NEW YORK—Consumers have prioritized sanitization amid the pandemic, leading to a sales boost in cleaning products, as well as food storage, companies have said.

Prepara has seen a sales trend towards items that are focused on hygiene and cleaning, as well as food storage, said Michael Karyo, vice president. “Our Simply Mist Trigger Spray Mister, which creates a very fine mist and is great for using homemade disinfectants, has been a really strong item the last couple of weeks,” as has its Berry Bowls, Dry Dock Drying Mats and Evak airless storage containers.

Online cooking platform and retailer Food52 has seen a 300 percent spike in liquid handsoap, specifically the Marseille Perfumed Liquid Handsoap and the original Marseille Liquid Handsoap from the oldest soap maker in France, Fer a Cheval (and exclusive to Food52), a spokesperson said.

In addition, an executive of Food52’s Five Two brand posted on LinkedIn this week that its new over-the-sink Five Two Drying Rack—which she had been working on for more than a year—became one of its top launches.

Anticipating what was to come, Prepara set up its New Jersey team to work remotely several weeks ago, Karyo said, and the company has daily and weekly virtual meetings by Zoom or Slack. Its third-party logistics warehouse in California remains open and continues to ship. “We do get orders daily and we continue to work with our reps and offer them strong programs and promos that they can pass on to their retailers for second quarter,” he said. It has seen a bump in its drop ship business and will offer drop ship service to any of its retailers. Prepara is in a good inventory position, and just had containers land last week, he added.

“This experience will change the retail economy in so many ways,” said Karyo. “The economic impact is just starting to hit all of us. I believe people will be nesting more, staying at home and that may drive purchases for the home.  The industry did better than others in the recession for a similar reason. The key of course will be how quickly people will be able to get back to work and have financial security and the confidence to shop.”