Food suppliers employ new tactics to meet lockdown demand in Shanghai
Suppliers are working hard to meet demand in Shanghai.
Faced with changing demands, retailers and online grocery stores are responding with new measures to make sure daily groceries are delivered promptly in locked-down areas.
Alibaba's lifestyle and delivery service Ele.me is offering an emergency service to deliver medicines, infant formula and diapers as well as a dedicated hotline for the elderly.
It has handled more than 10,000 requests since the special service section went online last week. It currently has four vehicles with special movement permits and each is handling an average of two to three dozen requests every day.
Restaurants and other eateries are also offering next-day delivery options for a wide range of set meals and fruit packages through the takeaway site.
Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao has also mobilized trucks and warehouse staff to fulfill online grocery and fresh food orders and to handle donations of protective gear from charitable organizations to neighborhoods and institutions.
Alibaba's lifestyle and delivery service site Ele.me is offering an emergency service to deliver drugs, infant formula and diapers.
Fresh food and delivery site Benlai.com has provided over 1.5 million food packages to respond to government sourcing demands in districts including Xuhui, Qingpu, Songjiang and Putuo.
All the food packs are handled and delivered within 12 hours with over 80 percent directly sourced from the producers.
Infant formula providers including Danone, Wyeth and Abbott are also offering hotlines and emergency initiatives with charitable organizations.
Danone has dispatched its Aptamil infant formula from its Lingang warehouse in the Pudong New Area to other locked-down residential areas as well as to patients in the Shanghai Children's Medical Center Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
Wyeth has offered a special service during the lockdown for consumers dialing its hotline 4007001826 or connecting via its WeChat app, promising to deliver products within 48 hours after an order was received.
Fresh food and daily groceries rely on delivery staff in the city.
Unmanned vehicles from Meituan with a maximum capacity of 150 kilograms for each trip have been put into use in one neighborhood at Kangqiao Road in Pudong District.
Each vehicle can deliver groceries and food to about 10 households each time and save volunteers and community workers' the trouble of carrying bulk purchase packages.
Dozens of such vehicles will be used in other neighborhoods in the near future.
Uamanned vehicles are used for delivering daily groceries to communities and neighborhoods.
Walmart has mobilized dispatch centers in Wuhan, Dongguan and Hangzhou,and its Jiaxing dispatch center in neighbouring Jiangsu Province has been instrumental in delivering supplies to Shanghai .
Walmart staff and drivers have brought a total of 200,000 packages of fresh food to the city to meet government sourcing requirements and the usually four-hour drive takes nearly 20 hours now due to traffic restrictions and a shortage of staff.
Walmart warehouse staff are working hard to dispatch food and groceries to Shanghai.
