The Items Indians Have Been Stockpiling

Parle has said that sales of its signature biscuit Parle-G have pushed up the brand’s market share by 5 percent due to the coronavirus lockdown. Packaged foods overall have benefited from the lockdown and tendencies to stockpile foods. In India, personal and home care products were also still heavily sought after, according to the Euromonitor International Coronavirus Tracker.

Between March 1 and June 8, the number of retailers reporting bleach out of stock surged by almost 40 percent, while home disinfectant and bar soap were out of stock up to 20 percent more. Pasta was one of the durable foods most in demand, followed by canned fruits and vegetables as well as rice.

Multivitamins have returned to the shelves after a major run on them in April, when out-of-stock notices applied to 80 percent of retailers. Toilet paper and cleaning wipe availability has also improved. Problems of keeping alcohol in stock have been mostly resolved since the stockpiling of boozy drinks that occurred at the start of the Indian lockdown.