Brexit delivery bottlenecks
Pictures of vegetables hide gaps in supermarket shelves – there is mockery for this on the internet
Partially empty shelves in a supermarket in London: Corona and Brexit are causing major problems for the supply chains. Some markets cover the gaps with cardboard disc displays
© Frank Augstein
In the past few weeks, gasoline in particular has been in short supply, and now there are apparently supply bottlenecks in the UK for fruit and vegetables. Twitter users photographed supermarket shelves with pictures as placeholders.
The UK supply chain crisis is widening. After it became known in the past few weeks that the UK is short of petrol and diesel, the consequences of Brexit are now also being felt in fresh foods such as fruit and vegetables.
Twitter users react with ridicule
Twitter users from Great Britain photographed shelves of the British supermarket chain Tesco, in which pictures of vegetables are now hanging on the shelves to cover up gaps.
The British are at least still taking the crisis with humor. After Tesco posted pictures of asparagus, carrots and grapes, many Twitter users were cynical about the food shortage. “Mmmhhh, delicious pictures of asparagus” commented one user.
The problems in the UK supply chain are many. At the moment there is a lack of personnel in the areas of logistics, order picking and packaging on the island. In particular, truck drivers and employees in food processing plants are urgently needed, writes the British magazine “The Guardian”. In addition, there is the starting Christmas business, which leads to bottlenecks due to insufficient staff at ports and when handling deliveries.
The reason for the cardboard displays are not just delivery bottlenecks
Another reason for cardboard displays in stores is the general shift towards simpler and smaller product lines, retail analyst Bryan Roberts tells the Guardian.
He also observed this process before the delivery bottlenecks in some supermarkets. This is not only about missing goods that need to be covered, but also about the problem that many shops have become too big because fewer product lines are being carried. Basically, it’s about getting the shelves full.
Of course, the pictures of vegetables stand out clearly. However, there are other tactics to keep the store busy. For example, filling refrigerated shelves with tomato sauce or mayonnaise or filling entire aisles with beer. There are also large posters and other marketing articles.
Britain is feeling the effects of Brexit
Tesco reacted calmly to the photos of the cardboard vegetables. The images have been in use for months and have nothing to do with the current delivery crisis. The supermarket chain is apparently much more the way of the discounters.
As a result of Brexit, food prices in Great Britain have risen sharply. Retailers reacted to the rise in prices by thinning out their range in order to increase their efficiency and thus keep prices as low as possible.
Sources: The Guardian, Tweet 1, Tweet 2, Tweet 3