Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Waitrose are loosening panic-buying shopping limits

Waitrose grocery delivery
(Image credit: The Grocer)

Due to Covid-19 panic-buying concerns, lots of supermarkets introduced buying restrictions to stop people purchasing too many of certain items, thus ensuring more people got their share. 

However it seems like lots of these same supermarkets have now dropped certain restrictions.

As reported by the BBC, certain UK supermarkets including Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Waitrose are now letting you buy more of previously-restricted items. 

Waitrose, for example, will no longer restrict how much fresh food you can buy, as is Asda for fruit and veg, and Aldi is completely removing limits on buying of most items, with only select items like anti-bacterials and alcohol still limited.

Morrisons is proving a little more coy with its changes, simply bumping up the max items you can buy on restricted goods from three to four. 

This, apparently, is to encourage people to donate the extra goods to food banks, though it remains to be seen if this is a rather optimistic goal.

Other supermarkets, at time of writing, have not changed their buying limitations, so shops like Co-Op, Tesco, Sainsburys and Lidl retain their previous rules.

Still, while most shops have massive queues outside (especially in busy areas), it can be hard to buy what you need regardless of shopping limits. That's why we've written a guide on which online grocery and meal delivery services have slots this week.

Here's the current situation with online supermarkets right now

TechRadar is regularly assessing which retailers have slots for online delivery - things are starting to loosen of late, so keep checking to see who has access.

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.