NetLogo User Community Models

(back to the NetLogo User Community Models)

Download If clicking does not initiate a download, try right clicking or control clicking and choosing "Save" or "Download". Try It in NetLogo Web

## WHAT IS IT?

During the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, people rushed to supermarkets in order to stock up, fearing a shutdown. This model is aimed at making a simulation with basic assumptions of consumer demand vs supply in supermarkets.

## HOW IT WORKS

Customers usually stock up once a week. In this model, the frequency is randomly initialized between **7-9 days** for each customer.

Stock in supermarkets is assumed to be **30 * population size**. Re-stocking is done on a regular basis. However, due to panic buying, supermarkets quickly went out of stock leaving many customers unsatisfied.

An assumption is made that an average customer purchases **30 items** each time they shop. But, during the pandemic, there were instances of customers purchasing **2x times** the usual amount. However, as days passed, the level of panic came down and customers stopped buying items in bulk.

**No. of items bought = 30 + random (ceiling 30 * ( panic-level / 100 ))**

## HOW TO USE IT

The **setup** button creates the population who are initally assumed to be at **home** [green patch].

**go** starts the model where once every 7-9 days [ticks], people visit the **supermarket** [blue patch].

**population** can be adjusted between 50-200

**panic-level** can be adjusted between 0-100 %

**restock-frequency-days** can be varied between 3-15 days

## THINGS TO NOTICE

* Unsatisfied Customers turn **red** if they visit the supermarket at a time when there is no stock. There is also a graphical representation of the same.

* The **Crowd** plot gives an idea of how many customers visit the supermarket a day.

* The **Stock** plot gives a representation of the rise and fall of the Total Stock.

## THINGS TO TRY

* Increase in **restock-frequency-days** results in many unsatisfied customers and the vice-versa
* Decreasing the **panic-level** ensures that majority of the customers are satisfied.

## EXTENDING THE MODEL

* This model can be further extended by dividing the supermarket into divisions and see a rise in demand for items such as toilet paper.

* Some supermarkets do not allow many customers at once in order to maintain social distancing. This could be added as an additional factor.

## RELATED MODELS

The design was inspired from the El Farol Model in the Netlogo Models Library.