Garlic and ginger still rising; a look at consumer psychology
Are we already in the “new normal”?
Retail sales took a big hit in April, and even grocery store sales declined compared with March according to the Department of Census's advance monthly retail sales.
According to the report, grocery store sales in April were $63.96 billion, down 13% from March and only slightly above $63.33 billion recorded last April.
A new Brick Meet Click report catalogs the rise of online grocery sales but also the income hit many Americans are facing.
The Brick Meets Click report said the percentage of households who have used home delivery or store pickup has climbed to a lofty 31%. On the economic front, the report said at least 39% of all the households surveyed indicated they had experienced a dramatic drop in income of 25% or more during April compared with January/February this year.
Meanwhile, a survey of consumers from the University of Michigan titled “Pandemic’s Impact on Economic Behavior” said this about how long-lasting changes in consumer behavior during the pandemic could be:
“However much a person had preferred to travel by air, commute to work by mass transport, shop at malls, attend concerts, sports events, choose urban residential and work locations, their future decisions may not overcome the attached negative emotions due to the pandemic. A key issue is whether these associations will fade over time across all people, or if it will represent a lasting generational impact similar to the Great Depression. Moreover, the automatic emotional attachments may heighten fears of other events that would not have warranted such concerns in the past.”
TK: Once we change our way of being, how easy will it be to revert to pre-pandemic? Will we stick with online grocery orders or will a bone-jarring recession send us scrambling to discount grocers?
The best case seems nearly out of reach. It seems almost unrealistic to hope that this pandemic will be like a nightmare that is quickly forgotten upon awakening. Almost.
A couple of commodities that have not had a COVID-19 slump are garlic and ginger. Check it out....here are average terminal market prices for top produce commodities for 2019 and so far this year.
