Purchasing behavior and awareness during COVID-19-related panic buying

A case study conducted in three Japanese cities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is now a global crisis, and fear of the pandemic or anxieties about unstable social condition (e.g., urban lockdown or rumors spreading) caused panic buying in many countries. To prevent future cases, it is of urgent need to understand what happens during panic buying to provide useful insight for policy makers. This study aims to examine the individual purchasing behaviors in the panic buying of toilet paper in Japanese cities in early 2020. We focused on the three cities that have different urban characteristics and pandemic progress conditions. Using online questionnaires, two main aspects were analyzed: 1) the spatio-temporal concentration of shopping behaviors and 2) customers’ inconvenience while shopping. The major results are as follows. Information spreading immediately caused consumers’ temporal concentration. Especially, people who felt the situation was serious tended to shop, and rushing to the same stores caused the spatial concentration. Although regional disparities were also seen, according to their urban characteristics and pandemic progress condition, most customers' store choices during panic buying seem to be an extension of their normal purchasing behaviors. However, their spatio-temporal concentration inconvenienced many people since they failed to obtain enough toilet paper in the stores or felt irritated by other consumers. Our results suggest the importance of preventing customers’ concentration to reduce inconvenience and suggest countermeasures by controlling demand in the current condition of regional space by guiding people’s behavior.