Coronavirus lockdown: Consumers still facing essential commodities shortage

Despite the government claiming that it has ramped up the availability of essential commodities, a large number of consumers are still unable to get their goods both offline and online, says a latest survey.

After showing some improvement for a week, the availability of essential goods starts dipping again both offline and online, says latest survey conducted by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, during April 9-10.

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About 35% of consumers were unable to find essentials via local retail stores while the percentage of consumers unable to find essentials via ‘eCommerce’ apps increased to 50%, says the survey.

Different lockdown extensions by different states could add uncertainty and worsen the situation, said the survey.

The survey conducted in association with the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India to check availability/non-availability of essential goods in retail stores, as well as on eCommerce platforms received 16,000+ responses from consumers located in 181 districts of India.

About 39% of the consumers who placed an order for essential goods (wheat, rice, pulses, salt, sugar, etc) from an eCommerce app said they were able to get most items while 8% said they were able to get only some items. 25% said they were not able to get most items while 17% said they were not able to get anything. Only 11% said they were able to get everything easily.

On the eCommerce platform front, the availability of essential goods showed some improvement in the past week but has now shown a decline in the last two days.

On the local retail stores front, the availability of essential goods has also declined in the last 2 days. On April 5-6, 70% of the consumers were reportedly able to find essential goods at local retail stores. This number has gone down and stands at 65 % as of April 9-10.