According to a report by the British Daily Mail, British people recently went to a number of supermarket chains and found that some shelves had no products but were put on cardboards with pictures of fruits and vegetables printed on them to cover up the shortage of goods.

The matter also sparked discussion on the country's social media.

　　The British "Guardian" reported that Tesco, a large British supermarket, placed cardboards of asparagus (pictured), carrots, oranges and grapes on the fruit and vegetable shelves.

Judging from the pictures circulating on the Internet, these cardboards are mixed between the shelves with real goods, which is quite fake from a distance.

　　With the exception of Tesco, consumers have found similar situations in established supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's and Boots.

In the context of Brexit and the new crown epidemic in the United Kingdom, the shortage of truck drivers, farm pickers and food processing plant packers has caused many supermarkets to face a crisis of out-of-supply of goods, so they have to make decisions.

　　According to the "Daily Mail" report, there used to be 4 million people working in the supply chain from agriculture to the food industry in the UK, and now there is a labor shortage of about 500,000.

　　However, some people in the industry said that replacing products with cardboard is not only because of shortages, but also a marketing strategy.

British retail industry analyst Brian Roberts said that putting out cardboard with fruits and vegetables is just one of the strategies to fill the space with various materials. Stacks of beer fill the aisles, or erect large posters or other marketing materials.

Roberts said that although he has only seen some supermarkets use cardboard instead of fresh food last year, in fact, some supermarkets have adopted a similar approach.

Tesco responded this time that they started using cardboard with pictures of fruits and vegetables a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with the recent supply chain crisis.

(Producing Li Jiali)

Editor in charge: [Liu Pai]