Archive for ‘Panic buying’

  |  
05/04/2020

Coronavirus: from China to the US, consumer behaviour radically altered as world retreats into ‘survival mode’

  • The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed patterns of consumer psychology across the world, experts say
  • Complexity of the crisis, the number of variables and its magnitude make a consumer recovery unprecedented and difficult to predict
The coronavirus has caused panic buying around the world as consumers frantically stockpile of goods such as toilet paper, hand sanitisers and masks. Illustration: Brian Wang
The coronavirus has caused panic buying around the world as consumers frantically stockpile of goods such as toilet paper, hand sanitisers and masks. Illustration: Brian Wang

Before the coronavirus crisis began rippling through the global economy, Susan Wang had big plans for 2020.

Not only was she going to buy a new Apple MacBook and iPad, plus a projector so she could host friends for movies at home, but she was set on making a career move.

“I was planning to change my job, but my headhunter told me that all recruitment has been postponed to the second quarter,” said the 27-year-old who works for a British company in Hong Kong.

“Our headquarters in London has a plan for redundancy, too. It is better to save some money in case I get laid off.”

As Covid-19 spreads across the world, sending stock markets reeling and prompting big companies to slash jobs, Wang has become increasingly frugal like scores of other consumers from China to the United States.

She has stopped eating at restaurants and now tries to keep her weekly food bill under HK$500 (US$64), whereas in the past she wouldn’t think twice about spending HK$100 per meal.

Amid mounting uncertainty, the coronavirus pandemic – which has claimed the lives of more than 41,000 people and infected at least 842,000 worldwide – is fundamentally changing consumer behaviour in Asia, Europe and North America.

Consumer experts said the 2009 global financial crisis, the Great Depression that started in 1929 and the September 11 terrorist attacks give some clues about how and when global consumption might recover. But the complexity of this crisis, the number of variables and its magnitude make this consumer recovery unprecedented and difficult to predict, they added.

Coronavirus: What impact will the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic have on you?
“The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed patterns of consumer behaviour all over the world. People are afraid, and when people are afraid, they go into survival mode,” said Jesse Garcia, a Los Angeles-based consumer psychologist, who is also the CEO of market consulting firm My Marketing Auditors.
Hong Kong’s retail sales

plummeted a record 44 per cent in February and those figures are only expected to get worse, with sales forecast to slump between 30 and 40 per cent in the first half of the year, according to the Hong Kong Retail Management Association.

In the US, retail sales dropped by 0.5 per cent in February, even before many states had issued stay-at-home orders to protect the world’s largest economy. The decline was the biggest fall since December 2018.

Experts say non-essential products and services are set to be worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, while goods and services that can be consumed at home will see a spike in sales.

The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed patterns of consumer behaviour all over the world. People are afraid, and when people are afraid, they go into survival mode – Jesse Garcia

“Online consumer behaviour is frenetic,” said Ross Steinman, a professor of psychology at Widener University in the US state of Pennsylvania. “Consumers are refreshing and refreshing and refreshing websites to secure grocery delivery times, purchase paper towels from their usual big box retailer and scavenge for rice and canned soup from third party sellers on Amazon.

“A pronounced spike in coronavirus cases will only amplify the freneticism.”

So far, one of the biggest shortages for consumers is toilet paper. Television stations across the globe have beamed images of empty supermarket shelves and huge queues as people hoard toilet paper rolls, masks and hand sanitiser.
The frantic stockpiling can be explained by a psychological concept called informational conformity, said Vicki Yeung, associate professor at the Department of Applied Psychology at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

A pronounced spike in coronavirus cases will only amplify the freneticism – Ross Steinman

“When people lack knowledge and are in an uncertain situation, they tend to follow the group’s behaviour and blindly conform, but once they obtain more information, and digest and process the situation, the panic gradually fades away,” she said.
“During this Covid-19 pandemic, people generally feel jittery and anxious because they feel their sense of control has disappeared.”
Unlike other recent global crises such as the September 11 attacks, the coronavirus is less a one-time sharp shock to the system and more of a rolling source of anxiety that could retreat and resurface repeatedly, consumer behaviour experts said.
This was the pattern with the Black Death plague that hit Europe in 1347 and returned episodically over many years, ultimately killing millions of people.

During this Covid-19 pandemic, people generally feel jittery and anxious because they feel their sense of control has disappeared – Vicki Yeung

“It may be we’ll have to shut down things again in October or August. And this could go on for years,” said Charley Ballard, an economist with Michigan State University in the US. “The more that happens, the more damage it does to buoyant consumer psychology.”

Furthermore, relative to the 2009 financial crisis and even the Great Depression, when much of the damage was concentrated at least initially in the financial sector, this crisis has seen virtually the entire economy grind to a halt all at the same time, devastating employment and consumption.

Last week, a record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits within one week, as restaurants, hotels, barber shops, gyms and retail outlets shut down in a nationwide bid to stem the pandemic. The previous record of 695,000 was set in 1982.

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs predicted the US jobless rate will hit 15 per cent in the second quarter of this year from the coronavirus economic freeze, and could rise further beyond that to near the historic peak of 24.9 per cent seen in 1933 during the Great Depression. Economists at the St. Louis district of the US Federal Reserve projected unemployment could cost as many as 47 million jobs in the US this year, sending the unemployment rate past 32 per cent before making a sharp recovery.

US now has world’s most coronavirus cases, surpassing China
China’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 per cent for January and February from 5.2 per cent in December and 5.3 per cent a year earlier. It was the highest level since records began in 2016, but did not include China’s estimated 291 million migrant workers.
Consumer spending accounts for more than 60 per cent of the Chinese economy and drives 70 per cent of the US economy. But with the pandemic causing many people to go into hibernation and likely to lead to cycles of job cuts, economists have predicted a consumer-led global recession by the second quarter of this year.
Just how long it will take for consumer behaviour to return to normal depends on each person’s psychological resilience, including how quickly they can adapt to change, how optimistic they are and whether they can adopt strategies to regain a sense of control, Yeung said.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay, chair professor of marketing at  Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said as long as the coronavirus threat was still present, people would remain fearful to some extent. But he added that people were resilient.
Satellite images show world sites deserted amid coronavirus pandemic
“Human beings adapt to events and stimuli over time,” Mukhopadhyay said. “Research has shown that even people who win lotteries tend to return to their earlier levels of life satisfaction after some months, as do people who have to have amputations.
“So even if the source of the fear does not go away, we learn to live with it.”

Ballard, from Michigan State University, estimated it could take upwards of two years for American consumers to feel secure enough in their jobs and gain enough confidence to fully open their wallets. A longer and more episodic duration for the disease could push that higher, he added.

Further complicating the consumer picture, he said, is that many supply chains are at risk of breaking. And consumers will be wary of spending for a while in many traditional areas, including crowded sporting events and concerts, restaurants and flights.

A new phase of coronavirus blame game: what is the legacy of Covid-19 on global supply chains?
Some experts have even suggested that consumer behaviour may be permanently changed as a result of the pandemic.
“It seems very unlikely that people will get back to life as it was before, once the coronavirus is over,” said Andreas Kappes, a lecturer in psychology at City University of London.
“People’s behaviour is extremely orthodox, often referred to as the status quo bias and captured in expressions like ‘past behaviour best predicts future behaviour.’ Now, the crisis forces us to change our behaviour, radically, and we might discover that new way suits us better.”
Source: SCMP

Posted in 1347, Amazon, Americans, anxious, Apple MacBook, Asia, ‘survival mode', barber shops, Black Death plague, British company, career move, China, City University of London, Consumer, consumer behaviour, coronavirus, Coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, Covid-19 pandemic, Department of Applied Psychology, Economists, Europe, Goldman Sachs, Great Depression, gyms, hand sanitisers, headhunter, headquarters, Home, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, hotels, infected, iPad, jittery, Lingnan University, London, masks, Michigan State University, movies, North America, Panic buying, patterns, Pennsylvania, projector, psychology, radically altered, redundancy, restaurants, retail outlets, retreats, Satellite images, September 11 terrorist attacks, St. Louis, toilet paper, Uncategorized, US, US Federal Reserve, Widener University, World | Leave a Comment »

25/03/2020

Coronavirus: India enters ‘total lockdown’ after spike in cases

People panicked after the prime minister said everyone should “forget about” leaving their homes for any reason

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The restrictions came into force at midnight local time (18:30 GMT) and will be enforced for 21 days.

“There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes,” Mr Modi said in a televised address.

He appealed for people not to panic – but crowds quickly mobbed stores in the capital, Delhi, and other cities.

Correspondents say it is not clear how – or even if – people will now be allowed out to buy food and other essentials.

The new measures follow a sharp increase in cases in recent days. There have been 519 confirmed cases across India and 10 reported deaths.

India – which has a population of 1.3bn – joins a growing list of countries that have imposed similar measures.

Nearly 400,000 people have tested positive for the virus worldwide, and around 17,000 have died.

Banner image reading 'more about coronavirus'
Banner

“The entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Mr Modi said on Tuesday.

He added: “To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family… every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown.”

Mr Modi warned that if India does not “handle these 21 days well, then our country… will go backwards by 21 years”.

“This is a curfew,” he said. “We will have to pay the economic cost of this but [it] is the responsibility of everyone.”

Media caption We explain why staying in is a matter of life and death

Mr Modi later warned that panic-buying would only spread the disease. He said the government would ensure supplies.

But in Delhi and the financial capital, Mumbai, people fearing shortages quickly thronged shops and pharmacies.

“I have never witnessed such a chaos in my life,” the owner of one store in the Shakarpur district of Delhi said, quoted by the Press Trust of India.

“All our stocks, including rice, flour, bread, biscuits, edible oils, have been sold out.”

Police in the busy city of Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh state, patrolled the streets with megaphones to tell residents to stay indoors.

People line up outside a store in Mumbai on March 24, 2020.Image copyright AFP
Image caption People in Mumbai rushed to stock up on essentials following Mr Modi’s address

Under the new measures, all non-essential businesses will be closed but hospitals and other medical facilities will continue to function as normal. Schools and universities will remain shut and almost all public gatherings will be banned.

Anyone flouting the new rules faces up to two years in prison and heavy fines.

In his address, Prime Minister Modi also:

  • Stressed that the 21-day lockdown was “very necessary to break the chain of coronavirus”
  • Emphasised the seriousness of the situation and said that even developed countries had faced problems in combating it
  • Said that “social distancing was the only way to stop” the virus spreading
  • Announced that nearly $2bn (£1.8bn) would be made available to boost the country’s health infrastructure
  • Called on people not to “spread rumours” and to follow instructions

His announcement came after several Indian states introduced measures of their own, such as travel restrictions and the closure of non-essential services.

India has already issued a ban on international arrivals and grounded domestic flights. The country’s rail network has also suspended most passenger services.

Presentational grey line
Analysis box by Rajini Vaidyanathan, South Asia correspondent

Many parts of India, including cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, are already under tight restrictions. But this move extends those provisions to every corner of the country.

An earlier one-day curfew, which was seen as a trial, was flouted by many.

Mr Modi called on Indians to clap and cheer the emergency services from their balconies on Sunday. But many misunderstood the call and congregated in the streets as they danced and chanted.

“It’s impossible to fathom the cost that India may have to pay if such irresponsible behaviour continues,” Mr Modi warned at the time. “Social distancing is the only option to combat coronavirus.”

The implications of a total lockdown in India are huge, not just economically, but socially.

This is a nation where community is everything. Going to worship at a temple, mosque or church is an essential part of daily life for so many.

This is a seismic cultural shift but – like the rest of the world facing similar restrictions – a necessary one.Presentational grey line

What’s the latest from around Asia?

  • Neighbouring Pakistan has almost twice as many confirmed cases – 878 as of Monday evening. Sweeping restrictions are in place although the government has stopped short of imposing a nationwide lockdown. However, several provinces have announced them independently. The army is being brought in to help enforce the restrictions
  • Bangladesh, which has reported 33 cases and three deaths, is also deploying its armed forces to help maintain social distancing and boost Covid-19 preventive measures. The soldiers will also monitor thousands of quarantined expatriate returnees. Across South Asia, there are concerns that the actual number of cases could be much higher than is being reported.
  • Indonesia, which has 49 confirmed Covid-19 deaths – the highest in South East Asia – has converted an athlete’s village built for the 2018 Asian Games into a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients. A state of emergency was declared in Jakarta on Monday
  • In Thailand, a month-long state of emergency which will include curfews and checkpoints will begin on Thursday. The government has been criticised for failing to take strong action so far. Four people have died and nearly 900 tested positive
  • The most populous country that was without a case until now – Myanmar – has announced two cases

And what about the rest of the world?

  • Elsewhere, governments are continuing to work to stem the spread of the virus which has now affected more than 190 countries worldwide
  • More than 2.6 billion people are in lockdown now India has introduced its new measures, according to a tally by the AFP news agency
Media caption Reality Check tackles misleading health advice being shared online
  • Europe remains at the epicentre of the pandemic. On Tuesday, the death toll jumped by 514 in a single day in Spain and other European countries also reported sharp increases
  • Italy is the worst affected country in the world in terms of deaths. The virus has killed almost 7,000 people there over the past month
  • The UK, meanwhile, is spending its first day under tight new restrictions. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced unprecedented measures on Monday and ordered the immediate closure of shops selling non-essential goods
  • And in the US, New York’s governor has said the federal government is not sending enough equipment to combat the crisis. The state has been hit especially hard by the virus
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the US has the potential to become the new epicentre of the pandemic
  • In other developments, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the International Olympic Committee has agreed that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics should be postponed by a year
  • Source: The BBC

Posted in 'total lockdown', Bangladesh, banned, biscuits, bread, cases, closure, congregated, coronavirus, COVID-19, cultural shift, curfew, deaths, Delhi, domestic flights, enters, epicentre, Europe, federal government, flour, Government, grounded, heavy fines, hospitals, India, Indonesia, indoors, international arrivals, International Olympic Committee, Italy, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, medical facilities, megaphones, mumbai, Myanmar, New York's governor, non-essential goods, Pakistan, pandemic, Panic buying, passenger services, Police, Press Trust of India, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prison, public gatherings, rail network, residents, Rice, schools, seismic, shops, shut, Social distancing, sold out, soldiers, Spain, spike, supplies, suspended, Thailand, UK, Uncategorized, universities, unprecedented measures, US, Uttar Pradesh, World Health Organization (WHO) | Leave a Comment »

15/03/2020

Lockdowns, self-isolation and entry bans imposed to fight global coronavirus spread

(Reuters) – France and Spain joined Italy in imposing lockdowns on tens of millions of people, Australia ordered self-isolation of arriving foreigners, and Argentina and El Salvadore extended entry bans as the world sought to contain the spreading coronavirus.

Panic buying in Australia, the United States and Britain saw leaders appeal for calm over the virus that has infected over 138,000 people globally and killed more than 5,000.

Several countries imposed bans on mass gathering, shuttered sporting, cultural and religious events, while medical experts urged people to practice “social distancing” to curb the spread.

All of Pope Francis’ Easter services next month will be held without the faithful attending, the Vatican said on Sunday, in a step believed to be unprecedented in modern times.

The services, four days of major events from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, usually draw tens of thousands of people to sites in Rome and in the Vatican.

RELATED COVERAGE

  • EU finance ministers to hold video call on virus on Monday
  • Coronavirus forces closure of all French ski resorts

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said from midnight Sunday international travellers arriving in the country would need to isolate themselves for 14 days, and foreign cruise ships would be banned for 30 days, given a rise in imported cases.

“What we’ve seen in recent weeks, is more countries having issues with the virus and that means the source of some of those transmissions are coming from more and more countries,” Morrison told a news conference.

Australia’s latest restrictions mirror those announced by neighbouring New Zealand on Saturday. Australia has recorded more than 250 coronavirus cases and three deaths.

TRAVEL BANS, AIRLINE CUTBACKS

U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday. The United States has recorded more than 2,000 cases and 50 deaths, but has been criticised for slow testing.

Travel bans and a plunge in global air travel saw further airline cut backs, with American Airlines Inc (AAL.O) planning to cut 75% of international flights through May 6 and ground nearly all its widebody fleet.

The dramatic announcement by the largest U.S. airline came hours after the White House said the United States would widen new travel restrictions on Europeans to include travellers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, starting Monday night.

Washington has already imposed flight restrictions on China.

China tightened checks on international travellers arriving at Beijing airport on Sunday, after the number of imported new coronavirus infections surpassed locally transmitted cases for a second day in a row.

Anyone arriving to Beijing from abroad will be transferred directly to a central quarantine facility for 14 days for observation starting March 16, a city government official said.

China, where the epidemic began in December, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically.

China has reported 80,984 cases and 3,203 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, of which 66,911 have recovered in mainland China, which has imposed draconian containment policies, locking down several major cities.

LOCKDOWNS, STAY HOME

Spain put its 47 million inhabitants under partial lockdown on Saturday as part of a 15-day state of emergency to combat the epidemic in Europe’s second worst-affected country after Italy.

Spain had 193 coronavirus deaths and 6,250 cases, public broadcaster TVE said on Saturday, up from 120 deaths reported on Friday.

France will shut shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities from Sunday with its 67 million people were told to stay home after confirmed infections doubled in 72 hours.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government had no other option after the public health authority said 91 people had died in France and almost 4,500 were now infected.

“We must absolutely limit our movements,” he said.

Britain is preparing to ban mass gatherings, while isolating people aged over 70 for up to four months is part of its action plan to tackle coronavirus which will be implemented in the coming weeks, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday.

Argentina banned entry to non-residents who have travelled to a country highly affected by coronavirus in the last 14 days, the government officially announced late on Saturday.

The ban will last 30 days. Argentina has 45 cases of coronavirus, the health ministry said, up from 21 on March 12.

Panama said flights arriving from Europe and Asia would be temporarily suspended, with the exception of flights that transport doctors, medical equipment or other humanitarian aid.

Colombia will expel four Europeans for violating compulsory quarantine protocols, just hours after it closed its border with Venezuela, the government said on Saturday.

ANTI-TERRORISM TRACKING TO FIGHT VIRUS

Israel will use anti-terrorism tracking technology and partially shutdown its economy to minimise transmission risks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

Cyber tech monitoring would be deployed to locate people who have been in contact with those carrying the virus, subject to cabinet approval, Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem.

Starting Sunday, South Korea began to subject visitors from France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands to stricter border checks, after imposing similar rules for China, Italy and Iran which have major outbreaks.

Visitors from those countries now need to download an app which will report whether they have symptoms. South Korea has been testing hundreds of thousands of people and tracking potential carriers using cell phone and satellite technology.

Source: Reuters

Posted in AIRLINE CUTBACKS, American Airlines Inc (AAL.O), ANTI-TERRORISM TRACKING, Argentina, Australia, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Beijing, beijing airport, Benjamin Netanyahu, Britain, Cell Phone, Colombia, coronavirus, cruise ships, Easter services, El Salvadore, entertainment facilities, entry bans, epidemic, EU finance ministers, Europeans, fight, Foreigners, France, French Prime Minister, global, Health Secretary, imposed, Ireland, Israel, Italy, lockdowns, national emergency, New Zealand, Panama, Panic buying, restaurants, Reuters tally, satellite technology, self-isolation, shops, ski resorts, South Korea, Spain, spread, TRAVEL BANS, U.S. President Donald Trump, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Washington, White House | Leave a Comment »

  |  
CCChang

Law of Unintended Consequences

continuously updated blog about China & India

ChiaHou's Book Reviews

continuously updated blog about China & India

What's wrong with the world; and its economy

continuously updated blog about China & India