Get a grip: Stuart Rose blasts stockpiling Brits

Stuart Rose, the former Marks & Spencer boss who now chairs Ocado, has called on Brits to stop stockpiling groceries during the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “There is no shortage of food. Nobody will starve. There is a £1 billion more food in people’s larders than there was a couple of weeks ago. What are they doing with it? How much do you need to eat? How much do you need to store away?”

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Rose, who recently recovered from coronavirus, added: “If you buy a chicken, roast the chicken, have the roast chicken dinner, the following day turn it into a stir fry, the following day make it into soup. We live in a very profligate society: we buy too much, we eat too much, we consume too much, and we have to learn new ways.”

Roasting Rose

Somewhat unsurprisingly, many people have been criticising Rose’s comments on social media.

“This sort of comment is not helpful. Most families are not 'stockpiling'. Restaurants, cafes and schools etc are closed where 1/3 of what we eat normally comes from. Families are just feeding themselves,” Guardian/Observer journalist Sarah Butler said on Twitter.

Responding to Butler, @MancVersusFood commented: “He should know better, hes been in the industry long enough. The 30% of kids in Manchester that are in poverty are probably starving as we speak. This is why it's concerning that rich, white dudes are still dominating board rooms.”

And @AlanBingle added: “Most families now have kids at home all day when they previously had school dinners and with diminished household income they can't get takeaways or go out (if they ever did). And with the need to stay in they/we have no choice but to get a bit more than usual!”