Coronavirus: Chaos among shoppers in Spalding - 'It was a bun fight'
People were queuing up outside supermarkets in Spalding this morning (Thursday) from at least 8am, with one shopper describing it as a 'bun fight' once doors opened.
Sainsbury's set aside its first hour of trading for the elderly and vulnerable this morning across all of its supermarkets, including that at Holland Market in Spalding.
Iceland has also set aside Wednesday mornings from 9am until 11am at its Spalding store, at Winfrey Retail Park, solely for those groups of people.
But a shopper this morning said that the scene was chaotic.
"Imagine the worst Christmas shop you can do. It was like that, times by a hundred. It was awful! The car park at Holland Market and outside Iceland and Marks & Spencer was rammed."
She went to four different supermarkets and found 'utter chaos.'
"I arrived in Spalding at about 8am. I started off by visiting Lidl, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer, and eventually Iceland, on the the great toilet roll hunt.
"Sainsbury's had queues so long that you could not even enter the shop. I attempted to pick up a few bits in Lidl and managed to secure the final bag of flour. However, there were still no toilet rolls.
"At 8.45am I saw that Iceland was not open as expected but large notices were on the door informing customers of the new opening times. There was an orderly queue outside - until the doors opened when people raced in to get their essentials. It was like a bun fight. But there were some people who moved out of the way and asked if they were okay to come and shop."
Supermarket leaders have appealed for calm among shoppers and stressed there is no need to 'panic buy'.
Princes Group, whose largest UK based production site is situated in Long Sutton, has also asked shoppers to consider refraining from stockpiling canned goods in the interests of their loved ones.
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