Furious Britons are criticising selfish panic-buyers who are raiding supermarket shelves and leaving those most in need without food and essential supplies.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reaches 3,269 with 144 deaths, and workers are confined to carrying out their duties from home, shops are still being stripped bare.
Now Marks and Spencer has announced it will reserve a ‘special hour’ for NHS and emergency workers along with vulnerable customers for the first hour of trading on specific days, starting today.
The Prime Minister has urged the public to stop ‘mass buying’, saying that there is ‘no reason’ shops should be empty and asking Britons to ‘please be reasonable in your shopping and be considerate of others’.
Social media users are now criticising shoppers who are taking more than their fair share of precious groceries using the hashtag #stophoarding – calling on their countrymen to be considerate and take only what they need.
It comes following footage of a distraught critical care nurse who was unable to buy basic foods following a 48-hour shift urged shoppers to stop stripping supermarket shelves amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In her heartbreaking appeal, Dawn Bilbrough, 51, from York, who had just completed a lengthy and exhausting shift, explained that she had visited her supermarket to pick up basic food items for the next two days when she was left having a ‘little cry’.
Furious Britons are criticising selfish panic-buyers who are raiding supermarket shelves and leaving those most in need without food and essential supplies
Social media users are now criticising shoppers who are taking more than their fair share of precious groceries (pictured: A shopper in Asda buying baby formula)
After discovering there were no fruit and vegetables for her to sustain a healthy living amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the healthcare worker made a tearful plea to the public urging them to ‘just stop it’.
Britons retweeted Ms Bilbrough’s message using the hashtag #doitfordawn, urging shoppers to stop hoarding crucial groceries leaving others with little or nothing.
Supermarket cleared of beer – except Corona!
Corona: The only untouched beer
A Sainsbury’s store was stripped of nearly all its beer – but wary customers left dozens of boxes of Corona.
A picture of the shop in Dulwich shows shelves almost completely bereft of alcohol, but boxes of the Mexican beer remained nearly untouched.
Last month the company that owns Corona was reported to have been facing its worst quarter in 10 years following the coronavirus outbreak.
The nurse took to Facebook from the seat of her car to tell the nation: ‘So I’ve just come out the supermarket. There’s no fruit and veg and I had a little cry in there.’
‘I’m a critical care nurse and I’ve just finished 48 hours of work and I just wanted to get some stuff in for the next 48 hours.
‘There’s no fruit, there’s no vegetables and I just don’t know how I’m supposed to stay healthy.
‘Those people who are just stripping the shelves have basic foods you just need to stop it because it’s people like me that are going to be looking after you when you are at your lowest and just stop it please!’
After sharing the emotional video, Ms Bilbrough was flooded with messages of support from concerned friends and loved ones, with some offering her some of their very own food items.
One person wrote: ‘Oh Dawn, I’m so sorry to see you so upset. The job you are doing is so very important to so many people, and how unfair it is that this means you are last in line for the nutritious food you really need to stay healthy and keep doing that important job. Thinking of you and sending much love.xxx’
While another commented: ‘Oh dear Dawn, heartbreaking to see you like this, I feel you, you are strong, and it is so important what you do….and many others…proud proud proud. I will share….’
Another user added: ‘Sending you love and strength Dawn Bilbrough xx’
Elsewhere another person offered the nurse some of their own groceries, telling her: ‘Dawn bless you, please don’t cry! I’m in isolation but I have a bag of potatoes, carrots and a water melon you can have.
‘I can leave them on my doorstep for you, double bagged! Be fine once, cleaned and boiled. Please don’t cry.’
The emotionally-charged video comes as retailers stress there is plenty of food in the supply chain but shoppers need to act responsibly to ensure everyone can get what they need- particularly those who are the most vulnerable.
Pictured: Shop shelves are left empty in a supermarket in the centre of York, northern England, on March 19
Today Boris Johnson asked the country to stop panic buying and be ‘reasonable’ when they went to the supermarkets
Following the rise in panic buying, supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s have announced that they will be restricting customers to only buying three of any grocery item.
Meanwhile, while Asda and Morrisons have announced they too will be restricting purchases across 1,250 regularly-bought lines.
Online retailer Ocado has also temporarily stopped new customers from gaining a membership after they were left overwhelmed by orders from people choosing to self-isolate amid the crisis.
Today Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the country to stop panic buying and be ‘reasonable’ when they went to the supermarkets.
He said: ‘We’ve got good supply chains and farms, there’s no reason for shops to be empty.
‘Everyone understands why people are buying stuff – we’re being advised to stay at home if we have symptoms.
‘However, please be reasonable in your shopping and be considerate of other shoppers as you do it.’
