Independent UK food stores enjoy unexpected sales bonanza

Many independent food stores across the UK are enjoying an unexpected sales bonanza thanks to the coronavirus outbreak as consumers tire of crowded and understocked supermarkets.

However, shopkeepers in the Essex town of Leigh-on-Sea, 40 miles east of central London, warned that their own supply chains were coming under pressure, and feared that the renaissance in local shopping may be shortlived. 

“We were a bit busier last weekend. Monday and Tuesday we did double what we normally would. Today we’ve been rammed to bits,” said Simon Pow, the owner of Pot and Herb on the town’s main shopping street, as a hectic Saturday drew to a close.

It was a similar story at T Harrison, a long-established butcher several doors down. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, a few packs of bacon and some more expensive cuts of beef were the only things left in the window. 

“It’s been absolutely mind-boggling,” said proprietor Ramsay, who declined to give his surname. “We must have done four times our normal volume today. I don’t even know what’s gone through the till.” 

Shoppers have turned to local shops after a week in which supermarkets, which account for the vast majority of grocery spend in the UK, have found themselves unable to keep pace with demand. 

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The government and the British Retail Consortium, an industry body, have stressed that there is enough food in the supply chain. But the daily experience of many shoppers has been long queues before opening time and shelves that are quickly stripped. 

Mr Pow said he was still able to source supplies from his wholesaler, though he was running out of space to store them. Prices have mostly remained stable. “I’ve not put my own prices up,” he said. “There’s a lot of people coming in here for the first time. I don’t want them to think I’m pulling their pants down”. 

But Ramsay said wholesale prices were increasing, especially for eggs and lamb, which is between seasons. “For lamb we’re paying around £7.50 a kilo wholesale at the moment. I can see that going up to £8.50”. 

In the small hours of Monday morning he will drive to London’s Smithfield meat market for the first time in years, hoping to pick up some stock that would otherwise have been destined for the capital’s now-closed restaurants. 

He and his three staff have been working 18 hours a day to keep pace. “I’d rather be working like a dog than be in the position the restaurants are in,” he said. The shop supplies many of Leigh’s restaurants, which have either closed completely or switched to takeaway-only operations. 

The owner of an independent convenience store in the town, who asked to remain anonymous, said that sales had risen but not by as much as people imagined. Wholesalers had cut back on deliveries, he said. 

“It’s hard to get stock now unless you go to the cash-and-carry and queue up. You find that the first 20 people through the door are getting a lot of what’s left”. Like supermarkets, wholesalers have imposed per-customer limits on key items. 

“It’s been hard. We find ourselves having to say ‘no’ a lot,” he said, adding that stock availability would probably have been better if the government had imposed item limits on all stores earlier in the crisis. 

Retailers were sceptical about whether the sales boom would last. “I’d like to think some people with stick with us. It’s certainly taught me how much people buy from supermarkets,” said Ramsay. 

For local shopkeepers, many of whose staff are also family members, the virus itself is a real threat. “The thing that worries me most is: what if I get it?” said Mr Pow. “Who will buy the stock and pay the staff?”