeying the social distancing rules put in place to limit the spread of the virus by standing six feet apart while waiting to shop.
It comes as the supermarkets are forced to shut tomorrow, with rules passed down by the Department for Business saying no shop larger than 280sq metres can open on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day.
Despite Britain being in a state of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, a DfB spokesman said ‘existing rules still apply’.
B&Q stores have also seen hordes of cars arriving, pictured, as shoppers pick up click-and-collect orders after an exceptionally busy day on its website yesterday
Customers had to wait more than an hour on Friday just to get on to the company’s online store, with hundreds of thousands looking to buy products
The home improvement retailer saw massive demand for its stock, with more than 300,000 people simultaneously waiting to purchase goods, meaning shoppers were told they faced a wait of at least 60 minutes before making orders
Customers also claimed that they were kicked out of the website after waiting in a virtual queue for an hour
B&Q stores have also seen hordes of cars arriving as shoppers pick up click-and-collect orders after an exceptionally busy day on its website yesterday.
Customers had to wait more than an hour just to get on to the company’s online store, with hundreds of thousands looking to buy products.
As a result, the home improvement retailer saw massive demand for its stock, with more than 300,000 people simultaneously waiting to purchase goods, meaning shoppers were told they faced a wait of at least 60 minutes before making orders.
Customers also claimed that they were kicked out of the website after waiting in a virtual queue for an hour.
A spokeswoman told MailOnline yesterday: ‘Our 296 B&Q stores have remained closed to customers for browsing since Monday March 23, when the UK lockdown was announced.
‘As an essential retailer, B&Q has made diy.com its primary store and introduced contact-free Click+Collect services in its store car parks whilst still continuing to offer home delivery.
‘Given these changes, we are experiencing extremely high demand at present for online orders and are using a virtual queue to limit the number of customers using the website at the same time to give customers the best possible online shopping experience.’