Booths and Sainsbury’s have joined Iceland in introducing special opening times for elderly and vulnerable people in response to panic-buying resulting from the coronavirus crisis.
Booths, which has a store in Hale Barns, is introducing a priority shopping time for the elderly and vulnerable between 9.30am and 11am and are “encouraging” people to shop outside those times.
The family-owned retailer has also appealed for shoppers to “only what you and your family need”, and has placed limits on products including soaps and sanitisers, cleaning products, medicines, baby care products and toilet paper.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s is now rationing the sale of groceries so that “it stays on shelves for longer and can be bought by a larger numbers of customers”.
Stores will only be open to over-70s and those with a disability for the first hour of opening on a Thursday (7-8am).
It will also be closing in-store cafes and meat, pizza and fish counters, and from Monday will be expanding its click and collect service across the UK.
And Tesco has said it is stopping 24-hour trade, with its main Altrincham store now opening at 6am and closing at 10pm.
