Standstill Britain: Shops

The much-feared spectre of supermarket shelves running out of food had not yet materialised last night, with the biggest chains saying they could maintain supplies "for the foreseeable future". A spokeswoman for Tesco, which has 659 stores across the country, said: "We are monitoring the situation but at the moment products are being delivered to our stores as normal."

The much-feared spectre of supermarket shelves running out of food had not yet materialised last night, with the biggest chains saying they could maintain supplies "for the foreseeable future". A spokeswoman for Tesco, which has 659 stores across the country, said: "We are monitoring the situation but at the moment products are being delivered to our stores as normal."

Sainsbury's and Asda also said deliveries had not been affected. However, all the main chains admitted that some of their smaller suppliers had encountered difficulties, especially those supplying fresh produce.

Iceland, the frozen food giant, indicated it could be forced to stop some deliveries tomorrow if the position did not alter.

There was little evidence of panic buying, although there were isolated incidents of some stores being stripped bare.