THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE IMPACTS ON THE SUPERMARKET SECTOR: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PANORAMA OF A MUNICIPALITY IN MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

The state of hygienic and sanitary emergency that Covid-19 caused in the world generated changes in mobility, income, and lifestyle of the society, thus impacting important factors that influence consumer behavior. The present study aims to analyze how the consequent transformations of the new coronavirus affected the consumption behavior and, consequently, the organizations, regarding the operational strategies of the supermarket sector during the extended social distance period. The approach used in the research is qualitative and quantitative. The analyzed data were collected through the application of questionnaires with six supermarkets in a city in the interior of Minas Gerais - primary data, and researching on websites specialized in consumption analysis - secondary data.  The results demonstrate that there were changes in demand in practically all categories of products sold by the supermarket sector, and that changes such as frequency of purchases, sales channels, and payment with the Brazilian emergency assistance made the establishments look for strategies to adapt to the new needs, besides to plan their demands and supply capacities. Among the adaptations implemented, hygiene measures and promoting distance between people in physical stores stand out concerning offline sales channels. The sector still needs to improve its strategies to online channels, mainly in rural establishments, however it was already possible to notice that the sector has adapted to the use of mobile applications to face many of the current challenges.