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Supermarkets say their staff will have to work “incredibly hard” to adhere to a new rule that emerged at a Senedd committee meeting Thursday afternoon.
Prime Minister Mark Drakeford said the sale of non-essential items would be banned during the two-week firewall, meaning supermarkets will not be able to sell many items.
It is understood that many of the retailers that are allowed to say open were not informed about the nonessential regulations until Thursday afternoon, 24 hours before their implementation.
Options they must now adhere to include cordoning off aisles and preventing shoppers from entering certain areas, but critics worry this will restrict the flow of movement through the store and impact social distancing.
On Friday morning, Asda said they had not been given a list of what is or is not classified as an essential item or that they had not been given “sufficient notice” to implement the changes. A spokesperson said: “The Welsh government’s firewall regulations mean that we can only sell products that they deem essential.
“We have been given very little time to implement these changes or clarity on what is considered ‘essential’. We have expressed deep concern about the implications for customers accessing the products they really need and the risk to the safety of our colleagues.
“We will continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and colleagues safe and ask our customers to be patient when shopping with us and to continue to treat our colleagues with respect while doing everything possible to help them understand the new regulations. “
A Tesco spokeswoman said: “Our colleagues across Wales will work incredibly hard today so that we can comply with the Welsh government’s ban on selling ‘non-essential’ products to our customers as of 6pm tonight.”
The Welsh Retail Consortium called the idea “ill-conceived and shortsighted” as stores immediately began looking for answers to what is essential and what is not.
The organization’s director, Sara Jones, said: “The regulations were only released on Thursday, giving essential retailers (supermarkets, hardware / DIY, pharmacies / pet food retailers) an incredibly short period to understand and then seek to implement the new rules, essential products will be in transit to stores.
“We had the regulations that defined what is an essential and nonessential retailer, but it certainly didn’t give us any indication of what the nonessential items are.
“The Welsh government now informs us that essential retailers cannot sell these non-essential items, but what constitute those items? With less than 11 hours to go, how do we classify what the Welsh government tells us?”
“It is very difficult, because what is essential for a person? A lightblub, a newborn babygro, a plug? How does this list work in reality?
“Until we have that clarity, this is a true logistical nightmare. It is not only an operational challenge for our members, it will also increase the risk and harm for our colleagues and consumers who go to the stores.”
“We don’t agree with the waste policy and restrictions. We need a list of some kind of affected items. The lack of notification is staggering, it is very disappointing.”
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He said they were seeking clarity on what should happen if someone reaches the boxes with non-essential items in their basket.
Health Minister Vaughan Gething has defended the measure saying that while it will cause “some economic damage”, it would be worse if they did not act now. He added that by taking action now, it would help companies have a “normal season” in the run-up to Christmas.
He said: “The idea that we should analyze line by line, article by article, is totally impractical, both for companies and for the government. What we want is to make sure that people understand what they can and cannot do, and not I don’t seek to avoid or circumvent the rules.
“We are not looking to have individual enforcement agents, looking to see if someone is selling cocktail sticks in an aisle of a store that otherwise sells food. We are looking to make sure there is as high a level of compliance as possible, and equally, we are responding to some demands from some parts of the business that have made very clear statements to us that they don’t want to do the right thing by closing parts of their business, if other retailers don’t. “
He made it clear that alcohol does count as a key element under the new rules, but insisted that hair dryers do not.
During an interview with Kay Burley on Sky News, Gething said that the Government of Wales was producing “categories” that can be sold.
“A supermarket that sells clothes is not essential … We seek to have an adult understanding with them about what they can do to get them to go ahead and do it,” he said.
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