March 19, 2020 10.42 am This story is over 48 months old

Stockpiling frenzy at Lincoln supermarkets after school closures set

Long queues in Hykeham this morning
People queued up outside Asda in North Hykeham as panic buying continues. Photo: Neil Bailey

A stockpiling frenzy continued in local supermarkets in and around Lincoln after it was announced that schools will close to the majority of pupils from the end of Friday.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that schools across the UK will close from Friday afternoon until further notice, prompting a further surge of stockpiling and big queues in some local stores.

Photo: Neil Bailey

Hoards of people were seen queueing outside Asda in North Hykeham at around 6am on March 19. Panicked customers were also seen piling up their trollies in other supermarket chains.

Neil Bailey captured a short video of the situation in North Hykeham, saying all he needed was coffee.

He told The Lincolnite: “The queue was long but when it came to the shops it was the fresh meat, pharmaceutical, bread and toiletries aisles which were most packed. But it was like an average day shop just those areas were more crowded than usual.”

Asda was one of the supermarkets to limit customers to three of any products across all food items, toiletries and cleaning products. On Friday, March 20, from store opening until 9am, its larger stores will be available for vulnerable people and those caring for them to get what they need.

Any 24-hour stores will be temporarily closed between 12am-6am. Non-essential services such as rotisserie and pizza counters will be temporarily closed.

Asda has put additional cleaning materials in its stores and refocussed its cleaners in a more frequent schedule in the high traffic areas of its stores.

Other supermarket chains have also been putting specific measures in place. Lincolnshire Co-op, for example, put in a restriction on the purchase of certain products to three items per person.