Panic buying of daily necessities continued in many parts of the mainland

China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on the evening of November 1, to encourage the household to store a certain number of daily necessities as needed to meet the needs of daily life and “emergencies”. The “notice” immediately triggered speculation on the internet and even interpretation of “attacking Taiwan”, forcing state media to clarify that the “emergency” refers to the epidemic. Zhu Xiaoliang, director of the Ministry of Commerce’s consumption promotion department, was quoted by CCTV as saying in a news broadcast that ‘from the current situation, supplies of daily necessities are abundant and fully guaranteed.’

However, the Taipei-based Central News Agency on the 3 roundup mainland reports still concluded that many cities have a rush to buy.

According to the mainland media reported on 3, “recently, online shopping in Chongqing, Henan Zhengzhou, Jiangsu Changzhou and Qidong, Anhui Bengbu and many other places appeared a rush, queuing up for shopping and checkout seems to have become a daily in recent days.” “Hundreds of carts in the supermarket are not enough, and some citizens bought 600 kilograms of rice at a time”. The newsreel and weibo photos showed huge crowds, long checkout lines and empty shelves. Some mainland users complained that they could not buy rice because of looting; Others said they couldn’t even get a bag of salt.

In Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, for example, Changzhou Tianning district, a large supermarket staff pointed out on 3, early in the morning into the supermarket into a large number of people buying supplies of life, the peak queuing checkout to wait for nearly 2 hours, they buy the most is mainly rice, flour, oil. At present, they have stopped online orders because “online orders have reached number 4”.

A staff member of a large supermarket in Changzhou Zhonglou District said that the hundreds of carts in the supermarket were not enough. “It is suggested that the public should not come to the supermarket today, because we have sufficient supply and there is no need to buy them all in one day.”

The report quoted a staff member from the market operation and consumption Promotion department of the Changzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce as saying: ‘There may have been excessive interpretation of the notice issued by the Ministry of Commerce on ensuring supply and price stability of daily necessities such as vegetables this winter and next spring.’ Another is Changzhou, which reported 3 new locally confirmed COVID-19 cases.

According to the report, supermarkets, citizens and business authorities in many parts of the mainland have confirmed that there have been various levels of panic buying in recent days, but there have been no shortages or disruptions in supplies. Many local business bureau appeals, the general public do not need to be too nervous, do not need to blindly hoard goods, resulting in unnecessary waste.