Wholesalers such as Makro and Sligro have been opening their doors to consumers since Thursday. The temporary measure should ensure supermarkets are relieved, and wholesalers' stocks are better utilised.
The Central Food Trade Office (CBL) announced. Some 100 outlets are now open to consumers. The wholesalers are normally only accessible to entrepreneurs with a KVK registration. So now also for consumers, who have been stocking up on supermarkets since the corona crisis. In one week, nearly EUR 1 billion worth of soap, toilet paper, fresh and perishable food was sold by supermarkets.
"This is a measure we can take to relieve pressure," Wilco Jansen of Sligro told RTL Z. "It's also weird when on the one hand you have shortages in the country and on the other hand huge stocks." spokesman Wilco Jansen of Sligro
Impulse sales wholesalers
The measure also benefits wholesalers, which have seen their sales plummet due to the corona crisis. Sligro's sales from catering deliveries fell 75 per cent in recent days. "For Sligro as a catering wholesaler, things are pretty much at a standstill now. What you sell in this way still brings you back sales."
'Lift restrictions'
Earlier this week, the CBL called on the cabinet to give supermarkets wide latitude in stocking their shops. Supermarkets' 50 distribution centres would be running at full capacity to get shelves filled. "Supermarkets are looking for ways to scale up quickly," the supermarket wrote Lift restrictions regarding queuing, shopping and window times. Allow night delivery. Waive local vehicle restrictions. Organise flexible deployment of extra staff by temporarily exempting food distribution from the WAB scheme. These special times call for temporary tailor-made solutions that ensure distribution can better respond to the current buying behaviour of the Netherlands."
Image: Bjoern Wylezich / Shutterstock.com
