Dozens of shoppers queued in a Lidl car park in Southampton on Thursday morning after Lidl released a highly popular affordable portable air conditioner unit priced at £149. One shopper said she joined the line at 7.30am and still missed out after the units sold out.
Lidl queues in Southampton
The shopper said there were at least 50 people behind her in the queue, a striking sign of how fast the discount stock disappeared. She had already tried several supermarkets before scrambling through Lidl, only to find the air conditioning units gone.
That scene fits a wider burst of demand for cooling products across the same week. Lakeland said electric fans made up 17 per cent of online sales between Tuesday and Thursday, up from around 2 per cent normally, and week-on-week sales were up 600 per cent.
Retailers face heat-driven demand
Toolstation reported a similar surge on Thursday, with cooling fan sales up 333 per cent week on week and air conditioner sales up 220 per cent. It also said sales of outdoor watering accessories including hoses rose by 38 per cent, while sales of water sprinklers increased by 37 per cent.
The pressure on cooling products came as the record for the hottest June day was broken for the second day in a row. A high of 40C was forecast in parts of Norfolk and Suffolk on Friday afternoon, above the previous record-breaking 36.7C in Merryfield, Somerset.
Met Office warning until 9pm
A red warning for extreme heat was in place until 9pm for London, South East England and the East of England, with the Met Office saying the heat would be accompanied by high humidity. Schools and nurseries remained closed during the heat, and transport services were disrupted.
For shoppers, the immediate lesson was simple: bargain cooling stock could vanish within hours when temperatures climb this far. Lidl’s Southampton queue showed how quickly a £149 unit can turn into a sold-out item before mid-morning.
