Panic Buying, is it worse than Covid-19?

Last 2 months have been drastically tough for people across the globe, with continuous globe widespread of Covid-19 leading to major countries across the globe declaring nation-wide lockdowns. Our MGH Team wants to express our gratitude and extend our prayers for the best for the families of the people involved in this effort.

With lockdowns come another major issue which world might be more affected with “Panic Buying”. Unsurprisingly, there’s a major logistical challenge that Panic Buying leads to as well. Let’s look into why all the experts are looking to curb down panic buying.

With over 3,50,000 infected and above 16,000 deaths, the pandemic has shocked the world and drawn comparisons with World War 2 and Spanish Flu for a possible number of fatalities. Looking at the possible impact which Covid-19 can have, strict actions are being observed by the government across the globe, which in turn has resulted in the loss of work for various daily labor. Each and every government understands the concerns regarding this segment and are coming up with grand schemes to resolve it and maintain public spending, ranging from the UK announcing up to £2,500 to countries like India announcing for heavily discounted for more than 60% of the population. While the government’s plans have been targeted to maintain proper balance, the high-income inequalities and the pre lockdown hoarding of essentials leave a major dent in the grand scheme of things, owing to which last few weeks have seen governments urging their citizens, there won’t be a shortage of essentials hence there’s no need for panic buying.

Abdolreza Abbassian, chief economist at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told Reuters “It is not a supply issue, but it is a behavioral change over food security. What if bulk buyers think they can't get wheat or rice shipments in May or June? That is what could lead to a global food supply crisis”. The reduction of the workforce due to the pandemic has just worsened the situations and made people question the Logistical Feasibility of lockdowns and the economic impact.

As the last few months have already shown, post the outbreak there was a massive shortage of masks and hand sanitizers globally to such a level that the US Government had to urge people to stop buying them – not only because they aren’t sufficient enough protection but also because there were shortages of masks for medical staff. By the time new productions for preventive measures such as Sanitizers and Masks could hit the market, the government had to make attempts to flatten the curve to reduce the impacts by placing lockdowns.

The fear of “what if food and the essential items have same shortage as the masks and sanitizers” has got the public into Panic Buying frenzy while the people’s response to the lockdowns globally has got experts and government worried. The challenge becomes to regularly influx additional goods at a much higher than the required quantity across the globe. While the major cities would surely be well supplied, the major question is how well can it is done in the area which is in the smaller cities or the non self-sufficient countries or a poor nation.

The corporates across the globe have joined hands with the government to allow to deal with situations, while the FMCG and Essential Goods manufacturers would be ramping up the productions for the food and related problems, the hotels are assisting by acting as temporary hospitals and the automotive companies are producing ventilators to meet the requirements. The citizens also need to be doing their parts by staying inside and making sure their actions are towards the good of society. Lastly, a very relatable quote for the current scenario.

“The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed”

-          Mahatama Gandhi