Question

1. What would happen to demand for each of the following goods or services during current Covid-19 pandemic? Would demand increase or decrease? Why? Relate your answer to our economic theory.

a. Restaurants

b. Pizza delivery services

c. Dollar store items

d. Hand sanitizers

e. Netflix video streaming

f. Gasoline

g. Cars

h. Bikes

i. Houses

j. Chicken (given that beef and pork are more expensive due to lockdown of some meat processing companies)

Answer 1

The pandemic COVID-19 has pushed the worldwide economy into the most critical situation of all times. Most of the nations will be forced into a recessionary period. It has also affected the demand and supply of various goods and services like :-

a) Restaurants - The demand for restaurant cooked food declined during COVID-19, as people were afraid of the virus spread. Mostly people preferred homemade cooked food and avoided ordering, dining and partying out at restaurants.

b) Pizza delivery services - During the lockdown period as people were not able to move out of their houses because of fear of the disease. The demand of online food delivery of pizza increased, as it maintained the social distancing policy and at the same time fulfilled the people's need during the tough times.

c) Dollar store items - The demand for dollar store items also increased during COVID-19 as the items sold at this store are cheap and good at quality wise. The cheap goods store was more preferred as many faced salary cuts, many lost their jobs, etc.

d) Hand sanitizers - The demand for hand sanitizers got a boom as it bacame one of the basic necessity items of all households, offices, stores, etc. during COVID-19 spread. The government and other concerned bodies like WHO, asked people to regularly wash and clean their hands to prevent the spread of the corona virus.

e) Netflix video streaming - As mostly people stayed at home during the pandemic strike, they spent more time watching TV or webseries on OTT platforms like Netflix, thus its demand also rose among consumers.

f) Gasoline - The demand for fuel like petrol fell because mostly people remained at their homes during the lockdown. Further also many corporates allowed their employees to work from home. This reduced the number of commuters on road and hence reduced the demand for gasoline too.

g) Cars - The demand for all luxury items including cars declined as because of no usage during the pandemic and also because the demand shifted more towards the daily essentials and medical care equipments and stuffs.

h) Bikes - The demand for all luxury items including bikes declined as because of no usage during the pandemic and also because the demand shifted more towards the daily essentials and medical care equipments and stuffs. Mostly people worked from home and limited their travelling and any outside movement.

i) Houses - The real estate got a huge hit during COVID-19 spread as mostly people sold their properties at lower rates than its original price beacuse of future market unpredictable situation. Thus, because of the fall in prices the demand for houses increased, though many avoided any investment during the period.

j) Chicken - The demand for all non-vegetarian stuff declined during corona virus spread. As it came out from the researches that the humans inherited the virus from consumption of animals flesh. Many opted to turn as vegans and vegetarians. But as the prices of pork and meat rose, the demand for chicken went higher than all automatically.