Leading Irish supermarkets – including Aldi, Liddle and Tesco – are urging the public not to shop in groups where possible, but are not following their UK rivals to ban this practice.

Some supermarkets in England have warned shoppers that they are turning to new plans to limit the number of stores.

Families and couples have been asked to avoid shopping together, with many retailers telling customers to come by themselves wherever possible.

Here, if level five restrictions have been in place for two weeks, supermarkets are adopting a more common sense approach to the problem of people shopping in groups.

At Tesco, for example, shoppers are encouraged to keep their trolley “where possible,” a supermarket spokesman told the Irish Mirror.

But the supermarket recognizes that “this is not always possible” and also adopts a “common sense approach” in situations where customers have to come to the store with family members or other people in their care.

Lid Ireland says there are no policies in place to prevent families from shopping together as long as the above measures are respected and social distance is maintained.

A Lid spokesman said the supermarkets had taken steps to protect their customers, including guards, face masks and queue management systems.

“For a variety of reasons, we realize that not everyone can shop alone,” the supermarket told the Irish Mirror.

Aldi has a similar policy throughout its stores, urging customers to “try to reduce the number of family members they bring into our stores.”

“We fully appreciate that this is not possible for all our customers, but we will promote it wherever possible,” says the supermarket.

Children are not prohibited in Aldi under Kovid-19 guidelines.