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| A Costco store in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, hangs a notice saying it is limiting customers' purchase to instant ramen to two boxes per day per member car, due to low stocks. / Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
Instant noodle maker Nongshim said Wednesday that one of its warehouses was emptied recently after it failed to keep up with a sudden surge in market demand caused by the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
People nationwide are rushing to buy hand sanitizers, instant noodles and rice amid growing fears that the coronavirus will become a global pandemic and could lead to grocery shortages.
A Nongshim representative said he couldn't confirm which warehouse was emptied, and that it was too early to say whether hoarding by panicked shoppers would empty shelves of its products elsewhere, and in worse-hit areas such as Daegu. "Our warehouses are emptied occasionally depending on the time and location," he said, stressing that this happens from time to time.
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| Nongshim CEO Park Jun |
"We are not experiencing a supply shortage at the moment," he said, adding that the company was not currently considering limiting purchases per customer at its wholly-owned outlets.
Despite these assertions, some wholesalers of Nongshim products complain that their inventories of the popular noodle brand are running dry.
Convenience stores have also been struggling with tight supplies of Nongshim ramen. A store owner contacted by The Korea Times said he has implemented a limit of 10 packs of instant noodle per-customer, due to the increased demand.
A Costco store in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, set the limit for noodle purchases at "two per member card," Feb. 24 because of its increasingly tight inventory. Mandu and bread are also popular choices for stockpiling as both are as a daily necessity by many.
Bread typically ranks 10th in E-Mart bakery's bestseller list, but sales have soared 20 percent month-on-month as of the last week of February, bringing it into the top 3. Sales of bagels and buns also increased 15 percent.
A Shinsegae Food official said the chain store is prepared for any shortages as the deadly virus spreads, and that consumers were buying bread and bagels because they were easy to eat and considered "viable alternatives" to conventional meals at home.
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