Some shelves were nearly empty in the city’s supermarkets yesterday, as items such as canned goods, pasta, hand-wash, flour, vitamins, sanitary pads and tissues sold out.
A limit of two paracetamol or ibuprofen packets per customer was in place at some supermarkets.
An email sent to Countdown customers yesterday said empty shelves or missing products did not mean something was going to run out, but rather was on its way.
‘‘We’re working closely with our suppliers to keep food moving quickly through the network and make more deliveries to our stores.
‘‘If you’re seeing empty shelves or some products missing, it’s because the product is on its way.
‘‘It doesn’t mean that we’re going to run out.’’
It said the online shopping service was experiencing high demand.
Countdown health and safety general manager Kiri Hannifin said it was taking the evolving situation with Covid-19 very seriously.
‘‘Our stores and online services are very busy, but our teams are managing this demand as best as we can.
‘‘The most important message we can give Kiwis is that there is plenty of food to go around, and there’s no need to stockpile.’’
‘‘We’d encourage Kiwi customers to shop as they normally would and be thoughtful of others to ensure that all New Zealanders have access to the food and products they need.’’
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Comments
Who are these exercised excitables? Not exactly the Dunedin way.
100 people lined up at the doors of PaknSave at 7am today. I saw HUGE trollies overlaoded. How long will supplies last at this rate if the virus becomes entrenched into infection wave cycles? Maybe it's time to ration supplies and freeze prices before the fright and survival instincts really take hold in light of how things are panning out at the moment.
Most people cannot excercise self control, that's why we have law enforcement!
Get a restriction and purchase plan in place and implemented early to maintain steady supplies of food and essential goods.