Canadians are being asked to stop panic-shopping. Are they listening?

The herd mentality displayed by consumers caught upin COVID-19-inspired panic-buyinghas in theunderstated language preferred by the Retail Council of Canada "not been beneficial."

The behaviour of those consumers in the coming days and weekswill have an enormous impact on the unfolding pandemic crisis especially in light of the extraordinary decision by the Canadian and U.S. federal governments to clamp down on non-essential travel across the border.

When that new border measure takes effect this week, it will be a watershed moment and not just because of the $2.7 billion in goods and services that move between the two nations every day.

It also will amount to a publictest of how closely Canadianshave been listening to the reassurances of federal and provincial leaders, government officials and experts.

'Survivalist DNA'

Over the last few days, federal ministers have taken every opportunity to urge people not to repeat last week's spasm of panic buying, which sawgrocery store shelves stripped bare of some staples. With Wednesday's border announcement, those same officials went out of their way to assure the publicthat essentialgoods and products will continue to flow.

The next few days and weeks will demonstrate whether that message is gettingthrough, said one expert.

"The story is moving so quickly, around how the patient count is increasing and how shoppers are going to react to that, despite the reassurances that are coming from public officials ... 'Don't panic-buy, don't stock up, don't pantry-load,'" said Marty Weintraub, who leads the national retail practice in Canadaat the consulting and analysis firm Deloitte.

"Will shoppers listen?I think that's going to be the key question whether shoppers put their faith in what they're being told, or what their DNA as survivalists might be telling them to do."

Karl Littler, a senior vice president of public affairs at Retail Council of Canada, said he doubtsthat the new restrictions on the Canada-U.S. border will drive consumers into another round of frenzied shopping. He said he'sconfident the messages of reassurance are being heard and understood.

There is, he said, plenty of inventory in the system. And while heconceded that "unforeseen outcomes could lead to irrational behaviour [by consumers] at some level," he's confident that people will remain calm and carry on as retailers wrestle with supply chains thatsustained an extraordinary shock last week.

Laying out the details of the Liberal government's economic rescue package on Wednesday, Finance Minister Bill Morneausaid the tightening of the border to ban non-essential crossings was carefully considered and negotiated with Washington. That, he said,should give people comfort.

Government will do 'whatever it takes'

4 years ago

Duration 0:59

Finance Minister Morneau says he will do 'whatever it takes' to support Canadians and the economy during the COVID-19 crisis.

"We've been working very hard with the U.S. administration in recent days to make sure we come up with an approach that ensures we can continue to have the goods and the things that we need the essential medicines, the food come back and forth across our border,that our broader supply chains can continue," he said.

"What they have come to is a very good conclusion. We're confident that will give Canadians confidence that we'll continue to have what we need."

At any rate, opportunities to shop aren't what they were a week ago, and in manyinstances willbe limited now by the patchwork of declared emergencies, public restrictionsand curtailedstore operating hours not to mentionpersistent pleas from public officials for people to stayhome.

Typically, retailers worry aboutsupply interruptions because they fear customers will find other sources of goods and never come back. Littler said he doesn't think that will happen this time,because "there isn't any evident cessation of the flow of goods and imports between the two countries."