Stripped Bare ‘By Locusts'

Stockpilers slammed as shops hit by ‘bedlam’ Calm plea as staff bear brunt of pandemic fears

- Graham Hiscott And Ruki Sayid

Selfish panic-buyers have been branded “locusts” as shelves are picked clean amid scenes of chaos sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted we have enough food and supplies to go round and warned stockpilers to “be considerate”.

But his words fell on deaf ears as coronavirus fears fuelled a “crazy” rush to hoard food, medicines, sanitary products and other essentials.

Some stores had scenes of “bedlam” and were stripped bare within 30 minutes, while staff were abused over queue lengths and limits on purchases.

There were even reports of fights between shoppers and attacks on workers. And some inconsiderate hoarders crashed early-morning slots reserved for the elderly and vulnerable to visit and grab vital supplies.

One social media user said: “I was in a store last night and the shelves were bare. The locusts had descended.”

Posting a picture of full shelves yesterday morning, they added: “Your night shift shelf-stackers are heroes.”

David Williams of shopworkers’ union Usdaw said: “Shopworkers are on the front line. There are incidents of mass scrabbling when stuff goes on to the shelves. People are working out when the lorries arrive at the stores and are waiting for the products to come out.” Supermarkets and supply chain sare struggling to cope with the fallout from the pandemic.