By Sammie Jones
Tesco is facing strong criticism after appearing to lure members of the British public to violate lockdown rules by advertising its stock on social media for half its usual price. Adverts appearing across social media promote the 50% off sale on the retail giant’s F&F branded clothing, footwear, nightwear and lingerie from today until May 19. The idea behind the advert on the face of it appears to be to lure people out to purchase materials.
In addition to the mass advertising by Tesco, the supermarket has doubled its delivery slot in response to increased demand during the pandemic. This figure has since increased to one million, with the supermarket aiming to add another 200,000 slots over the next two weeks.Tesco has recruited an additional 12,000 new members of staff to pick and prepare the orders, along with 4,000 new drivers to deliver them.
The supermarket is expanding its delivery slots to cover the government-provided list of around 350,000 people who are clinically vulnerable and don’t have a support network to help them get essential supplies. Tesco acknowledged that this number is still “not enough for everyone who feels vulnerable at the moment” and are urging customers who wish to book a home delivery slot can do so by registering online.
Priority slots will first be given to customers across the UK who the government has advised are the most vulnerable. These customers will have received an email from Tesco to let them know they have access to priority booking.
Adverts appearing across social media promote the 50% off sale on the retail giant’s F&F branded clothing, footwear, nightwear and lingerie from today until May 19.Under government guidelines, supermarkets are expected to monitoring the number of customers within store and limiting access to avoid congestion’ and ‘reminding customers to only buy what they need.