Over half of Poles fear there may be shortage of goods in shops - poll

Over 50 percent Poles are worried that there will be shortages in shops, a new survey shows.

According to the consumer sentiment poll conducted by UCE Research and the Blix Group, over half of Poles fear that rampant inflation and the war in Ukraine could lead to shortages.

In contrast one-third of those surveyed were not concerned, while 14.3 percent were undecided.

In the group of people who were worried, in terms of gender, women predominated (58 percent).

When it came to age, the largest group of concerned Poles was in the 56-80 year-old group (54.6 percent).

Krzysztof Luczak, the chief economist at the Blix Group, said that one of the reasons for the fear of shortages was "rampant increases in prices, which may temporarily increase the demand for some goods."

He added that some retail chains, which have managed to stock up on products in short supply, could increase their profit margins and that this was already happening.

"One should expect price increases among goods that are disappearing from shelves the quickest or even temporary shortages in some stores," he said. "However, customers should not panic, because this will cause them to make poor decisions, such as over-paying for and over-accumulating items."

The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,034 Poles aged 18-80.