The outbreak and worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in recent human memory and has affected normal lifestyle of people worldwide. The lockdown restrictions imposed by countries across the globe created concerns about food availability and this affected grocery purchase and stocking behaviour of households. Researchers worldwide started analysing the nature and trend of changes in the behaviour and effect of socio-demographic factors on the change. However, limited studies have been undertaken in the Indian context. Also, how family structure influences panic buying behaviour has not been studied in detail so far. This work studies in detail whether the pandemic outbreak affected grocery purchase trends of Indian households in terms of the duration for which grocery purchase was being made, amount spent on grocery shopping per purchase and type of grocery items preferred using an online household survey of 506 families from all over India. Also, the influence of household income, family structure and grocery availability and delivery issues on grocery stocking behaviour has been studied in detail using Apriori algorithm. It was observed that panic buying is a reality, and quantity stocked and amount spent per purchase changed significantly after outbreak of the pandemic. Also, family income, size and presence of elderly and children in the household were found to affect buying patterns. Though it is difficult to predict long-term effect on behaviour change, with fear of prolonged pandemic situation and many countries resuming lockdown for a second time, this study is expected to be effective for design of supply policies of essentials in the new normal situation.

在最近的人类记忆中，COVID-19大流行的爆发和在全球范围的传播是前所未有的，并且已经影响了全世界人们的正常生活方式。全球各国实施的封锁限制引发了人们对粮食供应的担忧，这影响了家庭的杂货购买和库存行为。全球研究人员开始分析行为的变化的性质和趋势以及社会人口因素对变化的影响。然而，在印度的背景下进行了有限的研究。此外，到目前为止，尚未详细研究家庭结构如何影响恐慌性购买行为。这项工作详细研究了大流行的爆发是否影响了印度家庭在购买食品的时间上对食品杂货的购买趋势，通过对来自印度全国506个家庭的在线家庭调查，可以确定每次购物在杂货店购物上花费的金额和杂货物品的类型。此外，已经使用Apriori算法详细研究了家庭收入，家庭结构以及杂货店的供应和配送问题对杂货店存货行为的影响。据观察，恐慌性购买是现实，大流行爆发后，库存量和每次购买的花费发生了显着变化。此外，还发现家庭收入，家庭大小以及老人和儿童的存在会影响购买方式。尽管很难预测对行为改变的长期影响，但由于担心大流行情况的持续以及许多国家第二次恢复封锁，