Supplies for Ten Days: Retailers’ Revenue Would Surge as if it Were Christmas

If Croatia were to follow Germany’s example, which has committed to implementing a civil protection plan requiring its citizens to create ten-day supplies of food, water, and other essentials, such a plan would lead to a retail growth rate of as much as 22.2 percent in that month. Specifically, if an average four-member family were to create ten-day supplies of food, water, medications for chronic patients, and other necessities such as batteries and candles, this would, according to Lider’s estimate, cost around 2000 kuna or about 500 kuna per person. – Each family member needs at least two liters of water per day, two to three cans of non-perishable food such as soup in a bag, meat breakfast, and other ready-made meals, toast, and sweets with a longer shelf life. In such situations, it is essential to have a sufficient supply of medications for chronic patients, personal hygiene supplies, batteries, a battery-operated radio, and whistles – suggests Pavle Kalinić from the City of Zagreb’s Emergency Management Office. With a population of four million, a consumption of 500 kuna per capita would mean that two billion kuna would literally flow into the retail sector overnight. Considering that the average monthly consumption in that sector is nine billion kuna, if citizens unexpectedly spent even two billion kuna more, retail would hypothetically jump by 22.2 percent in that month alone. For example, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported that retail trade in December last year, a month when consumption rises due to Christmas holidays, increased by 4.8 percent year-on-year, while the monthly growth was 10.6 percent. Furthermore, besides citizens, for whom no one has yet given such a recommendation, there are also stockpiles ready for any disaster, which include pumps, generators, hygiene supplies, tents, sleeping bags, and various disaster response equipment worth half a billion kuna. All of this is located in a secret location – and let us hope that we will not need it anytime soon in any catastrophic scenario.