UK Torch and Radio Sales Jump After Stockpiling Call
Retailers report sharp rises in sales of radios, torches and tinned food after the government urged households to prepare for emergencies, figures obtained by Newsnight show.
Several UK retailers have recorded steep rises in sales of basic emergency goods since the government urged people to stock up, according to figures obtained by BBC Newsnight.
Iceland said sales of tinned products climbed 40% over the weekend. A company spokesperson said it was "clear consumers have listened to the government's message", and added that bottled water was also selling strongly. The chain said its supplies of these products remain healthy.
Radios and torches lead
Robert Dyas reported a 160% rise in radio sales compared with last week. Maplin gave figures for the period since last week's announcement against the same period a month earlier: radios up 92%, torches up 284% and power banks up 106%.
"Within hours of the Be Ready announcement we saw people reach for the basics - a torch, a wind-up radio, a power bank," said Ollie Marshall, managing director at Maplin. He said torch sales nearly quadrupled and radio sales almost doubled in three days.
Smaller sellers saw bigger swings. Josh Pringle, who runs the online store Sgt Prepper's, said his sales rose tenfold. "We were a small outfit on Wednesday," he said, describing order after order once the Be Ready campaign launched, most of them for a wind-up radio.
Lincoln Miles, founder of Preppers Shop UK, put the increase at 650%. Off-grid products, he said, seem to be what people are buying for the moment.
What the minister asked for
On 22 October, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said households should have three litres of water per person per day, tinned goods in the cupboard, baby food, battery-powered torches and phone charging packs. He named a cyber attack and extreme weather as the kind of emergency to prepare for. Many of those items appear on the list of goods whose sales Newsnight gathered.
Asked about the rise, Streeting told Newsnight it was encouraging that people are taking practical steps. A few everyday essentials at home, from tinned food to torches, help households prepare for disruption, whether that is flooding, power cuts or burst pipes, he said.
Source: BBC News