So for you to say that as if it's absolute fact is nonsense, many are closed.
I wish you would stop attempting to rewrite what I said to fit whatever thought you are running with. I never mentioned "nonsense" nor did I mention "absolute fact"
As with the toilet roll shortages of yesteryear they had to have some places where the toilet roll supply was disrupted for the masses grapevines of twitter, facebook, instant messaging, texting etc to use to 'spread the word' and backed up of course by staged empty shelving in closed stores filmed who knows when for it to take hold.
They have been trying with the empty shelves photos in the media for weeks now and it never got traction hence the change of tack to petrol/diesel/hgv drivers all coming after a season where "farmers" were twining on about having no pickers for their fruit/veg due to COCO and Brexit confusion.
The only supermarket group that ran out of stuff for a day or so was the Co-op. This was a direct result of their contract distributor/haulier having an issue with drivers and the bureaucracy that the state imposes on them coupled with a humongous DVLA backlog due to hardly mentioned industrial action at the DVLA and the churn of drivers peaking at this particular firm. Asda and Sainsburys are the other customers of this firm which were affected and indeed they to ran short of some items for a few days.
Aldi, Tesco, Farmfoods, B&M and Home Bargains were completely unaffected. Morrisons was also unaffected but Morrisons have the worst distribution chain of all the big supermarket chains. It is absolute pants and they are always short of things to varying degrees.
That is for this area which does not mean it is the same over the entire island.
Last winter a truck supplying the Co-op went into a ditch and rolled over which resulted in the Co-ops in this area, all of them, about ten in total all ran short of stuff as this 'just in time' supply chain fed by computerised ordering does not carry slack in it to allow for such eventualities. There simply isn't a system in place that allows for such a thing.
Same goes for tanker deliveries to petrol station. If there is a problem and a tanker cannot get through to make its scheduled delivery the stations own tanks will hold a reserve to cover such an eventuality but when the mad bastards that follow the media for their 'real take on what is happening' go and top up "just in case" even the reserve disappears and all that is left is the emergency services reserve so the petrol station has no choice but too close until the next tanker turns up.
Not that I am a smart arse but my brother is a class 1 HGV driver and my father used to be an Area manager for the Cumbrian Co-op so I know some shit. Not much just some.
Edit two.
Nothing to add.
Edit to add.
Whilst all this COCO madness rumbles on here is a short interlude into one chaps experience of cultural enrichment Afghan style in...Reading of all places!