Panic buyers stockpile and queue ahead of lockdown
Panic buyers are flocking to shops for essentials as the second national lockdown looms.
Guljinder Singh Bhandal owns Birchwood Express in Wolverhampton which has already seen more customers buying tinned goods and toilet roll.
And his wife Hardeep Bhandal owns the beauty salon next door, Reflect Beauty, which is having to close once again from Thursday.
Mrs Bhandal said: "We have noticed a change in the shop, people have started to buy more toilet roll, pasta, tins of beans, mainly groceries.
"The hand sanitiser and hand wash are also being bought more.
"It's early days but we have already noticed a difference the last few days and I think we are going to have to start stocking up a bit more again.
"We get busier as people avoid queueing at the supermarkets so they go to their local shop."
And Mrs Bhandal said her beauty salon phone has not stopped ringing since the announcement about lockdown.
"As soon as the news was out I started getting messages to say people wanted to move their bookings forward but with keeping everybody safe with social distancing we can't fit everybody in," she added.
"It was really disappointing as we've just got back into the swing of things and Christmas bookings have started and now we don't know if we'll be able to reopen.
"Christmas is one of our busiest times. We lost all of our summer trade and now we've lost most of the Christmas trade."
It comes as people have been seen queueing outside shops in recent days, including at Merry Hill shopping centre.
'Chaos'
And back in September as the coronavirus cases first started to rise again the owner of a Tipton cash and carry said he was once again seeing a surge in sales of certain items.
Now Glynn Goodsell, owner of Sellgoods Ltd, in Speed Road, said people have been queueing outside his shop more than an hour before it opens to stock up.
He said: "It's gone mad again. Everything is selling this time, it's chaos again.
"We don't open until 7am and when I looked at my security cameras at 5.45am there were already vans waiting for us to open.
"We've limited the numbers of items people can buy again.
"Everyone wants toilet roll, everybody is worried about it selling out, they cause their own problems, there's not actually a shortage.
"I'm getting extra deliveries in, we're getting at least double the customers in already."
Before the first lockdown customers were fighting over products in his store and shelves were left empty due to panic buyers.
