Shoppers Across Britain Stock Up After Be Ready Campaign Launch

Shoppers in Britain bought considerably more bottled water, hand sanitiser and tinned food in the 10 days after the UK government launched its Be Ready campaign, according to The Guardian. The campaign encourages households to prepare for up to three days of disruption to essential services, from incidents such as cyber-attacks or extreme weather.

The sales figures compare the 10-day period with the same stretch last year. They come from the monthly grocery report of Worldpanel by Numerator for Great Britain. Sales of hand sanitiser rose 83%, bottled water rose 67%, and tinned and jarred goods rose 37%.

Tinned meat drew a larger crowd. The number of people buying it each day rose by 43%, or about 400,000 extra shoppers a day. The typical pack bought stayed at about 500 grams. Shoppers also bought more batteries, torches, toiletries and medicines after the launch.

Not every household was stocking up. Less than a third of households bought bottled water in October. Separate research by Barclays found that 27% of people were stockpiling, or considering stockpiling, food and drink. The research also found a generational gap: 31% of 18- to 34-year-olds said they had enough food and drinking water to last at least three days, compared with 53% of those aged 55 and over.

Overall grocery prices are also rising. Grocery inflation, the rate at which food and drink prices increase over a year, picked up to 2.6% in the four weeks to 1 November, from 2.5% the previous month. Sales at Britain's grocers grew 2.2% year on year in October.

Individual retailers reported mixed results. Ocado's sales rose 12.3% in the 12 weeks to 1 November, and its market share reached a joint record high of 2.3%. Marks & Spencer increased its grocery sales by 14.6%. Lidl overtook Morrisons to become the fifth-biggest grocer, with sales up 6.6% and a market share of 8.6%, against Morrisons' 8.3%. Asda's sales dipped by 0.5%, and its market share fell from 11.6% to 11.3%, though it remained the third-biggest supermarket.

Halloween shopping followed its own pattern. Pumpkins cost about £1.20, 12% less than a year earlier in the run-up to the holiday. About 3.3 million households bought one, with pumpkin sales 10% higher year on year. Sales of tubs of sweets rose 28%.