NTUC Fairprice Changes Purchase Limit After People Started to Buy More Recently

Give a man some toilet paper and he poops for a day. 

Teach a man to buy toilet paper and he poops forever.

Tell a man about Covid-19 and he’ll buy enough toilet paper for several lifetimes.

These of the rules of life, dear reader, and there are simply some things you cannot change about human beings.

NTUC Fairprice Changes Purchase Limit After People Started to Buy More Recently

Due to a recent increase in purchases, NTUC FairPrice has placed purchase limits on more items including paper and canned products, cooking oil, and frozen poultry.

Reader: Wait, I thought they already did this recently?

Well, you’re right. They previously imposed purchase limits on 17 March for instant noodles, rice, eggs, fresh poultry, vegetables, and paper products following the second wave of panic buying after Malaysia announced its lockdown.

But despite being told that there were enough supplies for everyone, people continued to panic buy.

And now, shoppers can only buy two packs of paper products such as toilet paper and tissue paper, down from four.

Reader: Oh, that doesn’t seem so bad

You’re ordering toilet paper online right now, aren’t you?

Reader: WHO THE HELL CAN SURVIVE ON TWO PACKS?

You will also only be able to buy up to only six cans of canned products, five litres of cooking oil, and $30 of frozen poultry.

As my mother used to say whenever I touched the hot iron as a kid, ah, very good. Don’t like to listen right? Very good.

Fairprice announced these changes on Friday (27 March) after it saw an increase in shoppers and the amount each bought recently.

This not only means that people continued to panic buy but that more people joined the panic buying gang.

“The new purchase limits continue to be set slightly higher than what a typical shopper purchases and is sufficient to meet the daily grocery needs of an average family in Singapore,” it said in a statement. “Daily essentials remain available as there are sufficient stockpiles of food while supply lines remain largely intact”, they said.

The purchase limits per customer at all FairPrice outlets islandwide now are:

• Paper products: Two packs (toilet paper, facial tissues, kitchen towels)
• Instant noodles/ pasta: Two packs
• Rice: 10 kilograms
• Vegetables: $30
• Fresh, frozen and processed poultry: $30
• Eggs: Three packs of 10 or one tray of 30 per customer
• Canned products: Six cans (choice of meat, fish or vegetables)
• Cooking oil: Five litres

But why are people still panic buying despite all the assurances from the government?

Well, there are a few reasons.

Why people panic buy

The biggest reason is herd mentality – we feel like we have to do something because everyone else is doing it.

Monkey see monkey do, basically.

The second reason we panic buy is to regain control. If someone tells you that there’s a deadly disease out there and that there’s nothing you can really do to guarantee that you won’t contract it, you’ll probably freak out because you have no control over the situation.

So by purchasing something practical, like toilet paper, we’re basically compensating for that loss of control.

And the third reason is the perception of scarcity. When you see pictures of empty supermarket shelves or read articles like this about purchase limits, your first instinct is to panic because you fear you won’t be able to buy a certain necessity anymore.

As Psychologist Emma Kenny points out, we’re not actually reacting to the pandemic; we’re “reacting to the fear of what’s going to happen if people all panic buy”.

All we can do right now is to listen to the authorities and the experts when they say that there’s no reason to panic buy because we have enough supplies for everyone.

And if you continue to panic buy, despite these added purchase limits, Fairprice might add even more in the future.

“FairPrice will continue to assess the evolving Covid-19 situation closely and will take all necessary precautionary measures to protect the interests of the community we serve during this difficult time,” said CEO Seah Kian Peng.

So, I’d advise you, dear reader, not to buy more than you need, because there really is enough to go around.