Supermarkets across Weston and Worle are adapting to ‘difficult’ circumstances enforced on them by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sainsbury’s opened only to elderly customers for the first hour of trading on Thursday.
Stores across the Mercury patch have seen a huge surge in demand for products and online delivery services.
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Worle Sainsbury’s store manager Robin Ireland said: “The situation is changing all the time, customers appreciate what we are doing.
“It is unprecedented times, the level of demand and how we respond to it is challenging.
“There are many difficult circumstances we are working under and we like to plan ahead but it’s hard for us to do that at the moment.
“People appreciate the tough situation we are in and most customers understand that.”
Sainsbury’s has enforced purchase restrictions of a maximum of three on any grocery product and a maximum of two per customer of its most popular products, including toilet roll, soap and UHT milk.
Morrisons has limits on toilet roll, cleaning products and some health and beauty items, while Tesco has introduced three item limits per customer on every product line and has removed multi-buy promotions.
Weston’s Asda also has a maximum of three products per customer and has temporarily scrapped its 24-hour opening hours to close the store from midnight to 6am.
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Betty Day, aged 90, attended the Sainsbury’s early opening and said it was ‘fantastic’.
She told the Mercury: “A young girl helped me park because the car park was so full, took me around the shop and put my trolley back for me once I had finished.
“The store was full and there were lots of elderly people getting help with their shopping.
“Recently I have been going into the store in the afternoon and all the shelves have been empty; I am disabled and living on my own and have been struggling to get the essential items I need.
““I have lived in Worle for 60 years and shop at Sainsbury’s all the time. I hope they carry on doing this, it was a fantastic morning.”
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