Even as some supermarkets have restricting customers from hording and purchasing grocery in bulk quantities, DMart wants people to buy in large quantities.
With online groceries grappling with unprecedented demand, as a result of getting a delivery slot for customers has become a pain, offline stores come as a blessing in disguise.
At a time like this, Neville Noronha, MD at Avenue Supermarts (which runs DMart) says that people should be allowed to buy in larger quantities, so they don’t have to step out of their homes often.
“If someone is buying two units of something instead of one, we let them buy because that way it reduces the number of trips they make to the supermarket. Everyone is paranoid to leave home to buy, so let them buy enough when they do get out and instead of doing 5 trips, let them do 2-3 trips in a month,” Neville says.
Neville adds that operating hours in several cities are already restrictive, with some cities allowing only 3-4 hours. At a time like this, if stores don’t allow people to buy reasonable quantities, they won’t be able to meet reasonable demand.
Instead of restricting quantities, Neville says that supermarkets should be allowed to stay open for longer hours.
“The better way to handle this is to have longer hours like Maharashtra and then follow strict social distancing norms. Otherwise I don’t know where people will get their grocery from,” he adds.
At DMart outlets, the grocer says that people are buying relatively higher quantities. For example, someone who was earlier buying things worth Rs 500 is buying worth Rs 700. But overall sales are anyway lower because overall footfalls are less, he says,
“Instead of 100, 50 people are walking in now. So, when I look at my offtake at end of the day, we are not out of stock,” Neville adds.
Even from before the lockdown was announced, people across the country were panic buying and hoarding massive quantities of staples over fears of not being able to step out and of markets running out of supplies.
However, Neville says that DMart has ample stock and so, it doesn’t need to impose any restrictions.
“There is no short supply of any staples, grains and other unprocessed materials. We have good availability and supply moving fairly easily. There is no need to panic,” he adds.
The only issue, he adds, could be with processed packaged food like noodles, pastas, etc. “There is no major disruption yet, but we are seeing shortages in some areas. There could be a shortage if companies don’t manufacture and supply to us quickly,” he added.