Panic Buying

Shelves where disinfectant wipes ,toilet tissues, bottled water, flu medicines are usually displayed are nearly empty at a local store on March 03, 2020 in Rhodes area ,Sydney, Australia. As fear of the Coronavirus are spreading, people are buying above products in abundance. (Photo by Izhar Khan/NurPhoto)

Consumer Behavior will never stop surprising us!
And when I say “us”, I mean the people involved in the Retail and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) industries.

We are all aware of the latest worldwide epidemic of Coronavirus which led to an unexpected “Panic Buying” behavior worldwide on many and different categories and sometimes to real fights in stores and at the shelves just to grab more of a product:

1st category: is simply the face masks, 3-Ply mask, N-95 mask, etc… new names of masks that usually consumers never heard of, all markets are out of stock, factories production output not enough, prices rocketed to an unrealistic level in some markets, and the demand is still high in all markets.

2nd category: and it goes straight after the masks, are the medicines and thermometers. Any type related to flu, fever, throat, vitamins, etc… mostly OTC (over-the-counter) which are the easiest to grab without any prescription.

3rd category: the hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, any alcohol-based liquids to kill germs, soap bars, liquid soaps, and… toilet papers, which still no one is able to understand why this category specifically, prices of course surged and major multinational grabbing more and more sales volumes.

4th category: rice and pasta, yes indeed the what-so-called “staple food” are now bought and kept in large quantities in every house worldwide.

I do totally understand when people are panicking, buying and stocking out of fear but in my opinion -Panic Buying- is not necessary especially when you are not really sure about the start and the end of the event itself that brought you to this panic situation and built only on speculations. It also leads to over-consuption, stockpiling and over-spending in many cases but human nature does not count spending when in time of fear and uncertainty.

1 or 10 liters of hand sanitizer, 100 or 500 rolls of toilet paper, 10 or 20 boxes of wipes,… will all finish then what? Back to square 1 to replenish. Psychologists say a mix of herd mentality and over-exposure to coverage of the virus is to blame.

Meanwhile, retail stores are & will be facing 2 majors challenges. The first challenge is the logistical bottleneck to replenish their shelves and the second is the supply shortages mostly linked factories and suppliers.

Which also led many retailers to limit the purchasing quantity by client and many supermarkets were forced to take this action in order to ensure they have enough supply.

Until humanity finds a solution, vaccine or cure for this virus, Keep Your Faith in GOD!
And always remember, everything will be okay in the end, if it is not okay, then it is not the end.