Coronavirus: Internet shopping in supermarkets have a 206% increase

The recommendations expressed by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) for people to stay at home are fundamental, there is no doubt even among economists that the time is right to flatten the curve and stay at home. Despite requests for delivery and majority charge for a card without human contact during isolation, Cielo, a card operating company, released a survey that points to a 25% drop in debit transactions and a 35% drop in credit operations since the last March 29. The drop in revenues was driven by the plummeting of operations in establishments considered non-essential during the coronavirus crisis (Covid-19) that forced governors to establish policies of distancing themselves. With people at home, parking payments fell significantly by 92%, while clothing spending fell by 82%. Tourism spending decreased by 80%, while bars and restaurants, which can only operate in states such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with delivery services, had a 61% drop in machinery operations. Construction and department material stores were impacted by 52% and 43%, respectively. Gas stations also experienced a significant drop in card sales, 42%. On the contrary, essential services advanced timidly in the period. As people can only (or should) leave home to buy food and medicine, sales in supermarkets advanced 6%, while those in pharmacies rose by 1% in the period. The movement of purchases in e-commerce follow a result whose expressive numbers are not only frightening by reading the current reality. In the same period, the institution recorded an increase of 206% in online shopping in supermarkets and 114% in bars and restaurants. With the exception of tourism-oriented services and products, with a drop of 75%, since people cannot travel due to air and road restrictions, all sectors recorded high internet purchases. Essential service, pharmacies saw online transactions increase by 55%, while construction and department material stores increased by 52% and 48%, respectively. Purchases in clothing stores over the Internet advanced 30% in the period. According to the company, the data are based on operations on Elo-flagged cards and represent shopping habits in the capitals of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the Federal District, with isolation policies in place by decision of the governors. The analysis is performed comparing each day of the week with the average for the same day of the week in the period between January 5 and February 22, 2020.