Thousands of gas stations across the UK are the latest businesses to say they will close for the Queen's funeral

• Britain's major supermarkets are closing their gas stations on September 19 to mark the Queen's funeral.
• Supermarkets operate around a quarter of all gas stations in the UK, but sell the majority of fuel.

Britain's major supermarket chains are closing their gas stations to the public on September 19.

The UK's main supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Morrisons, announced they will close all filling stations on Monday, reopening some at 5:00 p.m. after Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

Sainsbury's, which operates more than 300 gas stations across the country, said in a statement it planned to close all stores, including its Argos and Habitat stores, as well as filling stations on the day of the funeral so staff can "pay their respects" to the late monarch.

The statement added that some gas stations will reopen in the evening to allow customers to "pick up essentials."

Shell, which operates 1,123 sites in the UK and owns 526 of them, is advising all company-owned sites to close between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to allow staff to watch the funeral, a representative confirmed to Insider.

Asda and Morrisons operate just over 300 gas stations each, while Tesco owned around 500 filling stations as of November 2021, according to online data site Statista.

In total, supermarkets operate around one in four of the total gas stations in the UK, but sell the majority of fuel.

Independent filling stations account for around two in three of the country's gas stations, but only one-third of total fuel sold in the country, the RAC motoring group told the BBC.

A representative for the organization warned drivers to prepare for Monday to avoid getting caught out by the closures.

RAC fuel spokesman, Simon Williams, told the BBC: "With many supermarket forecourts closed until the evening on Monday, our advice to drivers needing to refuel is to seek out a good value independent filling station that's choosing to stay open, or top up over the weekend instead."

A large number of businesses have announced they are closing on Monday for the Queen's funeral.

One chain of vacation sites, Center Parcs, even asked guests to leave the site for the day of the funeral. The chain of holiday parks later backtracked on the decision after it faced a wave of backlash.