Retailers on Wednesday said there is enough stock of essential items and groceries if people do not resort to panic buying, while some organised players put caps on items that a consumer can purchase during the lockdown.
Future Group and V-Mart have put in place systems to prevent panic buying at their neighbourhood grocery stores.
“Availability was not the issue but supply chain was impacted (due to the lockdown). The government has got into the picture and they are enabling the supply chain to happen,” Retailers Association of India CEO Kumar Rajagopalan told PTI.
He further said,”The supplies are actually getting regularised with the government helping. If people do not do panic buying, there is enough stock and there is no problem.”
When contacted, Spencer’’s Retail Managing Director Devendra Chawla said, “We are well stocked for now on essentials. However, we are in touch with brand manufacturers so that supply chain for next few weeks is in place. It could mean smaller batch sizes or relaxing some manufacturing efficiencies for some time to tide over current supply constraints.”
V-Mart, which operates mainly in tier-II and -III cities, said it has not faced supply issues but has put in place restrictions on how much can a consumer buy.
“We are currently operating around 25 stores in the lockdown, which are mainly in states such as UP and Bihar. Though we have supply, we have put restrictions over the quantity of purchase,” V-Mart Retail Chairman and Managing Director Lalit Agarwal said.
The company has capped purchases on several items. For instance, a customer can buy only 20 kg rice, 10 kg atta, 4 kg pulses, 12 packets of biscuits of a single type and noodles, and 5 Kg sugar.
Future Group too has put several restrictions at its neighborhood food and grocery store chain Easyday Club.
As per the restrictions, a person can not buy more than two packets of 10kg atta, five pieces of 100 gm butter, two packets of ghee (1 kg), 5 litres of mustard and soya oil, 10 kg of sugar and not more than 5 kg of rice and pulses.
However, the company has not put any such restrictions at its big format Big Bazaar stores, where it is dispensing only essential items following the government’’s decision to impose a lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
FMCG players like HUL, ITC, Dabur India, Parle Products, GCPL and Jyothi Labs have flagged availability of workers at factories and trucks for transportation as the biggest challenges for their supply chain.