Wind-up radios sell out after Labour’s stockpiling call

Wind-up radios are selling out after the Government advised the public to stockpile goods in case of emergency. Retailers reported a fivefold surge in orders for the devices, with at least seven models sold out at four outlets on Saturday, two days after ministers urged households to buy wind-up radios and stockpile food and water as part of a call-out for national resilience. Electronics retailers also reported soaring demand for other gadgets on the Government’s “Be Ready” checklist, published on Thursday, while interest was rising in disaster-survival websites and amateur radio training. Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, launched a “national resilience conversation” on Thursday, asking Britons to prepare for disruption caused by natural disasters or cyber attacks perpetrated by hostile states. The government guidance urged households to keep a kit for emergencies, including three days’ worth of non-perishable food and bottled water, an FM radio, power banks and blankets. It was issued as websites across the world were shut down following the discovery of a vulnerability in PHP, a crucial piece of website architecture. Maplin said torch sales had risen by 284 per cent since Thursday’s announcement compared with the same period last month, while sales of its own-brand power bank were up 106 per cent. Ollie Marshall, Maplin’s managing director, said: “Within hours of the ‘Be Ready’ announcement we saw people reach for the basics – a torch, a wind-up radio, a power bank.” The retailer’s £18.99 Ionos Almere wind-up radio sold out on Friday. Jack Brown, co-owner of Sgt Prepper Shop, a “one-stop shop for outdoor gear and prepping supplies”, told The Telegraph his business had taken six weeks’ worth of sales since Thursday. “I thought my phone was glitching or being hacked with the number of orders coming in,” he said. “Since Thursday we’ve done more than a month and a half’s worth of sales, and orders are up around 400 per cent, so roughly five times what we’d normally see.” Two of his best-selling wind-up radios, the Midland ER100 (£55.79) and the ER300 Pro (£74.50), sold out on Thursday night. “Honestly, we’d have done a lot more if we’d had more in stock,” said Mr Brown. Elsewhere, EVAQ8, an emergency supplies specialist, sold out of its C725 radio, while Duronic, an electronics retailer, listed three wind-up models as unavailable. Meanwhile, visitor numbers at Start Prepping UK, a disaster-preparedness website offering tips on how to survive “anything”, surged twentyfold following Thursday’s announcement, from about 300 a day to 6,000 on Friday. Dan Goss, its founder, said the site’s three most popular articles were a beginner’s guide to emergency preparedness and two shopping lists for stockpiling food and water. “People are looking for general information about how to get started if they don’t know anything about this,” he said. “And more importantly, I think people are looking for a specific framework of what they should buy.” Pete Sipple, the founder of Essex Ham, one of Britain’s most popular free amateur-radio training courses, said demand had surged as publicity about the Government’s emergency plans grew. Enrolments rose from 150 in August to 199 in September, when Mr Streeting began calling for a national conversation about resilience, before hitting a record 285 in October, a 90 per cent rise in two months. Mr Sipple said growing numbers of applicants were citing emergency preparedness, or “prepping”, as their reason for enrolling. Although he had received only a couple of inquiries since Thursday’s announcement, he said he expected more. “It’s not a massive spike yet, but I think it will be,” he said. Some retailers are understood to be frustrated by ministers’ decision to publish the “Be Ready” guidance on Thursday, when it coincided with a global cybersecurity scare. The day before the announcement about stockpiling, critical flaws in PHP, a programming language that underpins much of the internet, had prompted a worldwide scramble to fix website vulnerabilities, with some government services taken offline. “People started connecting the two stories and started worrying there was a significant concern,” one industry source said. “If it was me, I wouldn’t have released a story saying ‘Stock up a bit more’ so soon after that.” The situation was further muddied on Friday, when Andy Burnham was forced to clarify that sauvignon blanc was not an essential emergency item after comments resurfaced from Angela Rayner, his Housing Secretary, joking that her survival kit would contain “mascara, concealer” and a bottle of the white wine from the Loire Valley. The Prime Minister said: “You need to have a clear head when it comes to a challenging situation,” although he conceded that people would be “allowed a glass or two”. Mr Burnham said his own emergency supplies would include baked beans, soup and Twiglets, adding: “I’m not sure I can get by for too long without those.”