Challenges and measures in disruptive times of grocery retailing : lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused huge uncertainties in retail supply chains and put significant pressure on grocery retailers. This paper addresses the impact and consequences of the pandemic on grocery retail logistics. We applied an embedded multiple case study to analyze the impact and consequences of the pandemic on grocery retail logistics. The study consists of six case companies, which are leading German grocery retailers. Semi-structured interviews were the main data source, conducted in three rounds over a two-years period at each case company. The aim of our case studies is to explore how grocery retailers could better deal with potential future disruptive times and to derive core insights about the developments of German grocery retail operations triggered by the pandemic. Our contribution highlights the early impact of the pandemic on grocery retail supply chains in the initial phase of the pandemic. Building on this experience, we identify the weaknesses of the standard business revealed in the first year of the pandemic. We then discuss the long-term development of grocery retail operations and the lessons-learned after a two-year review, and then go on to formulate core insights for the development trends. The study is the first one to analyze the effects of the pandemic on the grocery retail supply chain over two years, and to identify the trends in its long-term development.