Vidal, Jho-marie

190246
BUSECO-1D
June 12, 2020

On December 2019, an outbreak news from Wuhan, China reported a cluster of

pneumonia cases including severe cases of unknown cause and it was transmitted from person
to person. This coronavirus disease is an infectious disease and has been named as COVID-19
by the World Health Organization. Amid this outbreak several citizens around the globe got to
be more cautious, it is because cases have been abrupt in few countries already. Late January
this year, Philippine Department of Health recorded the first case of COVID-19 in the country of
a female Chinese national. On March 7, the first local transmission of COVID-19 was confirmed,
reported that Philippines is in COVID-19 outbreak (European Centre for Disease Prevention
and Control, 2020). During this time, few infomercials caters the safeness of the people that is
why it helps us to feed our mind with some tips on how to prevent infection. Number one of
these preventions is keeping ourselves clean: washing our hands most of the time or apply
alcohol especially those with 70% solution. Quarantine procedures have also been lifted to limit
the mass interaction. It was late March 2020 when Enhance Community Quarantine started in
Zamboanga, and my grandmother needed to buy grocer but was not able to so I took that part.
Part of my grocery list is that I need buy alcohol for our house but then alcohol products have
decreased because some buyers tend to hoard and go for panic buying. In which this leads to
shortage of supply and also because of the quarantine the shipping of products has been
delayed. At that exact moment I kind of got worried because the Ethyl Alcohol with 70% solution
of 250ml that I need to buy is more than the budget price that I have already planned so if I
would buy that since the price of that Alcohol is much higher compare to what we are usually
buying, I would fell short so I called my grandmother and told her about the price, instead of
saying don’t buy it because that’s what she’ll always say, she told me to just buy it never mind
the price and buy two of those therefore I sacrificed some of the products that I should buy so
that my budget will suffice. Confusion get through my mind as I continue my groceries because
why at that moment there was a price increase and most of the buyers like me have their two
alcohol on their carts, because that is the limit that time. Imagine, for that 250ml of alcohol
cause me P93.50 each than before when it was only at P50-70. = 20 points.

Aside from that, I have also encountered in the news articles and even with my own
experience, that though there is a shortage of the alcohol products and most of the alcohol tend
to increase its price the demand doesn’t change that much. It was a bit new to me because as
far as I know every time a price of a product rises the demand decreases that’s the normal
demand curve, yet with alcohol it happened the other way around. It clearly shows that the
quantity demanded is not that sensitive to its price. While doing my readings I have known that
this is in line with the price elasticity of demand that base on what I have observed the situation
that I am the past weeks is on how people respond to the price change of alcohol during the
covid-19 pandemic. According to Agarwal (2020), there are several factors that leads people to
buy that product even though it is expensive, one of it is whether it is essential or not-This is
Income Elasticity not Price Elasticity! that the demand curve is in inelastic demand which
explains my situation in regards with the alcohol. Now, that ethyl alcohol is one of the must have
of a person, that explains why there is no big difference to the quantity demanded of alcohol
products. Also, the only accessible measurement of the ethyl alcohol is in the range of 250ml,
as shown in my pictures above in which these products are those that I bought in the midst of
Enhance Community Quarantine here in Zamboanga. It was said from the pharmacists that
bigger products or with high measurement are being delivered to the hospitals and other
establishments that in need much of this. Second factor for an inelastic demand is if the product
that you are buying is already part of your habit or your trusted brand like my Lola who would
really push me to buy Casino, Biogenic or Greencross brands because she thought that they
work well than other brands. But I think that if we were not in the situation of pandemic, people
would never hoard or buy more ethyl alcohol products like today, or buy more than 250ml. As in
my picture I attached my alcohol before the pandemic, I only carry the mini size alcohol because
honestly, I don’t apply alcohol each of a time I just did if I feel gross or dirty. As I’ve said that if
we were on different page like before covid-19, alcohol’s demand curve is elastic. Of course,
people would not buy those in big sizes with expensive price rather they would go for those
smaller and cheaper. In elastic and inelastic demand, it really depends on the factors affecting
product and on how people would respond to its price. = 5/ 20 points. Review the difference

between Price and Income Elasticity of Demand.

 Lessons that I have learned in that situation is first, I should never trust prices of the
products I bought previously. Prices tend to increase without me knowing and also the time
period, we never know what will happen in the future so I should expect more than expect less.
Second, if there is cheaper and also good why not go more it, I mean I should encourage my
grandmother that there will be a time where we can go for substitutes to save more. Lastly, we
should’ve not invested that much in buying alcohol for prevention but instead practice some
other tips to not get infected, there are a lot though not just relying everything to alcohol. = 10
points.

Total Score: 35 + 2 points for your comment on the article: oversupply of

tomatoes. I appreciate you citing your sources. Keep it up!

= 37/ 50 points = PASSED