Aldi fridges were empty for a week before the pandemic

Shelves for chilled items had been empty for about a week at the Botley Road store on January 16 last year, with notices attached to them saying 'out of order, apologies for the inconvenience'.

A note on the shelves said: 'Dear Customers, due to a refrigeration breakdown we currently have no chilled food or fresh meat available for sale.'

It came as a shopper got quite a nasty surprise when they found the Egyptian locust in a bag of coriander from another Aldi store. 

Only months later, in March, the same supermarket shelves were left bare from panic buyers.

Shocking pictures of empty shelves showed the scale of coronavirus panic-buying across Oxfordshire's busiest supermarkets.

Supplies including pasta, eggs, toilet roll and cleaning products were being cleared out as shoppers stormed major chains after the Prime Minister urged people to avoid public places for the first time. 

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