Supermarkets warn against panic-buying as shoppers in Peterborough report some empty shelves

Shoppers contacted the Peterborough Telegraph to say that Asda in the city centre had no toilet roll on sale on Sunday.

One shopper said: “I couldn’t believe it, I only needed one pack for my family.

“It’s so selfish of people, if we only bought what we need we would be fine.”

Another told us: “I only needed some wipes for my baby, we’ve run out and I do my shop weekly, and now I’ll have to find some somewhere else. Not what we needed today!”

Footage from another shopper shows much of an entire aisle at Asda empty with only a few packs of toilet roll left on the shelves.

A spokesperson from Asda said that this situation was not typical: “We’re simply not seeing evidence of panic buying at our stores, we’ve currently got good availability both in store and with our online slots so we wouldn’t comment on panic-buying preparations since we’re yet to see this, this also means that we’re not implementing any product limits at the moment and we continue to ask customers to shop responsibly.”

However, Tesco has set purchase limits on some products to prevent panic buying.

Readers attempting to buy toilet roll have sent us images of low stocks and empty shelves at Tesco’s Hampton store.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have good availability, with plenty of stock to go round, and we would encourage our customers to shop as normal.

“To ensure that everyone can keep buying what they need, we have introduced bulk-buy limits on a small number of products.

“To help our customers shop safely, we will also have colleagues at the entrances of our larger stores to remind customers about the safety measures we have in place, including the legal requirement to wear a face covering.”

Tesco has now placed a three-items per customer limit on flour, dried pasta, toilet roll, baby wipes and anti-bacterial wipes in stores.

For online shoppers there are additional limits on products such as rice and canned vegetables.