Alarmed at the raising of the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level to Orange on Friday, Feb. 7, several shoppers in Singapore flocked to supermarkets islandwide to stockpile on daily essentials such as groceries and personal hygiene products.

The panic buying subsequently resulted in drastically empty shelves for some supermarkets, prompting NTUC Fairprice to release a statement assuring the public that there is no need to stockpile.

On Sunday, Feb. 9, Fairprice also placed limits on the amount of rice, instant noodles and paper products each shopper can buy.

In light of the long queues and potentially empty shelves at physical stores, shoppers turned to grocery shopping and delivery services such as RedMart and Amazon Prime Now to get their supplies.

The surge in demand resulted in all delivery slots for RedMart for the entire week to be snapped up.

Certain food items were sold out as well, such as popular South Korean instant noodle Shin Ramyun, although rice was still available. 

As of Sunday afternoon (Feb. 9), 4:15pm, shoppers are unable to get a delivery slot until Saturday (Feb. 15) in the following week.

No slots were available on Amazon Prime Now as well.

RedMart working on increasing delivery capacity

RedMart has taken to Facebook on Friday, Feb. 7 to address the surge in demand for its service.

https://www.facebook.com/RedMartcom/posts/2758149457602270?__xts__[0]=68.ARAX27kwrLoFQbr5ks5ogh7rJNxUum_LnJBI5HrsOegEqOM1vpeyKt4PTpgHVqe8cleh9F_tqAS7uBC13h1hpOtfF0CAho3-Tr0kjleD5VVtPDL_EVrADlMNv_lcgoNJ9MBFjZ3xr42deQjUSw4VMrKy93ETX2R-zvtDRxdmtLGGdWbR5PV053hhuT53AJIoO6gUgFF_UVSKN4SdmjIIiDQhEaZVc2CiD7bqZW8JtRWh7CI8PT1BHUWU6QehSc8Re2cKxjyb7YCO4P8A14b9Cb74Jx7cG_iYRLteM6NxxOcHfsrnnpR7z8uukYhqeEjJO-k_tDkavBYtZ440PFpXqw&__tn__=-R

While assuring its customers that it is "working on increasing [their] delivery capacity to ensure everyone gets their daily essentials on time", the company also encouraged them to play their part by amending their existing orders should they need to do so, instead of scheduling a separate delivery.

RedMart also said it has "sufficient stock if everyone just buys what they need".

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Top image adapted via RedMart