Countdown has placed a temporary limit on all of its products, except for fruit and vegetables and its serviced deli counter, and is reducing store hours nationwide.

As of Friday, there is a limit of two similar items per person per visit across all Countdown and online shopping services.

Baby food will be limited to six per customers.

All Countdown stores will close at 9pm on Friday and as of Saturday will only open from 9am to 8pm across the country.

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Managing director Natalie Davis said New Zealand was not running out of food.

"We have plenty of food in our supply chain, however we simply cannot get it through the network fast enough if Kiwis don't slow down their shopping. This is the only way we can try to manage demand," she said.

"While this may be frustrating or inconvenient for some customers, we need to provide our team with the time and ability they need to get as much product on shelf as possible during this time of extraordinary demand. If the store is too busy, we will be managing the number of people who can be in our stores at any one time for the safety and wellbeing of our team and other customers."

DARREN BEVAN/STUFF Supermarkets have been dealing with huge surges in demand.

She said Countdown had "every truck on the road possible and every team member possible working" to support stores and online services.

"Every truck that has to go out full of toilet paper means that regular supermarket supplies can't get through. We're also working on ways to ensure that customers who need a bit more assistance can get the help they need in our stores and online.

"We would ask all our customers to continue to be kind, consider others and consider what you've got in your pantry already."

Foodstuffs South Island chief executive Steven Anderson fronted media earlier on Friday to tell New Zealanders to shop normally.

"We are experiencing huge pressure - we don't have a supply issue, we have a demand issue," Anderson said.

Some Pak'n Save outlets are also reducing opening hours to allow more time to replenish stocks.

Chris Wilkinson, managing director of First Retail Group, said because Foodstuffs was an owner-operator model there was more control over ordering in each location.

"It's not just the sales data driving reordering and forecasting, but the gut feel and instinctiveness that you get when someone with skin in the game is running each site. In normal times the data works well, but currently, with everyday almost at Christmas trading levels you need that local knowledge, watching behaviours and understanding how each store is performing, uniquely, to provision sufficiently."

Food and Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich said she was "not currently concerned" about the supply of goods to New Zealand. She said about 40 per cent of the items in supermarkets came from offshore.

China was starting to open up again and more goods were coming from that country.

She said she had been in regular contact with manufacturers. Some were looking at their ranges and concentrating on core products, she said.

"The demand we are seeing is unprecedented but it's also global demand."

Manufacturers around the world were under pressure, she said, but New Zealand would continue to get is fair allocation.

Local manufacturers were also re-establishing or boosting their operations, she said,

She said while customers might not always see their favourite brands on shelves all the time, there would be products available in the categories. "There might be 20 brands but if manufacturers focus on five or six they get more on shelves."

Some manufactures were choosing to fly products to New Zealand rather than ship them, as they normally would, even though that came at a higher cost to them.

But that would not be a long-term solution and goods would return to being shipped, she said. "The system is working but it is under pressure."

Rich said her own daughter worked in a supermarket and was upset when she had a customer trying to buy nappies for her baby.

She could not find any because they had all been sold, including to one customer before her who bought 10 packets.

"There is a human face to the panic buying … we can't stress enough, buy what you need for your family. There is no reason to hoard. If everyone does that, other New Zealanders in need will miss out."

Countdown general manager of corporate affairs Kiri Hannifin said the retailer's preference was to buy locally when it could.

"Our merchandise team is in constant contact with our growers and suppliers to ensure that any disruption to our customers is minimised as much as possible," she said.

"The vast majority of our produce is grown in New Zealand and all of our fresh meat is also sourced from New Zealand. However, for some products that can't be sourced from New Zealand, we'll continue to work with our growers and suppliers to manage any delays we may encounter. Remember borders have not been closed to products, shipments of food are still heading to New Zealand as normal.

"We want to assure New Zealanders that our supply chain is strong – that we have enough food in this plentiful country – but we need people to shop as they would normally, rather than stockpile."

Tava Olsen, a professor at the University of Auckland Business School, said import supply chains were longer than local ones and would take longer to fill after a spike in demand.

The resilience of the supply of products depended on the amount of safety stock kept for "just in case" and the length of the supply chain, she said.

"If we look at toilet paper – it is a very high volume, low value, bulky product with usually predicable demand - so supply chains are usually kept quite lean, not much buffer – it doesn't take too much of a spike in demand to empty the chain. Now in New Zealand we make toilet paper and I saw an article that the Dunedin factory is running overtime, plus the supply chain is quite short, so we should be fine. "

Rich said supermarkets were seeing pressure in all product categories.

"Thankfully most of our members keep very good inventories ... it's changing so quickly but I still feel confident about the stocks of food and groceries we have in the country."

In Christchurch, Pak'n Save Moorhouse shopper Michelle Blanchet said on Friday she had been to the supermarket twice this week to stock up on supplies.



There was plenty of stock on the shelves and no limits on items, but there were noticeably more shoppers than usual.



"I popped in here on Wednesday just to get a couple of things and I couldn't get into the car park, I had to park outside ... it was really crazy busy.



"I've bought a little bit extra but nothing major, there's plenty in there."



Blanchet said she was preparing to go into lockdown.



"I think the chances of us having to go into lockdown are a lot higher than I thought a few days ago … I've actually prepared to work from home if I need to."



The feeling was different a few hundred metres down the road at Countdown Moorhouse.



Construction worker Heta Hanara said it was the second supermarket he had visited on Friday as he was stocking up on frozen foods.



The supermarket was littered with signs directing customers they could not buy more than two similar items per person.



"You can see what people are focusing on … if you're looking for [hygiene items] and that sort of stuff, it's not there.



"For us, it's just making sure we have enough food in the cupboard. I believe what we're doing is the right thing to do."

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