Supermarkets are experiencing a deluge of orders for deliveries via safe shopping online as consumers across the UK seek to minimise their risk of exposure to the coronavirus, according to the Sun.

This is evidenced by the fact that many retailers are almost entirely booked out for delivery slots across the coming week.

The affected retailers include everyone from Ocado and Sainsbury’s to Asda and Morrisons, meaning that many shoppers will either have to wait several days for a slot to become available or head out to their local bricks and mortar stores.

Levels of uptake are different in various regions of the country, with certain supermarkets being especially overloaded with orders in London, Brighton and other parts of the South East.

Many customers have taken to social media to air their gripes surrounding this lack of delivery availability, with some claiming that the current state of affairs is equivalent to peak periods of grocery delivery usage in the run-up to Christmas.

Of course, in a sense this is an issue that has arisen as a result of consumer panic setting in around the rise in the number of cases of coronavirus infection in the UK, with people choosing to buy certain products in bulk over fears that there will be shortages.

Other customers who did manage to get their desired delivery slot revealed that more than the average number of product substitutions were being made at the moment, which is once again linked with certain customers hoarding resources.

This unexpected pandemic is one which has caught a number of businesses and institutions off-guard, pushing supply chains and delivery infrastructures to their limit, so hopefully lessons will be learned for future outbreaks. Meanwhile, consumers may need to adjust their spending habits, as well as their expectations, until the threat of infection diminishes.