Business in revolt as pingdemic empties shelves, cuts shop opening hours

Frustration is beginning to boil over as parts of the economy start to seize up due to workers being ordered to self-isolate, writes James Moore

Empty shelves at a Co-op branch (PA)

It’s impossible to predict what they’re going to do. They’re making it up as they go along.”

When I speak to people who regularly interact with the government on the subject of the pandemic, this reaction is all too common and because of it Britain once again finds itself in the midst of a crisis. A crisis that was, sadly, all too predictable when the government decided to press ahead with “freedom day” come what may.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

An increase in social interaction combined with the coronavirus Delta variant has served as rocket fuel for what the Oxford English Dictionary is probably going to have to include as a new word: the pingdemic. It is, of course, named for the pings received by people ordered to self-isolate by the NHS Covid app after close contacts with infected individuals.

Shortages, empty shelves and reduced opening hours are the inevitable result of tens of thousands of workers self-isolating. Grocer Iceland is taking on thousands of temporary workers to help it cope with perhaps 4 per cent of its staff off work. Other chains have announced reduced opening hours.

“The ongoing ‘pingdemic’ is putting increasing pressure on retailers’ ability to maintain opening hours and keep shelves stocked,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium.

“Businesses have exhausted their contingency plans and are at risk of grinding to a halt in the next few weeks,” said Tony Danker, director general of the CBI.

The business community’s mood is febrile, especially in retail, a sector which suffered terribly through lockdown only to find itself suffering again.

Freedom day isn’t as free as advertised if you’re trying to run shops.

All this was entirely avoidable had the government, for once, engaged its collective brain. The signal fires were burning bright. The Delta variant was making merry before 19 July.

But instead of taking it carefully, considering first whether a test and release scheme could be safely worked up for the double vaccinated, and the role workplace testing might play in keeping people safe and the economy moving, the government simply ploughed ahead.

Once again, it put the desires of a noisy faction of Tory MPs and their supporters in conservative media above the best interests of a suffering country.

As a result, far from opening up, the economy is starting to seize up.

The fact that people are once again being urged not to indulge in panic buying and pictures of empty shelves are popping up on Twitter while the government “considers the supply chain” is a savage indictment of its performance.

The hard truth is that panic buying might be entirely rational, if not exactly public spirited.

Even if retail workers are given an out through being classified as key workers, I’ve heard doubts expressed. One source told me they would be required to submit thousands of individuals’ names to be eligible for test and release. Will there even be enough paracetamol on the pharmacists’ shelves to overcome that sort of bureaucratic headache for businesses that already have enough on their plates? Doubtful.

The government is, meanwhile, trying a bit of Brexit to divert attention, stoking up a trade war with the EU over Northern Ireland. Yep, faced with a bad situation it’s proposing to make it even worse.

“Government needs to act fast,” Opie said of the situation confronting Britain. He and his members might have to turn up outside Chequers brandishing placards to get it to do that, and even that mightn’t be enough.

Danker called for a “new settlement for our society if we are to confidently live with the virus”.

“It’s not just about the next three weeks, but the next six to 12 months,” he said.

True. But that can only happen if Boris Johnson and co can be persuaded to fight the virus in preference to fighting the culture wars that they’ve been losing of late.

Just keeping food on the shelves over the next three weeks would actually count as some sort achievement.

In the midst of all this, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said that the the pledge to lift isolation rules for double-vaccinated people who are close contacts of a Covid case on 16 August may now not go ahead. But apparently he’s crossing his fingers. Well, phew, that’s a relief.

The nation may need to join him. The problem with a mass national finger crossing exercise is that it isn’t going to keep anyone fed.