Brugarolas Margarita, Martínez-Carrasco Laura, Rabadán Adrián, Bernabéu Rodolfo
Escuela Politécnica Superior de Orihuela (EPSO), Universidad Miguel Hernández, Avenida de la Universidad de Elche s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos y de Montes (ETSIAM), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, 02071 Albacete, Spain.
Foods. 2020 Dec 8;9(12):1821. doi: 10.3390/foods9121821.
Health, financial, and social crises cause variations in the buying behaviour of food consumers as well as in the value they assign to food attributes and the place of purchase, leading to consumers with profiles that are more susceptible to these changes than others. Thus, it was observed that 61.4% of consumers modified their buying behaviour at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with those who modified it the most being the people who stockpiled the most food and went panic buying more often. This has made it possible to establish the profile of different significant consumer segments, and as a response, food production/distribution companies can implement different innovative strategies aimed at decreasing the impact of stockpiling and, therefore, the shortage of food. The possible strategies that companies can put into effect are creating a stock of non-perishable foods, increasing production capabilities in a sustainable way and, especially in light of the results obtained, boost the online sale and distribution of foods, with the goal of decreasing the amount of people in shops (which decreases the spreading of the pandemic and favours health) and preventing consumers from observing possible circumstantial shortages that would only encourage stockpiling and panic buying, even among consumers who have not changed their buying behaviour.
健康、金融和社会危机导致食品消费者的购买行为以及他们赋予食品属性和购买地点的价值发生变化，从而使某些消费者群体比其他群体更容易受到这些变化的影响。因此，据观察，61.4%的消费者在新冠疫情爆发之初改变了他们的购买行为，其中改变最大的是那些囤积最多食品且更频繁地进行恐慌性购买的人。这使得确定不同重要消费者群体的特征成为可能，作为应对措施，食品生产/分销公司可以实施不同的创新策略，旨在减少囤积的影响，从而减少食品短缺。公司可以实施的可能策略包括建立耐储存食品库存、以可持续方式提高生产能力，特别是根据所获得的结果，促进食品的在线销售和配送，目标是减少商店中的人数（这会减少疫情传播并有利于健康），并防止消费者看到可能导致囤积和恐慌性购买的偶然短缺情况，即使是在尚未改变购买行为的消费者中也是如此。
