Empty shelves are being reported Scotland stores as shortages brought by delivery glitches start to affect retailers.
Shoppers have been urged not to panic buy as gaps on the shelves appear, with bosses of the UK's biggest chains saying they were and occurring in pockets.
The Asda store in Dunfermilne, Fife and Sainsburries in Kinross, Perthshire, are among shops affected by problems with the delivery chain, which is being blamed on the “pingdemic”, a lack of of HGV drivers and the hot weather.
Empty shelves have been appearing around the country
A Co-op spokesman said: “We are sorry that we are running low on some products. Like many retailers, we are impacted by some patchy disruption to our deliveries and store operations but we are working closely with our suppliers to get re-stocked quickly.”
READ MORE: Minister slapped down by No 10 for suggesting Covid app 'ping' can be ignored
A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “We are working hard to ensure customers can find what they need.
“While we might not always have the exact product a customer is looking for in every store, large quantities of products are being delivered to stores daily and our colleagues are focused on getting them on to the shelves as quickly as they can.”
Low salad stocks at a supermarket in Kinross...
Tesco confirmed that it had plenty of food and deliveries arriving across the UK every day.
However sporadic disruption from the industry-wide shortage of HGV drivers and an increase in staff self-isolating on a precautionary basis was leading to pockets of temporary low availability across a small number of products.
Iceland managing director Richard Walker has said staff absence rates are now double the usual number, with the figure rising 50% “week on week” due to people being told to self-isolate by the NHS app.
Mr Walker told the Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve now got over 1,000 staff off, who’ve been pinged. That’s double the normal rates, and it’s rising at 50% week on week.
“Our big concern is that we’ve kept all of our shops open throughout the pandemic, but now we have had to close one or two shops and reduce hours in others.
“But that could get a lot worse a lot quicker, unless the country’s system is sorted out.”
Mr Walker urged shoppers not to panic buy, saying: “There is certainly no problem with supply of stock.
“Panic-buying is only an option for those who can afford it and it often means that others go without.”
Water was in short supply at this store
Elsewhere, sandwich chain Pret A Manger has temporarily closed 17 shops due to staff being forced to self-isolate.
The head of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, has suggested rules around self-isolation could be amended for people working in food supply chains following rising levels of staff absence.
READ MORE: Shoppers told not to panic as retailers raise concerns
Ms Dickinson suggested to BBC Breakfast that bringing forward the date double-vaccinated people will not need to self-isolate if they come into contact with a Covid-19 case could be one solution.
“There are some pilots for tested release for businesses and people who get paid to test themselves and then released back into their workplace, those pilots could be extended or that could be a new system,” Ms Dickinson said.
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