Corona: Simulated shortages are not a cause for shopping panic

In the coming days, there may be a local shortage of supermarkets as a result of the huge number of infected and isolated.

It is worth remembering that if we fall as a herd on the products, we will lose the right to protest against the cost of living.

However, what happened with the antigen tests we purchased at an exorbitant price does not bode well

Dr. Hezi Gur Mizrahi

17/01/2022

Monday, 17 January 2022, 10:34 Updated: 10:45

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It seems that the omicron virus affects not only our health but also our pockets, household spending is on the rise, so the question arises: Are we going back to March 2020?

what does it mean? The rapid rate of infection in the omicron variant affects the entire economy. The problems of rising prices due to an increase in production costs and sea freight prices have already been grinded to a pulp. But with all due respect to these, we seem to have learned nothing from the beginning of the plague: remember how we paid 50 shekels for one 95-N type mask, or 100 shekels for a package of four simple masks, not to mention battles between neighborhood supermarket shelves for each pack of sharp gloves - Twice, somewhere less than two years ago?

Without noticing, we seem to have returned to the frightened consumption patterns of March 2020. So we bought everything next door, and paid everything they demanded. Well, from the advertisers it is that suckers are not dead they are just replaced, but this time the suckers are the same suckers, i.e. we - and only the products we are required to purchase have been replaced.

Kits for home antigen tests are sold to us at unrealistic prices: a kit that includes two tests, was sold to the consumer until a few days ago at prices of NIS 69-99. With the increase in need and demand, along with increased competition, prices have dropped to NIS 50-60 and now we see prices ranging from NIS 20-40 for a double kit, if not below that.

Therefore, the question arises again: How did the price fall from NIS 50 per unit to NIS 10 per unit? How regularly do these phenomena recur while there is no body that oversees not only us but also itself - because government bodies have also paid considerable sums: according to a report by import consultants in the field, the unit price is less than one dollar after import expenses.

So prices were probably higher at first and trading in days of high demand versus low supply spawned deals at unrealistic prices, and the voices we heard from consumers said something like: "Give us goods because it is a product for subsistence and in the absence of supervision we will pay hundreds of shekels for it."

The prices of the tests, the prices of the masks in the past, along with the disinfectants at unrealistic prices, are part of the problem of the lack of prudent consumerism of us all.

We shout and protest about 5% increase in price, but in practice can also pay double without deeply understanding the power of the consumer.

I have researched a lot in the past what caused the huge hysteria (all over the world) around toilet paper with the onset of the corona crisis, does toilet paper prevent disease or cure?

Of course not - it's just a herd phenomenon.

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Barn antigen and ketchup tests.

If we continue to attack products in short supply, we will lose the ability to protest against rising prices (Photo: Reuven Castro)

A shortage of products will lead to an onslaught

Why am I required to do this right now, when the prices of the dishes have been greatly reduced?

Because the real problem now is the fear of a recurring shopping panic.

Why?

Because local industries are reducing production because of the sharp increase in verified or isolated numbers.

It is important to note that they do not do this on purpose - their production capacity is really small.

The same goes for transport and forwarding workers, drivers, collectors, warehouses and others, who are in isolation and create a bottleneck in the supply chain.

The problem does not end here and continues for food chain employees: cashiers, ushers, butchers and other service providers who make it even more difficult, through no fault of their own, of course, for the availability of certain products.

Thus, the managers of the marketing chains began to increase orders in order not to reach a situation of shortages and loss of sales, again beginning to see demand for merchandise from retailers when store shelves are not full and abundant as usual.

At the same time, they also report a significant jump in orders from the online sites, to the point of limiting the amount of orders and demanding changes in the delivery times indicated on the site.

The jump is due to customers' avoidance of entering crowded spaces, or because they are part of the huge number of insulators.

Barn pasta: If there is a shortage, no one will check whether the price is NIS 5 or NIS 7 (Photo: Supplier 500, Nimrod Saunders)

When there is a shortage, do not pay attention to the price

We have already learned that when demand begins to exceed supply, and meets supply problems, labor shortages, jumps in online shopping and shortage anxiety, the first symptom will be a jump in prices: Or if there is an operation. What will be important to us is just to fill the cart - and if they tell us that there is a shortage of toilet paper or eggs, we will load the cart again much more than we can consume - and then we will post a whining post about the cost of living ...

so let's try to be smart ahead of time A: In the coming days and weeks, there may be a shortage of certain products in supermarkets. Longer queues may also develop - not as a result of a customer onslaught (which only increases the next onslaught, in a self-refueling process) but because some of the regular cashiers are in isolation.

At the same time we will be exposed to negligible shortages in stores, but do not worry: none of us is going to starve to death.

So let's not fall, let's not buy as if we are facing a prolonged closure, let's remember that it is possible to move a few days without one product or another.

Because if we buy out of hysteria, as has happened to us in the past, we will lose the right to lament over price increases on the part of manufacturers or importers.

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