Coronavirus: Morrisons ramps up delivery service to cope with demand
Morrisons has launched a range of measures to help customers and employees during the coronavirus pandemic, including ramping up delivery options and a hardship fund for workers.
The grocer has expanded its home delivery service including extra slots, a new range of “simple to order food parcels” and a phone ordering option for those without access to the internet.
Supermarkets across the UK have come under increasing pressure as customers stockpile household goods and essential food in case of quarantine or a lockdown.
To support the new delivery services the supermarket will recruit an extra 3,500 workers.
The supermarket also said today that workers struggling to make ends meet due to the pandemic will be eligible to apply for financial support.
David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, said: “We expect the days, weeks and months ahead to be very testing and we are determined to do our bit.
“These measures will support our very hard-working colleagues, enable us to provide more food to more people in their homes and create opportunities for people whose jobs are affected by the coronavirus.”
Major supermarkets this week published a letter to customers asking them not to stockpile to prevent shortages for other consumers, including elderly people and people that can not afford to buy a lot of goods in one shopping trip.
Meanwhile workers at Amazon’s warehouses in the UK are being told to work overtime as the company meets the surge in demand amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The GMB union said workers across at least four different sites were informed that they had to work “compulsory overtime” from Monday, according to the BBC.
Amazon will also hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the US to cope with a surge in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.