IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1118.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pandemic buying: Covid-19 and purchasing behaviour of French households

Author

Listed:
  • Lorey, Thierry
  • Mughal, Mazhar
  • Javed, Rashid

Abstract

In this study, we use comprehensive French consumer data from the Nielsen ScanTrack retailer panel to analyse the progression of purchasing trends of French households during the coronavirus outbreak. Our results are threefold: First, we observe three temporal phases, namely the normal (pre-Covid-19) period, the anticipation period, and the lockdown period. During the three weeks of anticipation (24 February - 15 March), sales of basic and cleaning products increased by 17%. The first week of the preventive lockdown saw panic buying with sales jumping by 30%, followed by a more subdued growth during the subsequent weeks of the lockdown. We found these time trends to be similar to those observed in Italy and Spain. Second, sales of the hypermarkets fell by 6% during the lockdown, while those of supermarkets and convenience stores rose by 13% and 28% respectively. Online sales through drive stores (80%) and home delivery (93%) showed the highest growth. Covid-19 appears to have accentuated the joint evolution of two major phenomena: strong development of E-commerce, and the desire of the households to visit small shops close to their homes. Third, in terms of product categories, we observe an increase in basic, easy-to-store food products, an increasing consumption of fresh, local & organic products, a significant increase in the purchase of basic hygiene products, and a decline in the purchase of cosmetics. In the latter case, Covid-19 seems to have accentuated a fundamental trend in household purchases in France: "eat local".

Suggested Citation

  • Lorey, Thierry & Mughal, Mazhar & Javed, Rashid, 2022. "Pandemic buying: Covid-19 and purchasing behaviour of French households," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1118, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/260550/1/GLO-DP-1118.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott R Baker & Robert A Farrokhnia & Steffen Meyer & Michaela Pagel & Constantine Yannelis & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "How Does Household Spending Respond to an Epidemic? Consumption during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 834-862.
    2. Dora Gicheva & Justine Hastings & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2010. "Investigating Income Effects in Scanner Data: Do Gasoline Prices Affect Grocery Purchases?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 480-484, May.
    3. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    4. Asger Lau Andersen & Emil Toft Hansen & Niels Johannesen & Adam Sheridan, 2020. "Pandemic, Shutdown and Consumer Spending: Lessons from Scandinavian Policy Responses to COVID-19," Papers 2005.04630, arXiv.org.
    5. Monica Costa Dias & Robert Joyce & Fabien Postel‐Vinay & Xiaowei Xu, 2020. "The Challenges for Labour Market Policy during the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 371-382, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kudaisi, Bosede Victoria & Olomola, P.A., 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Food Intake in Nigeria," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 9(3), June.
    2. James Banks & Heidi Karjalainen & Carol Propper, 2020. "Recessions and Health: The Long‐Term Health Consequences of Responses to the Coronavirus," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 337-344, June.
    3. Akos Horvath & Benjamin S. Kay & Carlo Wix, 2021. "The COVID-19 Shock and Consumer Credit: Evidence from Credit Card Data," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-008, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. O’Connell, Martin & Smith, Kate & Stroud, Rebekah, 2022. "The dietary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Bruno Carvalho & Susana Peralta & Joao Pereira dos Santos, 2020. "What and how did people buy during the Great Lockdown? Evidence from electronic payments," Working Papers ECARES 2020-20, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Zhixian Lin & Christopher M. Meissner, 2020. "Health vs. Wealth? Public Health Policies and the Economy During Covid-19," NBER Working Papers 27099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Long Hai Vo & Kirsten Martinus & Brett Smith, 2023. "A Demand Systems Approach to Understanding Medium‐Term Post‐Pandemic Consumption Trends," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 42(2), pages 183-199, June.
    8. Bruno P. Carvalho & Susana Peralta & João Pereira dos Santos, 2022. "Regional and sectorial impacts of the Covid‐19 crisis: Evidence from electronic payments," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 757-798, June.
    9. Rachel Griffith & Martin O'Connell & Kate Smith, 2016. "Shopping Around: How Households Adjusted Food Spending Over the Great Recession," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(330), pages 247-280, April.
    10. Simionescu, Mihaela & Raišienė, Agota Giedrė, 2021. "A bridge between sentiment indicators: What does Google Trends tell us about COVID-19 pandemic and employment expectations in the EU new member states?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Dong, Xiao & Zeballos, Eliana, 2021. "COVID-19 Working Paper: The Effects of COVID-19 on Food Sales," USDA Miscellaneous 309615, United States Department of Agriculture.
    12. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Gerardo Esquivel, 2021. "Consumption and geographic mobility in pandemic times. Evidence from Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 353-371, June.
    13. Feng‐An Yang & Hung‐Hao Chang & Jiun‐Hao Wang, 2022. "The economic impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Taiwanese food industry: Empirical evidence using business transaction data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(2), pages 376-395, June.
    14. Carvalho, V & Garcia, Juan R. & Hansen, S. & Ortiz, A. & Rodrigo, T. & More, J. V. R., 2020. "Tracking the COVID-19 Crisis with High-Resolution Transaction Data," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2030, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Sonja Settele & Cortnie Shupe, 2020. "Lives or Livelihoods? Perceived Tradeoffs and Public Demand for Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions," CEBI working paper series 20-17, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    16. Gerhard Fenz & Helmut Stix, 2021. "Monitoring the economy in real time with the weekly OeNB GDP indicator: background, experience and outlook," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q4/20-Q1/, pages 17-40.
    17. Horvath, Akos & Kay, Benjamin & Wix, Carlo, 2023. "The COVID-19 shock and consumer credit: Evidence from credit card data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    18. Hanghun Jo & Eunha Shin & Heungsoon Kim, 2020. "Changes in Consumer Behaviour in the Post-COVID-19 Era in Seoul, South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    19. Asger Lau Andersen & Emil Toft Hansen & Niels Johannesen & Adam Sheridan, 2022. "Consumer responses to the COVID‐19 crisis: evidence from bank account transaction data," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(4), pages 905-929, October.
    20. Coffey, Cathal & Doorley, Karina & Roantree, Barra & O'Toole, Conor, 2020. "The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumption and indirect taxes in Ireland," Papers BP2021/3, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; lockdown; purchasing behaviour; France; Italy; Spain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.