In a dramatic escalation of government acceptance over what the retail sector faces, the PM admitted the problems are “acute” and affect businesses across the UK.
Ex-Tesco CEO Sir David has been appointed in an temporary capacity as supply chain advisor to try to ease blockages in the period up to the end of the year, in a reflection of official concern that Christmas could be spoilt by disruption to the availability of food items and gifts.
Leave it to BJ to U-turn and do too little too late …
Dido Harding and 2 of her managers were ex-Sainsbury and made a pig’s ear of T’n’T. Will another retail “import” do a better job with supply issues?
How is he going to solve the problem if it’s because there’s a shortage of HGV drivers? Does he have a lot of ‘friends’ who are HGV drivers and with the right ‘inducements’, will start driving all over the country delivering the goods to fill the shelves?
Maybe if he appoints a couple of guys to sign off the stuff at the point of entry, instead of having to go through reams of red tape…that might help get the stuff along up the road
Fuel was as in my recent post. The supermarkets shelves were a little empty as I shopped very late. No real shortages that I could see and anyway there’s so much choice these days there’s always something else that can be substituted. Either that or just wait until the next shopping trip, that’s no great problem for the majority of people I wouldn’t have thought. Nobody is going to starve anyway!
Edited to clarify wording in bold:
No problems with queues, just that the price per litre had increased from 137.9 to 141.9, almost overnight.
Sir David Lewis, former chief executive of the supermarket giant, will assist both the prime minister and newly appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Stephen Barclay on both immediate improvements and any necessary long-term changes to UK supply chains for goods, Downing Street said.
Sir David will be in the role until the end of the year and will work with government officials to quickly resolve acute, short-term issues, they added.
He will also co-chair a new supply chain advisory group which will be based in the Cabinet Office.
The announcement comes as data revealed around one in six adults in Britain have been unable to buy essential food items in the last fortnight.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), some 17% of adults said they had not been able to purchase such goods because they were not available.
Almost a quarter (23%) said the same for non-essential food items.
In my local “bargain” supermarket, well over a dozen items, including peas, kidney beans, pasta and rice were missing from the canned/packaged food section - the shelves were stacked with extended supplies of available goods but that only made the missing noticeable.
There does seem to be a thing about filling missing spaces with similar goods. If you are looking for something specific then you notice. Milk is restricted supply. but depends on which supermarket you go to.
The empty shelves syndrome has actually done us a favour as we have been forced to try other brands or even store own brands, thus reducing our overall spend👍
Somebody I was speaking to on Thursday said he had heard that diesel was priced at £1.90 a litre in London. That doesn’t surprise me at all, the most expensive place to live where wealthy people are also to be found, they can probably afford it anyway.
Certainly stuff missing in some stores mainly Tesco, never sure if this is due to not employing as many staff overnight as they did to refill shelves, I tend to go reasonably early around 9 am and even the milk shelves can be empty.
