Salomon, director of the French Health Agency, announced on the evening of March 4 that there were 73 new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in France on the same day, with a cumulative case of 285 cases, 4 deaths, and 12 cured cases.
Paris Super League suddenly encounters "epidemic prevention stress test"
Selling 650 bags of rice in two and a half days, Zhuang Wenbin, who has been in France for forty years, directly called "never seen", another identity of a middle-aged man who can seamlessly switch between Cantonese, French and Mandarin, and is the manager of the Paris Store in the Super League in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.
In 2003, Zhuang Wenbin started his career in the southwestern French city of Toulouse, the Paris Stow Group, in his memory, that year shrouded in SARS did not appear in the phenomenon of large-scale Chinese hoarding; 17 years later, the new coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan met with Europe at the end of January; at the end of February, the epidemic broke out in Italy without warning, and quickly spread to the whole of Europe, the Chinese who have been highly alert in epidemic prevention nerves quickly began to stockpile goods, a "epidemic prevention stress test" without warning. Parachuted into Paris Stoke.
Zhuang Wenbin, manager of the Paris Store in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. (Image source: The pictures in this article are all taken by Ma Xingjian, a reporter of the European Times)
"Last Friday, guests started picking up the goods"
In Zhuang Wenbin's memory, since February 28 (Friday), there has been a phenomenon of large-scale purchases of noodles and rice in the store, and the number of customers has not increased significantly compared with the past, and even a slight decline, because "I am afraid that we are in the 13th district, that new crown...", but individual customers "buy more things, they buy back to inventory." ”
There are plenty of goods on the rice shelves in supermarkets.
"Customers are starting to come to pick up and replenish", on February 29 and March 1 (open in the morning only, closed on March 2), the busy situation in the store peaked. Data records show that in two and a half days, Zhuang Wenbin's store sold a total of 400 bags of 20 kilograms of rice and glutinous rice, and 5 kilograms of rice and glutinous rice sold almost 250 bags.
In the past, in the morning of Friday to Sunday, sales of 20 kilograms of packaged rice products were about 100 bags.
The climb in Zhuang Wenbin's in-store sales data is highly consistent with the spread of the new crown epidemic in Europe, on February 26, the Epidemic in Europe began to spread gradually in Italy, and quickly broke through the thousand on February 28; in France, the total number of confirmed cases in France on February 26 was 18; but on February 29, the total number of confirmed cases in France exceeded the symbolic 100 mark.
If the sales of rice is the most conspicuous test in this "epidemic prevention stress test", then the sales of instant noodles are the most unexpected test questions, and the sales volume is so unexpected that Zhuang Wenbin first laughed and said that it is difficult to count, and then solemnly said " But it is not enough to sell, because we didn't expect them to come on Saturday." "Usually, customers who buy a lot of instant noodles contact the store in advance, but this time it has become an exception.
A customer is picking instant noodles.
On February 29, the store sold out of instant noodles according to its previous sales reserves, and in an interview on March 3, the store's instant noodle shelves were full of "resuming work.".
In addition to rice and instant noodles, dried goods that can be stored for a long time, such as canned food and lunch meat, are also the first choice for customers to stock up on goods. On March 3, although the peak of hoarding goods has passed, but you can still smell the heat of this type of goods, the reporter at 10:45 in the morning with Zhuang Wenbin together with 51 cans of lunch meat to the shelves; at 15:45 pm, 51 cans of lunch meat only 18 cans remained, during the period of whether the staff replenished, the reporter did not investigate deeply.
"Ready to get a little more, a little more"
The first "stress test" brought about by the surge in the number of customer purchases, pointing to procurement and inventory.
According to the recent actual situation and relevant reports in France, Zhuang Wenbin in the new week "ready to import a little more goods, a little more, rice, oil, canned", vegetables and other commodities have not increased nor decreased, but "dry goods will definitely enter a little more."
Although the first peak period of stockpiling has passed, there is still no shortage of customers wandering in front of the shelves of rice products in the store. At 15:48, there was only one bag of 5 kilograms of rice left on the shelf of rice products, and after 16 minutes, the bag of rice was "put into the basket" by a female customer, and in an instant, the shelves of rice products were "loose and running horses", and the shelves of vegetable products on one side were still "airtight" with many goods, and at 16:26, two staff members took out 30 bags of 5 kilograms of rice from the warehouse and put them on the shelves.
The second "stress test" points to human resources.
Because some employees are on vacation, during the two-and-a-half-day peak of stockpiling, everyone in Zhuang Wenbin's store is busier than usual, the work pressure is greater, and even if the peak has passed, everyone has to push the cart uninterruptedly, going back and forth between the warehouse and the shelves.
The interview went on until 15:15, Zhuang Wenbin and two young employees checked a lot of information and walked out of the office, pushing a trolley to load the shelves with insufficient goods, at 17:15, Zhuang Wenbin returned to the office to continue the interview, the office phone and mobile phone rang non-stop, someone asked about soy sauce, someone consulted seafood.
Busy replenishment work.
During the interview, a "passerby" job seeker approached the office, and after a few simple exchanges, Zhuang Wenbin could only send off the guests.
"France will not be short of food" and "there will be no price increase in the short term"
The emergence of the hoarding tide is closely related to two concerns, one is worried about the lack of commodities in the development of the epidemic, and the other is worried about the increase in commodity prices.
"France will not be out of stock, because there is enough food and daily necessities." When talking about concerns about the lack of goods, Zhuang Wenbin believes that the shelves that the people have grabbed will definitely make up for it after a day or two, "Even if there is no rice to eat, France still has paters (pasta), and Italian rice, and other things that can be used." ”
After the spread of the new coronavirus epidemic in France, with the introduction of the French government's "frequent handwashing" epidemic prevention proposal, disinfectant hand sanitizer has become a luxury product for a while, and the price has been rising, and on March 3, French Minister of Economy Le Maire publicly said that he would investigate the price increase of hand sanitizer.
"Short-term price increases", Zhuang Wenbin said that as long as it is still consuming the previously purchased goods, the goods in the store will not increase in price, but because many goods need to be imported from Thailand, Vietnam and China, with the spread of the epidemic in the world, the possibility of future price increases is not non-existent, if the upstream water rises, the downstream natural boat is high.