Grocery hoarding in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences for logistics

Abstract

This study aims to examine hoarding in Sweden during the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The research questions are: (1) How was hoarding related to consumer behaviour during Covid-19? and (2) How did hoarding impact supply chains? The first question is addressed through empirical, primarily descriptive data, while the second is explored through a theoretical analysis of the empirical findings to contextualise consumer hoarding more broadly. Two independent surveys were conducted to study what was hoarded (first survey), by whom (first and second survey) and why (first survey). Results show that Swedes mainly hoarded canned food, pasta and toilet paper, but also rice, frozen food and dry food. Hoarders are characterised by being young, well educated, having a higher income, living with children, and in big cities. Remarkable is that only 34 % stated that they hoarded because of concerns that goods would run out, while 55 % stated that the reason was fear of being infected or concern for infecting others. The empirical findings are used for a discursive analysis of hoarding's effect on supply chains. The analysis is assisted by introducing the CARS framework categorising product types based on how flexibly the production system can scale up production and to what extent consumption is increased or just postponed by hoarding. Industries with inflexible production systems providing groceries with a postponed consumption (e.g. canned food and pasta) were found most affected by hoarding. Hoarding aggravated the supply of groceries like coffee, wheat flour and yeast, and the supply chains also needed to adapt to supplying small packages to consumers via stores or e-commerce rather than in larger quantities to offices, restaurants and bakeries.