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Bartering and group buying in China's lockdowns : Planet Money : The Indicator from Planet Money Shanghai is enduring a strict COVID lockdown that has left many without many basic necessities, including food. So ordinary people have banded together to build their own group-buying and barter economy.

The Indicator from Planet Money

Shanghai's lockdown economy

Shanghai's lockdown economy

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Volunteers help with logistics at Kelly Wang's apartment compound in Shanghai.
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Kelly Wang
Volunteers help with logistics at Kelly Wang's apartment compound in Shanghai.
Kelly Wang

A COVID outbreak has meant Shanghai, a city of 25 million, is one month into a strict lockdown. Grocery stores are shut and low on supplies. Only a tiny number of delivery drivers are allowed. So neighbors in apartment compounds are turning to group buying and bartering to make up for an insufficient government response.

Shanghai resident Kelly Wang takes us inside what it's like to live under the lockdown and the efforts she's making to create a new economy under these conditions.

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