LONDON (Reuters) – Retailers including grocery chain Lidl and furniture giant IKEA shut stores across Spain and Portugal as a huge power outage caused chaos across swathes of the two countries on Monday.
Businesses were taking the measures “to prevent panic buying and ensure the safety of all,” retail industry association EuroCommerce said.
Shops were still trying to work out the scale of the problem and working with local authorities, it added.
Lidl initially shut its 630 shops in Spain, though it had started reopening some after the recovery of power in the Basque region and other areas, a spokesperson said.
IKEA temporarily shut stores and pick-up points across Spain, though it had switched to generators in its larger outlets and was letting customers who were already there stay inside during the crisis, franchisee Ingka Group said.
“We are letting our customers and co-workers stay in our stores in case they have no transportation options,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The outage has paralysed traffic and grounded flights.
All IKEA stores in Portugal were also shut.
Spanish clothing retailer Tendam said it closed all its stores in parts of Spain and Portugal that have lost power, and sent all its staff home at its Madrid and Barcelona head offices.
(Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Toby Chopra and Andrew Heavens)
