City and Stores Tell People to Chill With the Panic Buying
With a sudden uptick in cases in the capital this past week, people have begun to stockpile food, with lines going out the door at some grocery stores this morning.
The panic buying is mostly borne out of word of food shortages during Shanghai's seemingly unending lockdown down south, but is it really necessary?
When visiting the Xingfucun branch of April Gourmet, we saw shelves of canned food items cleared out. We even witnessed one woman emerge from an aisle with her arms filled with canned foods.
April Gourmet's empty shelves
The staff at April Gourmet told us that items like milk and flour are thinner than usual, adding that "people have been panic buying like crazy. We've already informed our suppliers to help us get restocked."
"If you aren't a loyal customer of a particular brand, there's really no need to be stockpiling right now," he added.
April Gourmet got restocked
Indeed, when we exited April Gourmet Xingfucun, we saw that supplies of some goods, especially canned goods, were already being restocked. As of press time, ordering from April Gourmet has been suspended on some delivery apps, probably so they can take time to recouperate from the onslaught.
It's not just grocery store staff that are appealing for calm, but the local government as well. Zhao Weidong, deputy director of the city's Commerce Bureau, has urged people to remain calm and scale back on the buying. Zhao said the supply of daily necessities in the city is sufficient, adding that whether "you're looking for meat, eggs, milk or fresh vegetables, they're all available."
When visiting a branch of Jingkelong Supermarket in Zhenzhi Lu, not far from Xidawang Lu, we noticed it was still fully stocked. The staff there told us that they hadn't seen any instances of panic buying, nor had there been any price changes.
Vegetables and some other items on the shelf of Zhensilu branch of Jingkelong Supermarket
We called another supermarket in Jinzhan, where a manager told us that their store also hasn't seen an excessive demand of food stockpiling.
Meat section at another supermarket in Jinzhan
At present, the deputy head of Chaoyang District said the district has sufficient daily necessities.“Please rest assured that major supermarket chains such as Wu-Mart will have sufficient supplies and maintain inventory at 1.5 times daily sales," she said during a press conference yesterday.
At the same time, Chaoyang has set up reserves for daily necessities. For streets or communities at risk of a rise in cases, 75 key supply chains have further increased stock volume of daily necessities such as vegetables, fruits and meats.
In other words, don't stress too hard when it comes to food. Panicking only leads to more stress, so the less of that there is, the better.
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Images: Irene Li, Dianping
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