Coronavirus has changed the way we shop beyond recognition, with face masks now required throughout the UK and social distancing the norm. With COVID-19 cases on the up again, what will the impact be on food shopping?
The country has been warned to prepare for a tough six months, with new restrictions likely to be announced on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent a large second wave.
Some people are reported to have begun ‘panic-buying’ again, and there have been reports of online delivery slots beginning to book up further in advance. However, Ocado and Sainsburys have denied that their slots are selling out faster than usual, according to the i.
In recent weeks supermarkets have continued to evolve in an attempt to make shopping in the COVID era better for customers.
Aldi is expanding into online shopping by piloting a click-and-collect service. Sainsbury’s and Waitrose are trialling virtual queuing systems that let customers wait in the car rather than standing in line, and Tesco is testing a drone delivery service for small orders.
On the online front, Morrisons is now selling its entire range via Amazon, even offering same-day delivery to some shoppers.
In this article, Which? explains everything you need to know about grocery shopping during the pandemic, including how each supermarket is adapting, and special opening hours for NHS workers and elderly or vulnerable shoppers.
You can scroll down to read the whole story or use the links to skip to particular sections:
- Supermarkets change as pandemic continues
- Current priority hours by supermarket
- Social distancing measures in supermarkets
- Online delivery situation by supermarket
- Essential food boxes: which stores sell them?
- Alternatives to supermarkets
- How shopping habits are changing
- Community groups offer help
To find out what COVID-19 means for your rights, travel, health and lifestyle, check out the latest coronavirus news and advice from Which?.
How have supermarkets changed since lockdown?
Much of the UK’s hospitality sector reopened in July, meaning going to the supermarket is no longer one of the only reasons you can leave your home.
While rumours of a return to tighter restrictions are circulating, there’s no suggestion that people won’t be able to shop in store for groceries – especially since supermarkets remained open throughout the national lockdown between March and July.
Since lockdown was first eased, many supermarkets have reopened their in-store cafés, both for eat-in and takeaway dining.
And we’re continuing to see new innovations, such as the virtual queuing apps Asda and Sainsbury’s are testing in certain stores.
We’ve also seen Co-op expand its robot delivery service in the Milton Keynes area, and Tesco will soon begin trialling drone deliveries for small baskets of items in Ireland.
In a climbdown from the stricter measures previously in force, Tesco has ditched its one-way aisle system and is now allowing more customers into some stores. The supermarket has also lifted its 80-item limit for online orders.
In some cases, things are showing signs of getting ‘back to normal’. Sainsbury’s, for example, started delivering all shopping in plastic bags during lockdown to speed up deliveries – but the supermarket reverted to bagless deliveries from 30 August.
Ocado, meanwhile, is reintroducing its bag recycling scheme from 22 September.
The government has allowed ‘one metre plus’ social distancing in England since 4 July, but so far no supermarkets have announced a change to their current two-metre guidelines.
- Find out more: lockdown latest – reopenings paused amid case rise
Special opening hours by supermarket
We’re updating this alphabetised list of supermarket special slots for NHS workers and vulnerable shoppers every time we learn something new.
It’s worth noting that Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have made changes to their priority hours, and Iceland has removed them.
Some stores are running things slightly differently on a localised basis – this list only covers nationwide policies, so check with your local store if you want to be sure.
Links take you to the Which? review of each supermarket.
| Supermarket | Key workers | Elderly/vulnerable shoppers |
| Aldi | NHS and emergency workers get priority in queues and also 30 minutes’ early access before tills open on Sundays | Mon-Sat: access 30 minutes before store opens |
| Asda | NHS workers get priority queuing on Mon, Wed, Fri from 8am-9am and priority entry for browsing from 9am-10am on Sun | |
| Co-op | ‘Prioritised’ Mon-Sat 8am-9am; Sun 10am-11am | ‘Prioritised’ Mon-Sat 8am-9am; Sun 10am-11am |
| Iceland | No longer offering priority hours | No longer offering priority hours |
| Lidl | No priority hours | No priority hours |
| Marks & Spencer | First hour of trading on Tue and Fri – but only if there’s a queue | First hour of trading on Mon and Thu – but only if there’s a queue |
| Morrisons | Mon-Sat 6am-7am; Sun 9am-9.30am | |
| Sainsbury’s | Priority entry Mon-Sat 7.30am-8am | Priority entry Mon, Wed, Fri 8am-9am |
| Tesco | NHS and emergency services staff allowed to go to front of queue at all times | Wed and Sun (browsing only) 9am-10am |
| Waitrose | NHS and social care workers have priority access at all times other than the first hour of opening on Mon, Wed, Fri (as this is reserved for elderly and vulnerable) | First hour of opening on Mon, Wed and Fri |
How are supermarkets enabling social distancing?
Supermarkets have introduced a wide range of social distancing measures and high-tech innovations to try to make shopping safer. In fact, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) estimates that supermarkets spent more than £100m on new safety measures throughout lockdown.
Many offer apps or handheld devices that enable you to scan your own shopping and avoid using the checkout, and every major supermarket has installed checkout screens, floor markings and enhanced cleaning measures.
Although queues have died down, you may still see people waiting outside stores due to limits on customer numbers designed to help people stay two metres apart from each other. And as social distancing looks set to be required for some time to come, supermarkets are working to make the process safer and more efficient.
The most recent development is the requirement for customers to wear masks or face coverings in shops. While many supermarkets have said they won’t challenge people who aren’t wearing them, as they could have a valid reason for not doing so (such as a disability or health condition), all are encouraging shoppers to follow the government guidance.
Sainsbury’s is trialling its uFirst app, which allows shoppers to virtually queue before they enter stores. You could be sitting in your car, in a café or – if you live close enough – at home while you wait to enter. Asda and Waitrose are trying similar schemes.
Aldi has installed traffic lights at store entrances to make it clear whether the next person in line can enter or not.
And throughout the UK, the contactless payment limit has been raised from £30 to £45, so more people can pay without having to touch the chip-and-Pin machine.
Online shopping services compared
Supermarkets scaled up their online shopping operations dramatically as demand surged during lockdown. While it’s generally easier to get a delivery slot today than it was at lockdown’s peak, retailers are still trying to give priority to elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery.
Current online shopping situation by supermarket (alphabetical list)
Amazon is yet to truly dent the grocery market, but it has overhauled its Amazon Fresh food delivery service in an attempt to expand and the entire Morrisons range is now available on Amazon.
Amazon Prime members can now get next or even same-day grocery delivery at no extra cost. It used to cost an additional monthly fee on top of Prime’s £7.99.
The service is only available in London and southern England.
Aldi doesn’t offer a full online grocery shopping service, but it is trialling click and collect. At the moment it’s just for staff at a store in the Midlands, but the supermarket plans to roll it out to customers if it’s a success.
Aldi also launched a £9.99 essentials box for vulnerable and elderly people during lockdown, but these are currently out of stock on the website.
You may also be able to order same-day deliveries of certain items from your local Aldi via Deliveroo – 29 Aldi stores are currently on the service.
- Find out more: do groceries cost more when ordered through Deliveroo?
Asda says those who are self-isolating or have additional needs should fill out the ‘other information’ section when placing their orders to tell delivery drivers where they would like their groceries to be left.
Its delivery capacity has increased from 450,000 to 725,000 slots a week.
In Birmingham and Leeds, the supermarket is trialling a 30-minute delivery service with Uber Eats.
Booths, which operates in the north of England, is delivering emergency food packs to vulnerable customers living within three miles of its stores.
It has also launched a click-and-collect service for those wishing to avoid shopping in store. You can make your order online, but payment will be taken over the phone.
Co-op is offering same-day online deliveries in some areas. You can order a maximum of 25 items from a curated selection of products.
The convenience store chain does warn that demand for slots is high, but if you can’t get one you may also be able to order from your local Co-op via Deliveroo – the chain has over 400 stores on the service.
Co-op has also expanded its same-day robot delivery service, which sees emissions-free robots bringing goods to shoppers’ doors. It’s now available from eight stores in the Milton Keynes area.
Iceland has increased its online delivery capacity by 250% by bringing more than 100 of its larger ‘Food Warehouse’ stores online. These outlets are typically two or three times larger than standard Iceland stores and stock a wider range of goods.
M&S replaced Waitrose as Ocado’s grocery partner on 1 September, meaning you can now order M&S goods online from Ocado.
We found that a basket of 30 household items on Ocado was cheaper with M&S-branded products than it was for Waitrose-branded products.
Morrisons has turned off its app and has warned customers that they must make final edits to their online shopping basket no less than 72 hours before their delivery slot, or they could risk losing their order altogether.
If you’re unable to get a Morrisons delivery slot through the website, check Deliveroo to see whether your area is covered for an essentials delivery – which could bring a limited selection of Morrisons groceries to your door within as little as 30 minutes of placing the order.
Or, if you’re a city-dwelling Amazon Prime customer, you might be able to benefit from a same-day Morrisons delivery. This service – originally available from 17 stores when it launched in March – is expanding to cover 40 stores across the UK’s 10 biggest cities by population, including Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. Many stores have already launched the offering.
Ocado is once again open to new customers, so you can now place an order if you’ve never shopped with it before, although the app is still unavailable to most customers.
Early on in the pandemic, the online-only grocer stopped accepting new customers after demand for orders challenged its capacity.
Ocado has been in the news again more recently for struggling to meet demand, this time when it replaced Waitrose products with a range from M&S.
Sainsbury’s says it has increased its capacity to 650,000 slots per week across home delivery as well as click and collect.
The supermarket is still offering priority delivery slots to elderly and vulnerable customers, but says its increased capacity means availability is good for all customers.
It’s also rolled out its e-bike delivery service, called Chop Chop, to 50 stores across the UK, launching outside London for the first time. It’s now active in 20 cities.
Tesco has expanded its weekly delivery capacity to 1.3m slots, an increase of 400,000 from before lockdown.
Its drone delivery trial is set to start in Ireland in October. It will initially only be available from its store in Oranmore, County Galway.
Waitrose has brought forward its cut-off time for online order changes to 12 noon the day before your delivery is due, to help meet the high demand. It has increased online orders to 150,000 a week – more than double the number at the start of the year – and has pledged to give a quarter of these slots to vulnerable customers.
The supermarket is trebling its Rapid Delivery service, which provides same-day delivery for up to 25 grocery items, to offer 7,000 deliveries a week. This is only available from 28 stores in Hove and London, and 40% of slots are reserved for elderly and vulnerable shoppers.
And, now that Waitrose has stopped selling via Ocado, it’s trialling a partnership with Deliveroo, with five stores on the service at the moment.
- Find out more: supermarkets on Deliveroo – are you paying more?
Which stores sell essential food boxes?
A number of supermarkets have started selling boxes packed with pre-selected ‘essential’ items such as bread, milk and pasta to help those who are self-isolating.
Links take you to the relevant page on the supermarkets’ websites.
- Aldi: £9.99, including delivery, for 21 items – currently sold out online
- Asda: £17-£39 for a range of boxes containing 16-44 items
- Morrisons: £22-£55 for a range of boxes from fruit and veg to a luxury meat selection
Alternatives to supermarkets
If you’re struggling to secure an online delivery slot and don’t want to queue at your local supermarket, it’s worth exploring whether there are alternatives in your area.
Many local independent shops, farm shops, community shops and wholesalers are innovating and expanding their services, with some launching delivery services for locals.
If you’re unsure where to start, there are a number of websites you can search including localfooddrops.co.uk and wedeliverlocal.co.uk.
Shopping habits changing
Until this year, online supermarkets had a market share of around 7% to 8%, but the pandemic has meant demand for this form of grocery shopping has skyrocketed. According to Kantar, online currently accounts for around 12.5% of all grocery sales – though this is lower than the 13.5% peak seen in the summer
Separate research by Waitrose found that more than three quarters of people regularly order household goods online, up from 61% last year.
And market research agency Mintel found that 37% of over-65s have increased the amount of online shopping they do since the outbreak started.
While supermarkets have struggled to build their online customer base in recent years, Mintel says that many people who have been forced to start shopping online due to coronavirus may well continue to do so once the pandemic is over.
In July, Sainsbury’s chief executive revealed that online orders accounted for 17% of the supermarket’s business – up from 7% pre-pandemic. Ocado’s chief executive said ‘the world as we know it has changed’ for retailers and that shoppers will not be ‘going back’ after switching to online.
A quarter of shoppers are expected to stick permanently with online shopping, according to Retail Gazette.
- Find out more: the truth behind coronavirus ‘stockpiling’
Community groups offer help
If you’re still not comfortable going out to buy groceries, or if you’re in an area under local lockdown, you might be able to get help from a community group.
According to Mintel research from April, 24% of people aged under 44 have been helping friends, family or neighbours with their shopping.
In many areas, residents have set up Facebook or WhatsApp groups to offer help to people who are vulnerable or running low on essentials – try searching for your local Mutual Aid group if you need help or want to get involved.
Some people have grouped together to place online orders, or added a few items for a neighbour, to save taking up extra delivery slots.
The neighbourhood hub Nextdoor is being used in a similar way, too, with users reaching out to offer help with shopping or even supporting those in self-isolation.
- Is someone doing your shopping for you? Find out the safest way to pay shopping volunteers.
Which? advice on coronavirus
Experts from across Which? have advice on everything from staying safe and keeping in touch with loved ones to travel insurance rights and saving money on your household bills.
Click to see all the latest coronavirus advice and news from Which?.
This story was originally published on 9 March and is being regularly updated with the latest developments. Additional reporting by Hannah Walsh.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/09/supermarkets-coronavirus-latest/