Panic buying goes a notch up ahead of PM Modi’s address

MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Retailers and consumer goods firms saw their average daily sales more than double on Thursday as consumers rushed to buy essentials ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the situation arising out of coronavirus outbreak and the efforts to combat it.

While there has been panic buying since a week now, on Thursday several retailers had to down shutters temporarily in select locations after reaching footfalls threshold, and started letting in consumers in small batches.

”While we have been seeing an increase in sales throughout the week, it is mostly restricted to food products as at home consumption would rise,” said Kishore Biyani, founder of Future Group that runs Big Bazaar, Easy Day and Nilgiri’s chains.


In his address to the nation later, the prime minister said there was no need for panic buying or to hoard essentials, assuring citizens that all essential porducts would continue to be available.

The initial panic buying was only for hygiene products, especially hand sanitisers, but retailers say it has trickled down to food after most offices allowed employees to work from home.

“Consumption which was happening at three distinct places—offices or canteen, food court or restaurants, and home—is now aggregating mostly at home, given this scenario,” said Devendra Chawla, managing director of Spencer’s Retail and Nature’s Basket.

Sales of categories such as noodles, biscuits, rice, wheat oils, sanitisers, floor and glass cleaners and hygiene products have surged upwards of 20%, he said.

The country’s biggest dairy brand Amul said sales of categories such as milk in Tetra Paks, cheese and butter have seen huge spurt over the past one week and demand is up anywhere between 25% and 50% across general trade and modern trade. “That is also because consumers want safe packaged foods, and are cooking at home,” said RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that owns Amul.

The sales boost comes after products across consumer goods segments witnessed significant drop in year-on-year sales growth during January and February with expansion even decelerating for categories such as soaps, shampoo and skin care products, officials said, quoting data from market tracker Nielsen.

”Packs are flying off shelves,” said Parle Products category head Mayank Shah. “There is some amount of panic buying and people are doing pantry stocking. In such times, people also tend to consume more comfort foods,” he said.

While supermarkets can’t enforce rationing of food and household staples to prevent shortages, many are trying to minimise the risk of coronavirus infection during shopping.

For instance, Avenue Supermarts, which runs DMart, is letting consumers enter their stores in batches through token system to help safe distancing, besides monitoring body temperatures of customers, sanitising their hands, and frequently cleaning trolleys, cash counter and shopping baskets.

“We have also put up notices that we have adequate stocks of groceries and other essential items, requesting customers to not overstock and shop only as per regular household needs," said Neville Noronha, managing director of Avenue Supermarts that boasts of generating twice the sales per square feet compared to rivals.

Companies said they are prepared for such unprecedented uptick in demand in terms of supply chain and production. “We have heard some instances of consumers trying to hoard items,” said Vivek Gambhir, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products.