Covid-19 update: UK supermarkets record busiest month in history

As Britain prepared for a lockdown, images of supermarket shelves stripped of essentials like pasta and toilet paper circulated on social media, prompting British supermarkets to take out newspaper ads urging people not to panic buy.

British supermarkets had their busiest month in history as demand soared from people preparing to stay at home to avoid the new coronavirus.

Supermarket sales soared to all-time highs in March in the UK due to panic buying linked to the novel coronavirus epidemic. (AFP Photo)

New figures from market research firm Kantar show that British grocery sales jumped by 20.6 per cent in March compared with a year earlier, making it the fastest rate of growth on record.

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As Britain prepared for a lockdown, images of supermarket shelves stripped of essentials like pasta and toilet paper circulated on social media, prompting British supermarkets to take out newspaper ads urging people not to panic buy.

Grocery sales totaled 10.8 billion pounds (USD 13.3 billion) over the past four weeks, surpassing the level seen during the busy Christmas season, Kantar said. The average household bought the equivalent of five extra days of groceries, it found.