Shanghai: Even the rich are struggling to buy food ShanghaiThe lockdown is going on.
Online media group Sohu, citing screenshots of a WeChat message, reported that Cathy Xu, one of China’s top venture capitalists and an investor in grocery businesses including Meituan, Yonghui Superstores Company and Dingdong Macai, struggled to get bread and milk. doing. on social media.
“Can a neighbor join me in the bread chat? We have several family members in need of bread and milk,” Xu wrote in the group for his housing complex, according to the screenshots. Capital Today, the company it founded and manages for $2.5 billion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The circulation of Xu’s post suggests that the food shortages middle-class residents have been struggling with for weeks are affecting the city’s high-income earners.
Shanghai has been the epicenter of China’s worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan and authorities have doubled down on their Covid Zero pillars of mass testing and lockdowns to try and stamp out infections. It has rapidly turned into a nightmare as the city’s 25 million residents – locked in their homes for more than a week – struggle to deliver basic groceries and officials seek to censor growing public discontent. Huh.
Authorities have increased aid in recent days, with some residents receiving packs containing eggs, milk, vegetables and meat. But some areas of the city haven’t received them and delivery apps can’t keep up with the growing number of people trying to catch up to daily necessities as drivers are also locked up.
This has led to a rise in group-buying, in which a residential complex coordinates the bulk purchase and distribution, usually through a WeChat group.
Energy industry consultant David Fishman, 32, has just bought 4,200 yuan ($660) of bread for himself and more than 60 neighbors, which he expects to be delivered on Saturday. He is in three other grocer groups, and is still awaiting separate bulk orders of vegetables and pork, as well as milk promised by the local residents committee.
emotional
According to Vivian Feng, who has led group-buying efforts for her residential premises since going into lockdown in mid-March, reaching deals with wholesalers isn’t usually a problem, as long as orders meet their lowest price. do not complete. Still, some residents may balk at the expense or decline orders for other reasons, which can be a pain to manage, she said.
While procurement groups have been effective in getting food to residents, even they are being overwhelmed by demand.
“I only had to join a shopping group once in our residential complex,” said Miranda Zheng, who lives on the eastern side of Shanghai and is separated for about 10 days. “I found a delivery boy at Meituan and told him every day. Gave a tip of hundreds of yuan daily so that he could send me food.”
Officials said on Friday that rumors that Shanghai would halt the group’s purchases were false, and had previously promised to ramp up supply efforts.
At a Shanghai municipal briefing on Thursday morning, Chinese e-commerce giant Meituan’s vice president Mao Feng said the food delivery company would bring in 1,000 layoff workers from outside the city to expedite deliveries. Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Tong also said the city is working with online platforms and supermarkets to set up special emergency channels to meet the needs of residents, especially the elderly and infants.
With group-buying one of the few ways for families to access enough food during lockdown, the reliance on lightning-quick text messaging puts them at some disadvantage.
“It’s definitely harder for the elderly to use because it’s completely reliant on a bunch of communication via WeChat groups, where 200 people’s information is blowing in on 20 messages a second,” Fishman said. For these people, “How should you get vegetables? How should you get food during this period?” he said.
Online media group Sohu, citing screenshots of a WeChat message, reported that Cathy Xu, one of China’s top venture capitalists and an investor in grocery businesses including Meituan, Yonghui Superstores Company and Dingdong Macai, struggled to get bread and milk. doing. on social media.
“Can a neighbor join me in the bread chat? We have several family members in need of bread and milk,” Xu wrote in the group for his housing complex, according to the screenshots. Capital Today, the company it founded and manages for $2.5 billion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The circulation of Xu’s post suggests that the food shortages middle-class residents have been struggling with for weeks are affecting the city’s high-income earners.
Shanghai has been the epicenter of China’s worst outbreak since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan and authorities have doubled down on their Covid Zero pillars of mass testing and lockdowns to try and stamp out infections. It has rapidly turned into a nightmare as the city’s 25 million residents – locked in their homes for more than a week – struggle to deliver basic groceries and officials seek to censor growing public discontent. Huh.
Authorities have increased aid in recent days, with some residents receiving packs containing eggs, milk, vegetables and meat. But some areas of the city haven’t received them and delivery apps can’t keep up with the growing number of people trying to catch up to daily necessities as drivers are also locked up.
This has led to a rise in group-buying, in which a residential complex coordinates the bulk purchase and distribution, usually through a WeChat group.
Energy industry consultant David Fishman, 32, has just bought 4,200 yuan ($660) of bread for himself and more than 60 neighbors, which he expects to be delivered on Saturday. He is in three other grocer groups, and is still awaiting separate bulk orders of vegetables and pork, as well as milk promised by the local residents committee.
emotional
According to Vivian Feng, who has led group-buying efforts for her residential premises since going into lockdown in mid-March, reaching deals with wholesalers isn’t usually a problem, as long as orders meet their lowest price. do not complete. Still, some residents may balk at the expense or decline orders for other reasons, which can be a pain to manage, she said.
While procurement groups have been effective in getting food to residents, even they are being overwhelmed by demand.
“I only had to join a shopping group once in our residential complex,” said Miranda Zheng, who lives on the eastern side of Shanghai and is separated for about 10 days. “I found a delivery boy at Meituan and told him every day. Gave a tip of hundreds of yuan daily so that he could send me food.”
Officials said on Friday that rumors that Shanghai would halt the group’s purchases were false, and had previously promised to ramp up supply efforts.
At a Shanghai municipal briefing on Thursday morning, Chinese e-commerce giant Meituan’s vice president Mao Feng said the food delivery company would bring in 1,000 layoff workers from outside the city to expedite deliveries. Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Tong also said the city is working with online platforms and supermarkets to set up special emergency channels to meet the needs of residents, especially the elderly and infants.
With group-buying one of the few ways for families to access enough food during lockdown, the reliance on lightning-quick text messaging puts them at some disadvantage.
“It’s definitely harder for the elderly to use because it’s completely reliant on a bunch of communication via WeChat groups, where 200 people’s information is blowing in on 20 messages a second,” Fishman said. For these people, “How should you get vegetables? How should you get food during this period?” he said.