According to the American Cleaning Institute’s (ACI) recently released National Cleaning Survey, 78% of Americans said they will roll up their sleeves to spring clean their homes. That’s a high percentage, for sure, but the poll was taken in mid-February just before mounting fears and confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus (aka COVID-19) hit in the US.
 
In the ACI survey, consumers said their top spring cleaning priorities were bedrooms (25%), closets (23%), kitchens (22%) and family rooms (18%), with mold (31%), dirt (22%), odors (22%), stains (15%) and dust (12%) the main issues to address.
 
But we suspect consumers are less concerned about dust bunnies right now.
 
In fact, the rapid onset of concerns about COVID-19 is apparent on social media and store shelves alike.
 
Facebook and Twitter feeds have everyday consumers desperately seeking face masks and there’s been price gouging in the e-com world. In brick and mortar, store shelves have been wiped clean of bleach, hand sanitizers and more as concern about community spread (COVID-19 appearing without a known source of exposure) intensifies.
 
While everyone is working to thwart a pandemic, there’s no getting away from the fact that Coronavirus is a boon for specific sectors of the US economy, such as home cleaning, even as it negatively impacts others.
 
Trade shows are being cancelled across the globe and organizers who are pushing ahead with their events are asking attendees to fist pump rather than shake hands. Schools in Italy are shuttered, and in the US, some townships have contingency plans to switch to homeschooling if cases of COVID-19 break out in their states.
 
In New York City, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)—which serves 15.3 million people across a 5,000-square-mile travel area—has stepped-up precautions. Among the measures are sharing information on how to stay healthy (in five languages) throughout MTA’s subway, bus and railroad system, and implementing “enhanced sanitizing procedures.”
 
That makes for one serious to-do list; MTA comprises the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other US transit systems combined. 


 
“As you know, we announced last night that the MTA substantially increased the frequency and intensity of efforts to clean and disinfect our system in the wake of the first reported case, now two of the [novel] coronavirus in New York City. This effort started for real last night,” MTA chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye said on March 2, citing a confirmed case of the virus reported in Westchester County, a tony suburb of New York City.
 
“At this moment, we don't know whether that patient traveled to New York City using public transportation or not,” he said.
 
But officials aren’t taking any chances.
 
Foye said trains, cars and buses will be cleaned daily with the MTA’s full fleet being disinfected every 72 hours, and frequently-used station surfaces, such as ticket vending machines, elevators, escalators, benches and handrails—will be disinfected daily using EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants.
 
According to Foye, as of the press conference on March 2, 427 stations had been disinfected along with more than 1,905 subway cars and 1,974 buses, and there’s more to come.
 
“We're on track to do 5,700 buses, the full fleet within 72 hours. Metro North has disinfected 60% of its fleet rolling stock and 64 of its 124 stations. The rest are being completed today. Long Island Railroad is disinfected. Its three busiest terminals, Jamaica, Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal and additional 121 stations are being cleaned as we speak,” he explained. “Three hundred Long Island Railroad cars have been cleaned in the last 24 hours. And I'll note that Access-A-Ride has disinfected 100% of its vans. That's 1,341 vehicles. Some of the Access-A-Ride population is medically vulnerable and it was important to us that we disinfect all of those,” Foye said.


 
While nobody expects a germ-free ride on mass transit, it does make you wonder how much disinfecting was really underway at MTA before COVID-19 came ashore. After all, it is the height of flu season.
 
Supply & Demand
 
COVID-19 concerns have caused a sales spike for select products—not to mention supply concerns and price gouging.
 
Even though efficacy claims against any specific virus (such as coronavirus) would be off-label, and not allowed under the FDA rules, hand sanitizers have been become elusive, and expensive. 
 
A quick Amazon.com search on March 4, presented Happi with an option to buy an 8oz pump bottle of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer for a whopping $29.97 (with free shipping). On Target.com, a 2oz Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer Naturals Pump Bottle was listed for $1.99, but was out of stock, as was a similar size bottle of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Lavender Scent Hand Sanitizer with a $3.49 price tag.
 
According to Samantha Williams, corporate communications senior director at Gojo, which makes Purell, there has been increased demand for its hygiene products, including hand sanitizer, hand soap, hand sanitizing wipes, and surface disinfectant spray. In addition, the company say it has “increased production significantly and our Gojo team members are working hard to ensure people have the Purell and Gojo products they need. We have a demand surge preparedness team that runs in the background all the time, who have been fully activated and are coordinating our response to the increase in demand,” Williams noted in a prepared statement for the media.
 
Sales of hand sanitizers in US mutlioutlets for the latest four weeks ended ending Feb. 23, 2020,  rose 79.6%, according to IRI.
 
Eyes are also on bleach, disinfectants and wipes, too.
 
On Amazon, Happi found a retailer selling a canister of 270 Purell Sanitizing Hand Wipes for $50—well above its normal price point.
 
In early February, Clorox CEO Benno Dorer told CNBC that his company wasn’t seeing an upswing in sales, yet, and was focused on educating consumers. The company’s website, in fact, included a link to expert advice and information about Coronavirus. 
 
In addition, Clorox is taking steps to keep up with demand for its products.
 
A spokesperson from The Clorox Company provided Happi with the following statement as this story was headed to press:
 
“We are evaluating our current marketing campaigns and making some adjustments, focusing on providing educational resources on prevention. Most importantly, we never market to fear. We recently stepped up production of our disinfecting products and have a product supply team in place that’s working around the clock to ensure people have access to these products. As you can understand, this is a fast-moving situation, which we're continuing to actively monitor.”
 
And, in a serendipitous move, Procter & Gamble earlier this month launched Microban 24, a new cleaning line, after a nearly decade-long development process with W.M. Barr.
 
Spray disinfectant sales have also spiked; according to IRI data for the last four weeks (ended Feb. 29, 2020), sales rose 29.7%. Although products like bleach and all-purpose cleaner (APC)/disinfectants did not show similar double-digit gains. Overall, bleach sales dipped slightly (even as color-safe variants rose 6%) and APC cleaner sales rose 1.4%, according to IRI’s data crunching.
 
Soap makers too may see greater sales, too, as a good handwashing with soap can work wonders against the spread of viruses—something stressed by the CDC and WHO—but how that pans out remains to be seen. Inside the local Wegmans’ supermarket near Happi’s office in Montvale, NJ, shelves of liquid soap were mostly bare, but there were plenty of bar soaps less than a foot away.
 
For more how the soap sector is addressing COVID-19 and how the category may fare overall, be sure to see Happi’s April issue for our feature on the personal cleansers market.