Community Chat

[handygal2]

What have you been buying for "retail therapy"? I'm guilty of purchasing online mega-sizes of food staples. And shoes, bags, and nice summer clothing l probably won't be wearing much this season while just hanging out.  

Here's an amusing article l came across today:

Associated Press

May 27, 2020

Pandemic retail therapy: rubber chickens, food by the sack

Between technical glitches and food worries, retail therapy and sheer amnesia, something has happened to shopping during the pandemic that can be summed up thusly: rubber chickens.

Melissa Jean Footlick bought some while sheltering at home in San Diego with her husband and three dogs. She’s a kidney transplant patient so she’s been taking extra care. She’s among millions who have helped online retail sales surge as consumer spending fell off rapidly when businesses shut down.

“I spent two hours trying to find a Funfetti cake mix and frosting. No reason, I just wanted it. I also got a game where you throw rubber chickens at a target. I misread the description and thought it was like badminton with rubber chickens,” she explained.

Said husband and dogs have yet to agree to a game.

For others, shopping madness has been about the essentials, only supersized: 10-pound bags of rice; 25-pound sacks of flour; 50 pounds worth of sugar; pickles and pancake mix for a crowd.

For some, it’s impulse shoe purchases, with nowhere to go. And mistaken multiple pounds of blueberries when a single container was the goal.

Remember the toilet paper scare? George Pav found some in an unlikely place in Berlin, Germany.

“When the mayor of Berlin announced the lockdown, I knew that I wouldn’t have the chance to drink a cup of coffee from a cafe for quite some time. My first thought was to find a cafe and enjoy an espresso. Alas, most of them were already shut,” he recalled.

He ventured into one, but a woman there said they were closed.

“No coffee. Then I looked behind her. There was a pile of toilet paper. She said she was selling them for 50 cents per piece,’’ Pav said.

He bought four squares.

For Beth Wilson of New York, it was a bistro table and chairs to match the ones at a Paris cafe where she and her husband “ate every morning for breakfast on our honeymoon.” The chairs, she said, look great, “but the table came broken.”

In the United States, retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened stores and weighed down a tanking economy. The Commerce Department reported that a long-standing migration toward online purchases accelerated, posting an 8.4% monthly gain.

Measured year over year, online sales surged 21.6%.

“It’s panic on lots of levels,” said Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail, a global consulting firm specializing in retail strategy and insights. “All of the traditional buying patterns are tossed up in the air.”

One couple got to skip their last preschool payment due to lockdown and purchased the couch of their dreams. The refund on their son’s lunch program bought a matching ottoman. Christine Alonzo Carlisle, 45, was awash in refunds in Carmel, Indiana, where she’s sheltering with her husband and two daughters.

“My big family spring break trip, that I’d spent a year planning, was canceled and refunded. All of my kids’ summer camps were refunded. Concerts were refunded. Club sports were refunded. Random refunds were just popping up like crazy on my credit card account,” she said.

“Then, I got an email that the super fancy European coffee machine I’d been dreaming of was on sale. Still ridiculous, but a pretty good sale. So I bought it. I had a moment of buyer’s regret, and then I had a perfectly brewed cappuccino, or 10, and instantly felt better,” Carlisle added.

[Dinaki]

My credit card is smoking lately. I have to be on my computer and, iPhone since I do a lot of Facetime to Athens/Greece and I constantly am in different webistes adding things to my cart and buy them.

Few hours ago, I got on my porch a parcel, a porcelain tray from Lenox that I ordered to take it with me to Greece, why you may ask, I have no idea what I was thinking the day I placed the order.

[Jersey Born]

Nothing other than food and vitamins/supplements.  I have no need for anything else. And, to be honest, when stuck in quarantine I have come to think of all the things I purchased over the years but did not need.  Due to the complete uncertainly with the economy from all the shutdowns, and so many newly unemployed, even against their will, I cannot even fathom how high taxes will go for everyone else for next year, for state, homeowner's and federal taxes. This is a period of austerity for me, something I had always thought could never happen in my lifetime.   

[SharkE]

Don't forget medical insurance, Medicare premiums will soar.

[Cakers3]

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@SharkE wrote:

Don't forget medical insurance, Medicare premiums will soar.

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@SharkE   CMS is projecting an increase of $9.10 per month but of course we won't know the true figure until the fall.

[SharkE]

Bet we won't get a cost of living big enough to cover it either.

measly 1% probably.

[Cakers3]

@SharkE  I'm seeing mixed messages right now from the reputable economic outlook sources.

Some are going as low as 0%.

Some are estimating .08%

I haven't seen anything at 1% yet.

[Cakers3]

I have not been using retail therapy at all.

We purchased some food online early at the start and DH ordered some printer ink.  We live on the edge.  LOL

I looked but didn't touch.

[SharkE]

Don't be a hoarder LOL  Those folks with 200 rolls of toliet paper are gonna wish they had that money , later on. Can't pay your bills and your taxes with t p.

[tansy]

I am "window shopping" online but rarely hitting the buy button.  The discounts are tempting.

The g-kids are getting more surprises from me than normal.  I bought wool for a project that I am working on.  I am expecting a ring and a pair of shoes.  

Husband has two pairs of court shoes and a printer cartridge on the way.  

I am working on a Costco Instacart order which I'll probably place tomorrow.