'Panic Buying' of Essentials Amid Rising COVID 19 Cases

As the total number of reported cases of Covid 19 in India crossed over 100 on Sunday, customers flocking e-commerce platforms, retail chains and kirana (grocery) stores to stock up on essentials and personal hygiene products have led to huge surge in sales, reported the Economic Times (ET).

Products such as masks, sanitisers and safety goggles have registered an increase in sales between 100% and 400% over the past few months, reported Quartz, quoting data shared by business-to-business (B2B) sellers, and e-commerce companies.

While retailers and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are struggling to meet the sudden surge in demand, deliveries have already started getting delayed, while certain items like sanitisers have gone off shelves or are unavailable online. The ET report said that FMCG companies are speeding up supplies to shops as well as seeking to curb hoarding.

Several cities including Delhi-NCR, Pune, Mumbai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad witnessed surged sales of products like edible oil, sugar, tea, butter, soaps, handwashes, rice, pulses, biscuits, atta, instant noodles and frozen foods, the report quoted the executives of Future Group, Grofers, Spencer’s Retail and sellers on Amazon and Flipkart as saying.

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“E-grocer BigBasket said it has witnessed demand double over the past few days across cities, with order values going up 20% on average. SoftBank-backed Grofers registered an increase in demand of around 80% in Mumbai alone over the weekend while cities like New Delhi and Bengaluru clocked an average 50% spike in the past two days,” CEO Dhindsa told ET, adding that, “Orders are up 45% by number and 18% by value.”

As far as stocks are concerned, some ecommerce platforms and kiranas have reported selling out next week’s stock on Saturday itself, the report added. With demands running high, deliveries by online grocery firms have also been affected, with the shortage of delivery personnel adding to the delays.

While staples like onions, potatoes, rice and wheat are already stocked out in some online grocery platforms, executives of these platforms have also suspected that other import-dependent items such as coffee, diapers, dry fruits, oils and cereals, are expected to run into a supply crunch, reported ET.

In order to meet the growing demands, FMCG companies are also reportedly trying to increase production. Sunil Kataria, CEO (India & SAARC), at Mumbai-based FMCG firm Godrej Consumer Products, told Quartz, “We have ramped up production of Godrej Protekt hand wash and sanitisers in our units as well as through our vendor partner units.” In order to ensure continued supplies, ecommerce firms and retailers have also started stocking up on the 100 most-sold products in their stores, reported ET.

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Terming this as panic buying, which is going to continue for at least two weeks more, biscuit maker Parle Products category head, Mayank Shah, told ET that they have received frenzied calls from the trade to supply stock since the pipeline has become almost dry. He added that there is 15-20% increase over usual sales.

As per a report, in February itself, the sale of masks across India had doubled to around 1.2 million from the usual monthly average of around 600,000, according to All Food and Drug Licence Holders Foundation, which represents around 7,000 pharmaceutical suppliers.

There have been reports of similar trends of panic buying leading to shortage of consumer goods in several countries across the world amid the threat of COVID 19, which has been declared a global pandemic by the WHO. Meanwhile, on Sunday, US President Trump urged citizens to ease up with their shopping. The appeal was issued after people, who are increasingly being asked to stay at home for extended periods of time, panicked about not having enough food or household items.

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