Disabled Islay pensioner forced to rely on son’s food parcels amid Co-op shortages

An Islay pensioner had to rely on her son to send food shopping all the way from the south of England amid severe supermarket shortages.

A recent cyber attack on the Co-op led to empty shelves across the UK, but Scotland’s most remote communities, including the island of Islay, were among the hardest hit.

While supply chains are slowly returning to normal, locals are now calling for greater resilience and contingency plans to prevent such widespread disruption in the Highlands and Islands in the future.

Chiefs say the retail giant is now in its “recovery phase” following the breach and said deliveries have been prioritised for their lifeline stores.

But residents say they were left reeling from the impact.

‘I was completely abandoned’

Liz Renfrew, an 80-year-old disabled pensioner, depends on a home delivery service as she cannot leave her house to do her shopping.

But when supermarket shelves were running bare, she was forced to abandon her online orders and find other ways to source food.

She told STV News: “I was completely abandoned. No one contacted me. I had nothing.

“My son, who lives on the mainland, went to the village in which he lives and did a great big shop and put it in a box, put it in the post office and it was delivered here by Royal Mail, which cost a fortune. The logistics of getting food from the south of England to Islay is ridiculous.”

She added: “In some ways I’ve been a bit protected, but I don’t think that’s the case for everyone.”

Liz's son sent a food parcel from the south of England to Islay — Liz’s son sent a food parcel from the south of England to Islay STV News

Liz said there is plenty of goodwill in the local community and she has regularly been offered help by neighbours.

“Someone came to my door and brought a lovely casserole, but you can’t depend on that every day and I don’t like to ask,” she said. “I wonder how many elderly people are suffering.

“One week I didn’t get any milk, which is important for someone of my age.”

Liz says staff have been doing everything they can – but she’s been unable to get a full shopping order for several weeks due to shortages.

“I feel so sorry for the staff. They go out their way to help and they should be given a medal.

“The guys who deliver my food put it away and they don’t get paid to do that – they’re local and they know me.”

“The staff do care, but they’re stuck. What can they do?

“They’ve restarted again but they’re obviously short of stuff. I’ve not been getting what I’ve asked for in the last four weeks.”

The situation has taken an emotional toll on Liz.

Co-op food shortages hit remote communities STV News

“It was my birthday a week ago and I never thought I’d feel depressed, but I was really depressed.

“It’s just because you’re cut off, you’re not getting food and not eating the right food because you can’t get it. That’s what’s doing it. But nobody wants to know.

“I’m very aware of how vulnerable we all are. If it happens again, I’ll be frightened. There’s no provision.

“At my age, food is important – if you don’t eat properly, you’re not nourished.”

Liz said more action is needed.

“The council should be doing something. I’m a rate payer and have paid towards the council my whole working life.

“It seems there’s no organisation or forward planning.”

‘We can be eight miles away from any other shop on Islay’

Joan Graham says shortages were 'difficult and frustrating' for older people in Islay — Joan Graham says shortages were ‘difficult and frustrating’ for older people in Islay STV News

Liz isn’t alone; the Co-op has two stores on Islay, and while most villages are served by smaller independent shops, they aren’t always accessible.

Joan Graham, chairperson of the Islay Senior Citizens Group said: “We don’t have another supermarket around the corner, we can’t just go and get it elsewhere, and that made life a bit difficult for people.

“The lack of produce in the shop for older people – not getting items they are used to getting, like carrots, onions, marmalade – can be frustrating and difficult. Bread was also a big issue on the island.

“Thankfully, I think the island pulled together neighbours and friends, helping out people who couldn’t get to the shop. But if you weren’t at the shop right after delivery, the shelves had little choice.”

She added: “On the mainland, people do have an alternative, and it’s usually not that far away. Here, we can be six, eight miles away from another shop of sorts, and therefore it’s not as easy to go elsewhere and buy something.”

Iain MacLellan and Margaret Epps STV News

Further down the island, Iain MacLellan runs two restaurants.

He prefers to buy locally to provide fresh food for his guests.

“It totally frightened me, because I went into the Co-op one day and it was full, and go 24 hours later, and there’s nothing because everyone panic buys.

“I use fresh products. I don’t use frozen food, so I’m really in trouble if I can’t get fresh stuff out of the Co-op.

“We had to get stuff in from the mainland. I don’t really do that. I shop local for everything from the seafood right up to getting bread. So it really impacted us.

“I’m very lucky that we have the local shops. If we didn’t have the local shops, we’d have been stuffed.”

Councillor Dougie McFadzean said: “Islay is a very remote community; it’s hard to get to and off of.

“When the Co-op had an attack on their computer system, there was an immediate shortage and delivery issues.

“A delivery comes in almost every day. The Co-op here doesn’t have a large warehouse, so as soon as stock comes in, it goes out on shelves. The impact on the community and supplies was immediate.

“Initially, fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and milk were in short supply within the first couple of days.”

Dougie, who is originally from East Kilbride, said the difference between such disruption in the central belt and Islay is “dramatic”.

“It’s led on to [looking at] the resilience of the island as a whole. People have started to ask lots of questions.

“We rely-on our little Co-op. For alternative food provision, we’re talking about travelling to Campbeltown and most likely involving an overnight stay.

“There needs to be an understanding with decision-makers to ensure they understand that our life is different here, and that there needs to be recognition and support of how vulnerable we are here on the island.”

A Co-op spokesperson said: “We take our responsibility to our Scottish island stores and communities very seriously, and they are classified as ‘lifeline’ stores.

“Following the malicious third-party cyber-attack, we took early and decisive action to restrict access to our systems in order to protect our Co-op, and as soon as we were able, we prioritised the quantity of stock and deliveries to these lifeline stores.

“We are now in the recovery phase and are taking steps to bring our systems gradually back online in a safe and controlled manner, which means there will continue to be improved stock availability in our Food stores.

“We would like to thank all members, customers and our amazing store colleagues for their support and goodwill through this time.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The recent cyber-attacks involving individual food retailers is concerning. We are working closely with food retailers to closely monitor the ongoing situation for impacts, particularly for our rural and island communities where there are distinct challenges.

“We consistently work closely with key partners across the sector to ensure we assess and prepare for riskand disruptive events which have the potential to impact our food supply.

“Where a significant disruptive event occurs existing structures are in place to support local communities and limit the disruption where possible, especially for our island and rural communities.”