Coronavirus causes panic buying in Ukraine, but few shortages

The images have shocked people around the world: empty shelves in supermarkets in the United States and western Europe, deficits of toilet paper, long lines to get into stores.

This is the new reality created by the novel coronavirus, which has infected over 226,517 people and killed more than 9,285 around the world.

Beyond illness, it is also causing a panic buying, as consumers attempt to prepare for quarantines.

But the situation in Ukraine is unlike in many other countries. The number of people shopping for staple goods has increased recently, but it is hardly as massive as in other countries.

Ukraine has reported 16 cases of COVID-19, among the lowest numbers in Europe. There have been two deaths from the illness.

But there is a high probability that the worst is yet to come, experts say.

While Kyiv has closed the subway and shuttered most stores, supermarkets and pharmacies remain open.

There, one can already notice panic buyers stockpiling goods to survive quarantine in Kyiv.

No need to panic

To prevent the coronavirus’s spread, Ukraine has already shuttered schools, universities, restaurants, night clubs, gyms, beauty salons, and shopping malls, banned events, restricted public transportation, stopped international travel, and closed borders for foreign nationals without residency permits.

And while the government has urged Ukrainians to stay at their homes until quarantine measures end on April 3, no one is preventing them from shopping for groceries.

On March 16 at noon, an upscale Le Silpo supermarket in central Kyiv was unusually crowded.

Despite calls to shop responsibly and to stop panicking, some citizens have started to stockpile goods.

According to the store cashier, Le Silpo had more people shopping on the weekend, after the quarantine started.

Later that day, another supermarket in the Silpo chain was also crowded with visitors. Andrii Vaskin, who was shopping for groceries there and had his shopping cart half full with flour, eggs, rice, noodles and other long-lasting goods, said he wasn’t panicking.

But his wife was, he said.

“(My workplace) is on quarantine for two weeks and my wife asked me to buy all of it, so we don’t need to leave our home,” Vaskin told the Kyiv Post. “My wife worries that goods might disappear from stores.”

As of the evening of March 16, the supermarket was a little bit more crowded than usual, but there were no empty shelves and the check-out lines were typical for that time of day.

The situation was a bit worse at the lower-end ATB supermarket in Kyiv’s Nyvky neighborhood. Crowds of people, mainly elderly, were hurrying through the store with bags and carts full of buckwheat, rice, noodles and canned goods.

Still, there were no giant queues and only several empty shelves in the stores.

But on March 18, the chain of ATB supermarkets announced new restrictions for shoppers. Starting from March 19, ATB will limit the number of goods each shopper can buy: no more than 12 bottles of liquids like beer or water and no more than five items or kilograms of products like noodles or buckwheat.

Such restrictions don’t apply to fruits and vegetables and will be in effect until the end of quarantine on April 3.

Serhii Demchenko, the head of corporate communication at ATB, told the Kyiv Post that such limitations were established to reduce the level of panic shopping.

“The chain doesn’t have any problems with food supplies,” Demchenko says.

And while most supermarkets are still supplied with products, online delivery from grocery stores has become a real challenge for those not ready to leave their homes to shop for food. Delivery from supermarkets like Metro, Novus or Auchan in Kyiv is unavailable due to increased demand until Friday, March 20.

Ukrainian delivery service Glovo delivers groceries from Auchan supermarket but limits orders to no more than 8-9 kilograms.

Despite the increased demand for goods caused by the quarantine, stores still report they have enough of all the needed products and there should be no shortages.

Customers stay in a line as Metro Cash&Carry supermarkets offer visitors to clean hands and trolley with sanitizer on March 15, 2020. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

The most popular chains of supermarkets in Ukraine — like Silpo, ATB and Metro — confirmed to the Kyiv Post that they are fully supplied with all types of goods.

“If only people would act rationally,” says Illia Bachurin, a Kyiv-based social and behavioral psychologist.

Bachurin says that, now, the level of panic in Ukraine is lower than in other countries affected by the virus. That is because Ukrainians haven’t faced the virus as closely as in other countries. But that doesn’t mean that Ukrainians respond to the pandemic differently psychologically.

Bachurin says that, in general, Ukrainians now act in two different ways: some are panicking because they don’t know what to expect and the rest are calm but not cautious and not afraid of the virus.

“But at the moment of threat, it is important to stay rational,” Bachurin says. “Crowds of people at supermarkets can also cause the disease to spread faster,” he adds.

Such behavior is also an indicator of the nation’s lack of trust in the Ukrainian medical system, Bachurin says.

“We tend to trust in ourselves more,” he adds.

According to him, the government should keep constantly instructing people how to act in times of quarantine to avoid mass panic.

“Citizen’s reactions usually depend on their country leader’s reaction,” Bachurin says. “In this case, all should understand the importance of staying at home and staying optimistic.”

“Panic is not helpful,” he adds.

Missing masks, sanitizer

While toilet paper has not yet become panic buyers’ main target in Ukraine, some essentials like medical masks and hand sanitizer are missing from pharmacies and grocery stores.

Moreover, these goods have been subject to price gouging. The Novus chain of supermarkets in Kyiv started selling protective masks for Hr 1,200 ($44) for a pack of 50. Before coronavirus, a single mask cost between Hr 0.86 – 1.25 (from 3 to 5 cents).

Novus, on the other hand, says that the price for protective masks was based upon their purchase price. The company’s aim was to ensure a constant supply of all needed goods to stores, Novus told the Kyiv Post in a statement.

One can also buy hand sanitizer online on sites like Prom.ua and OLX — also for an increased price. For example, hand sanitizer from Ukrainian producer “Manorm” is now being sold for Hr 145 ($5.30) for 50 milliliters on Prom. Its regular price is Hr 35-45 ($1.30-1.65), the company wrote on Facebook.

“Now, hand sanitizers and masks are among the most needed products for people to protect themselves,” says pharmaceutical expert Olena Prudnikova.

Prudnikoda, who heads the nonprofit Pharm Rada, which unites Ukrainian small businesses selling pharmaceuticals, says that the market was not ready for the increased demand.

According to her, companies could only cover regular demand for goods. When coronavirus arrived, they had no stocks of masks and sanitizers.

Prudnikova also says the government should have urged Ukrainian wholesalers to purchase more masks as soon as the coronavirus outbreak started in China.

The Kyiv Post requested a comment from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, but has not heard back.

“Yes, (masks and hand sanitizers) are sold out now, but at the same time, there were not enough of them,” Prudnikova says, adding that the same problem is occurring around the globe, not just in Ukraine.

Prudnikova also says there wouldn’t have been such a problem if all people had have used sanitizers before the virus.

“You come home, wash your hands and disinfect them every day. That’s it,” she says.

According to Prudnikova, there are almost no producers of masks in Ukraine, and most protective masks were exported from abroad, mainly from China. Now, however, Chinese manufacturers have also increased their prices due to high demand.

Ukrainian Oleksiy Davydenko, head of the company “Svit Reabilitatsii“ (“Rehabilitation World” in English), an importer and seller of medical equipment in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook that Chinese producers are now selling masks for $1 each. Two months ago the price was $0.03.

“World reserves and world capacities are significantly inferior to demand,” Davydenko wrote.

Prudnikova says that most masks that are now sold by price speculators on the Internet seem to be handmade and are not helpful. The same applies to hand sanitizers: It is impossible to check their origin and quality when they are purchased online.

Currently, there are no supplies of protective products like masks from the foreign manufacturers, so it is impossible to establish the fair price in Ukraine, she adds.

According to Prudnikova, masks are not helpful for healthy people and should be used only for those who are sick to stop the spread of the virus. Now, she says, pharmacies and, thus, pharmacists have no masks and are not protected from the virus.

“Pharmacists should work in protective suits, wear masks and gloves like doctors, as they communicate with sick people,” Prudnikova says. “But we all are unprotected. Humanity was not ready.”