Morrisons reintroduces door marshals in Sheffield amid concerns over panic buying

Shoppers could face queues outside supermarkets again after Morrisons reinstated door marshals to limit the amount of customers inside its stores.
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Lengthy queues were a familiar sight in supermarket car parks during the early days of lockdown, with shoppers often waiting up to an hour to get inside as numbers were strictly limited to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

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Morrisons this week confirmed that marshals will now greet customers at the entrance to all stores, helping to ensure it doesn’t get too busy inside, as part of wide-ranging new hygiene and safety measures brought in by the grocery giant.

Morrisons is reintroducing door marshals to help limit the number of customers inside its stores (pic: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)Morrisons is reintroducing door marshals to help limit the number of customers inside its stores (pic: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Morrisons is reintroducing door marshals to help limit the number of customers inside its stores (pic: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
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Their return comes amid concerns about a new wave of panic buying, similar to that which earlier this year made loo roll, flour, pasta and other essentials prized commodities, as an increase in coronavirus cases raises the spectre of a second national lockdown.

Over the weekend, Sainsbury’s warned that it was experiencing ‘high demand’ for delivery slots, while Ocado, Tesco and Asda customers reportedly also faced waits of up to four days for delivery.

And some shoppers shared photos from supermarkets around the country showing stocks of essentials on the shelves appeared to be running low.

But retailers have assured people that as before there is plenty of stock for everyone.

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A spokesman for Morrisons said: “Marshals will greet customers at the store entrance, helping ensure the store doesn't get too busy and making customers aware of where they can get free hand and trolley.”

He would not comment further on why marshals were being brought back at this time but said a range of new hygiene measures had been planned for a while.

Morrisons introduced a new cleaning schedule from last Monday, with more than 2,200 new cleaning roles created to ensure areas like toilets, shelves and other ‘high touch’ spots were cleaned even more frequently.

It is also installing new cleaning stations at all store entrances, with hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes for baskets and trolleys.

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Jayne Wall, operations director at Morrisons, said: “The hygiene within our stores has become more important than ever due to the impact of Covid-19. We want to make sure our customers feel as safe as possible when doing their grocery shopping with us. So we’ve made this multi-million-pound investment to introduce first class hygiene procedures.”