Abstract
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.
Highlights
Black swan is a term coined by investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007 and it has been used to designate unpredictable events with a high economic and social impact [1]
The goal of this study was to analyse the food buying changes that have taken place in Spain in two time periods, with the reference point separating them being the declaration of state of alarm on 14 March 2020 due to the health crisis caused by COVID-19
61.4% of consumers modified their buying behaviour. Other studies, such as one conducted in China after the COVID-19 outbreak, showed that the pandemic had a psychological impact on 54% of consumers [108]
Summary
Black swan is a term coined by investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007 and it has been used to designate unpredictable events with a high economic and social impact [1]. Some researchers have defined the current health crisis as a black swan [2,3]. Others, Taleb included, consider that this pandemic situation could have been predicted. There have been noteworthy precedents for other pandemics triggered by viruses or bacteria with a disastrous effect on human history [7,8,9,10,11]. Humanity has once again shown that it was not prepared to tackle these situations, even though being prepared for disasters can minimize damage to our health, lives, and property [12]
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