Supermarkets across Cork and the rest of the country are offering priority times to elderly and vulnerable customers.

Shops dedicating hours to elderly and vulnerable customers; public asked to respect measures

More and more supermarkets across Cork and the rest of the country are offering priority times to elderly and vulnerable customers, to allow them to shop with minimum stress and anxiety.

As fears surrounding the spread of Covid-19 intensify, Ryan’s Supervalu Glanmire has become the latest retailer to offer senior citizens a dedicated shopping time.

“We are going to allocate 7.30-10am on Wednesday for our elderly and most vulnerable customers and for every other Wednesday morning for the foreseeable,” Liam Ryan said. “We would ask all other customers to respect this allocated time.

“Please share this with your family, friends, neighbours, etc.”

Lidl is setting aside two hours a day for seniors citizens to shop.

“We will be implementing priority shopping hours for the elderly across all 163 Lidl stores in Ireland, 9-11am every day, until further notice,” the retailer said on social media.

With most stores opening at 8am, this gives commuters and other customers a chance to shop before the hours reserved for the elderly.

Lidl is asking other shoppers to respect the initiative, saying: “We may not be able to actively monitor this at all times as our store teams are required on checkouts and restocking shelves, so we kindly ask that customers respect this measure and plan their shopping trips around this timeframe.”

Retailers have moved to assure customers that supply chains will be unaffected by the ongoing coronavirus and have strongly advised against stockpiling and panic-buying.