The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic has brought out the best and, unfortunately, also the worst in humanity. While we see valiant efforts being performed by groups of individuals across the world, we also witness a lot of people displaying their most selfish behavior, like some grocery shoppers. To address the problem of greedy buyers, this high-end supermarket in Denmark came up with a brilliant strategy.
Aside from toilet paper, masks, and medical-grade gloves, an item that has been significantly popular in grocery stores these days is hand sanitizer. Rotunden, a supermarket in Denmark, had been running out of this supply faster than ever because of hoarders. And to prevent shoppers from wiping out their shelves of hand sanitizer, the store came up with a smart pricing trick.
One bottle is reasonably priced at 40 DKK ($4.09), but it jumps to 1,000 DKK ($95) when a shopper purchases two bottles.
Twitter user @_schuermann shared a photo of the brilliant pricing scheme.
“A supermarket in Denmark got tired of people hoarding hand sanitizer, so came up with their own way of stopping it. 1 bottle kr40 (€5.50) 2 bottles kr1000 (€134.00) each bottle. Hoarding stopped! #COVID19 #coronavirus #Hoarding,” he captioned the post.
Just like a lot of stores nowadays, hoarders raided the supermarket and bought as many supplies as they can. The management couldn’t let it persist, so they came up with the unconventional pricing system.
Lots of people thought the idea was brilliant and wanted to see it implemented in their local grocery stores.
“Magnificent idea! We should do this in UK (although the shelves are bare anyway) but we could apply it for toilet roll, cans of soup, pasta…the essentials lol #panicbuyuk,” one user commented.
Aside from addressing the issue of hoarding, Rotunden also published a Facebook post reminding its customers of proper shopping etiquette amid the outbreak.
The message, translated by Bored Panda, read:
“Dear customers: We have a great responsibility to keep the business running, and we can only do that with everyone’s help and understanding. I can help in the following way: We ask all customers to respect the distance between each other and our co-workers; Sprinkle (likely sanitize or wash) hands off at the entrance and use gloves;
If you are a family, please allow only one person to purchase the purchases if possible; There may be times when we limit how many customers we accept in the store at one time. We will keep you informed about any operating changes on Facebook. Take care and thank you for your understanding.”
The problem with hoarding is that other people find it difficult to get that product, which in turn causes more hoarding and panic-buying for other shoppers. Hoarders have this faulty assumption that the more supplies they have, the higher their chances of surviving this virus.
That reasoning is just plain irrational. During a pandemic, everyone’s hands must be clean and safe; everyone needs to be healthy. Even the wealthiest families and those with loads of supplies aren’t immune to this virus, so each citizen must learn to give their fellow a greater chance of defending themselves against infection.
During these challenging times, it is essential to follow guidelines given by the authorities: stay inside your homes, practice social distancing, and do not hoard supplies.