By CHENG Lu, SHE Xiaochen
When WU Yu ordered her groceries online on April 10 as usual, she was a little surprised to find there was no delivery slot available for some weeks. Covid case was in her neighborhood and everyone was stocking up.
The same scene plays out wherever infections are found. A manager at Hema Fresh said it was not unusual to see volumes double when infections are found. In Shanghai, the supply chain was thrown into disarray. Online grocers are just beginning to get the situation under control. There is no food shortage per se in the city, the problem is in delivery.
When Shanghai went into lockdown, Juhuasuan, a group buying business, formed a new workforce. On one side are all kinds of sellers — farms, manufacturers and supermarkets. On the other are buyers — volunteers in hundreds of thousands of residential buildings that delivery workers cannot enter. After the goods arrive at the community, volunteers living inside are expected to deliver them to the buyers' doorstep. In actuality, there is simply not enough manpower due to a system of licenses and tests that has evolved into a series of failsafe that, sooner or later, everyone triggers. A missing document means a missing worker.
When delivery workers were in short supply before, Juhuasuan piggybacked the fleets of other food delivery apps, logistics companies, and supermarket chains. Now, there are no workers to spare anywhere. With millions waiting for basic supplies, hard choices must be made.
“We can only do so much work a day. Do we serve only one area and send as many goods as we can? Or do we try to reach more people, wherever they are?” said an account manager. “We want to reliably cover as many people as possible, but it’s not easy.”
Volunteers are stretched. Orders are mostly collected through shared spreadsheets and group chats. It’s time-consuming and prone to errors but also rewarding when supplies reach those in need.
JD.com has enough inventory in Guangzhou to last at least two weeks (for some shelf-stable items, a month). Dingdong has extended delivery times to 11pm. Hema is looking for backup suppliers and revamping warehouse procedures. The company is considering local suppliers to reduce reliance on distant national sources.
