Crisps, PS5s and petrol: The year the UK ran out of everything

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. With no exceptions made and official policy still one of “contact isolation” rather than “contact testing”, the UK economy was apparently being hard-hit by staff absences in response to the smartphone-issued quarantine orders, a problem affecting every sector, from retail and hospitality to transport, tourism and manufacturing, causing shifts to be rescheduled and services to run late or be cancelled altogether. Iceland’s managing director Richard Walker told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in late August that the lack of drivers had to be addressed by the government and was “impacting the food supply chain on a daily basis”. As lobby groups for the retail and transport industries wrote to the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, to demand a solution, UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls told The Independent: “Our figures show that 94 per cent of hospitality businesses are experiencing problems, with about two-thirds of those saying some goods simply don’t arrive, thereby reducing the menu they can offer customers and severely undermining sales.” Beer As more and more brands reported stock delivery problems, including Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Co-Op and Costa, one development that stood out from the crowd was the news that the JD Wetherspoon pub chain had run out of Carling, Coors and Bud Light, deliciously ironic given that its wild-haired founder Tim Martin had been one of Brexit’s most tireless evangelists. “Like many retailers, we are experiencing ongoing challenges with our supply chains due to Covid-19 and labour shortages, with transport, raw materials and sourcing all impacted,” a spokesperson said.