Britons stockpiling water and food tins but not panic buying, figures show

Shoppers appear to have taken government’s Be Ready campaign seriously, retail analysts say

British shoppers have been stocking up on essentials such as bottled water, tinned goods and hand sanitiser, but did not panic buy after the government advised people to prepare for emergencies, shopping data has shown.

Sales of essentials jumped in the 10 days after the government launched its Be Ready campaign, which encourages households to prepare for up to three days in the event of disruption to essential services from incidents such as cyber-attacks or extreme weather.

In the 10 days after the campaign launch, sales of hand sanitiser surged by 83% compared with the same period last year, while sales of bottled water rose 67% and tinned and jarred goods went up 37%, according to Worldpanel by Numerator’s monthly grocery report for Great Britain.

The number of people buying tinned meat each day after the launch of the campaign rose by 43%, equivalent to an extra 400,000 shoppers a day, but the typical amount bought remained at about 500g in terms of pack size.

Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Worldpanel by Numerator, said: “Shoppers clearly took notice of the Be Ready campaign, but this wasn’t panic buying, with less than a third of households buying bottled water in October.

“Growth came from more people adding the recommended items on the government’s checklist to their weekly shop, not from shoppers piling their trolleys high, which is very much in line with what the government wanted households to do.”

Separate research from Barclays last week found 27% of people were stockpiling, or considering accumulating, food and drink. Younger adults are less prepared – 31% of 18- to 34-year-olds said they have enough food and drinking water to last at least three days, compared with 53% of those aged 55 plus. People also bought more batteries, torches, toiletries and medicines.

The Worldpanel by Numerator survey also showed that grocery inflation picked up to 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 November, up from 2.5% the previous month, after slowing in the summer.

McKevitt said: “Household budgets have already taken a hit after the latest increase to the energy price cap arrived with the cold weather in October, and shoppers will be keeping a close eye on prices at the tills this winter.”

Pumpkin prices were 12% lower than last year in the run-up to Halloween, at about £1.20. About 3.3 million households bought a pumpkin, with the number sold 10% higher year on year. Sales of tubs of sweets rose 28%.

Retailers are now in the “golden quarter”, the peak spending period of the year including Christmas as well as the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotional events.

McKevitt said: “Many households will be planning their Christmas spending more carefully this year, making Black Friday an important moment for shoppers looking to make their money go further on big-ticket items, while retailers will be hoping it gets the golden quarter off to a strong start.”

The Worldpanel data also showed that sales at Britain’s grocers climbed 2.2% year on year in October. Ocado posted a 12.3% rise in the 12 weeks to 1 November and lifted its market share to a joint record high of 2.3%. Marks & Spencer, which part-owns the Ocado retail business, increased its own grocery sales by 14.6%.

The discounter Lidl has now overtaken Morrisons and become Britain’s fifth-biggest grocer, as its sales rose 6.6%, taking its market share to 8.6%, ahead of Morrisons at 8.3%.

Asda was the only big grocer to report a dip in sales, of 0.5%, and its market share fell from 11.6% to 11.3%; however, it was still the third-biggest supermarket. This underlines the task its new chief executive David Potts, a former Morrisons boss, faces.