Coronavirus shopping: Hair dye sales soar while mints, gum drop

We might be stocking up on flour as well as enough toilet paper to last us a decade, but there are two usually popular products shoppers are shunning in lockdown.

While panic buying has stripped shelves of essential items like pasta, flour and milk, there are two normally popular items that shoppers have turned their back on.

Turns out people aren’t as concerned about keeping their breath smelling fresh in lockdown, with Coles confirming that sales of mints and gum have gone down since the Government introduced strict social distancing measures.

A Coles spokeswoman told news.com.au that shoppers were now purchasing items they could use to make life at home more comfortable, such as coffee capsules, baking items and hair dye.

“Last month as people prepared for an extended period of isolation, we saw great demand for pantry staples, such as flour, pasta and tinned vegetables,” she said.

No one is smelling minty fresh anymore as sales in gum and mints have gone down.

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“We are now seeing customers move towards products that they can use at home including hair colourants, baking mixes, gift cards for online entertainment, stationery and coffee capsules.

“As customers increasingly work from home we are seeing less demand for packaged salads, while social distancing has led to a downturn in sales of gums and mints, as well as for cinema and restaurant gift cards.”

It comes as Coles today confirmed that all customers would be able to order groceries through its online store for either home delivery or Click & Collect.

Last month mass panic buying forced the supermarket to restrict online orders to vulnerable customers such as the elderly or disability care workers.

Baking goods like flour and cake mixes have gone like hotcakes.

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Coles general manager of Coles Online and strategic projects Karen Donaldson said that now the supermarket had been able to meet the needs of its more vulnerable customers through its Coles Online Priority Service (COPS) it could extend online shopping to everyone.

“Now that we have COPS in place, it’s great to be able to extend Coles Online deliveries to all customers, and our team has worked really hard over the past few weeks to improve stock availability to help us fulfil customer orders,” she said.

“By reorganising our delivery windows we have been able to increase the number of slots available for customers, and we have also recruited hundreds of extra Customer Service Agents to help us meet increased demand for Coles Online deliveries.”

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Coles has also recommenced online orders for all customers. Picture: Glenn Campbell

FLOUR SHORTAGES FRUSTRATE

While stock levels of previously in-demand items such as toilet paper are beginning to return to normal, customers are still reporting shortages in flour.

Both Coles, Aldi and Woolworths have reported an upswing in sales of baking products.

Shoppers across Australia are taking to Twitter and Facebook to vent after having no luck finding the essential pantry product, despite in some cases searching multiple supermarkets.

The shortages come despite Aldi, Coles and Woolworths all limiting customers to just two packets of flour per purchase.

All three supermarkets said they were working hard to meet customer demand for flour and asked customers to be “mindful of others” and “buy only what they need” in the meantime.