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The urge to shop….

Sal

Veteran

This is a just a musing after a conversation with a Fedex driver yesterday.

For our business I am required to FedEx things around the world in essential services. We are in a hard lockdown here and the only NZ shops open in person are grocery and pharmacy. Online it is a bit broader such as IT and safety supplies but I can’t buy clothing from NZ retailers online or in person. But of course I could buy from Amazon and get it delivered. And of course we have time to online browse when there is not much on. I have been doing so but am holding off til September as I am on a no buy month. And I wonder why I am doing it sometimes.

The FedEx driver said that he is busy with international online shopping being delivered. So there are plenty of people with money to spend - wanting to shop.

In 2020 after our short lockdown luxury cars, home appliances and high end shops did very well indeed. Jet skis and bikes were sought after. It’s an interesting phenomenon to my mind.

Did you find staying at home or lockdown changed your urge or ability to shop? And when restrictions eased- did you feel like shopping?

There was a lot of talk of people reprioritising after 2020- I don’t know if it happened though?

For me - I have moved spending to outdoor gear such as hiking shoes and bike pants and some outdoor furniture that we enjoy. And I am mindful of spending because of uncertainty around the economy. I want my spending to count so where I can I choose businesses I want to support.

General

38 replies

Latest reply was from Sal

Cardiff girl

Veteran

I feel abit like a yo yo ,lve been in and out of lockdowns so many times over the last18 months l feel that l have lost track but from what l hear food and ,alcohol did very well here in the lockdowns as did bikes ,garden furniture and outdoor equipment.Clothes not so much and mainly leisure wear.Personally l did buy some clothes in later lockdowns but probably in line with my usual spend.l do feel that it was easy to get tempted to buy things online in lockdown because you are bored,fed up and trying to escape reality for a little while as well as having more time to browse.l am not sure that l would have bought a jet ski on line though!

Anonymous

Wonder if I can have a Sea Doo Switch delivered? It's a cross between a pontoon boat and jet ski

I just bought a lot of gear clothes and sports equipment last year in lockdown, then more for DH this year when he got his dad's old bike. Bikes are really hard to get these days!
The other things I've bought a lot of are plants (allll the plaaants), tools, and my fire pit and accessories. And some home decor too...

Clothes were pretty minimal until the last couple months- since my return to my cell (office). Now it's a lot, and much of it in person. Much of it bought after work or on lunch break. As much as I want the results- I'm using it as an escape/pick me up like I did before.

DonnaF

Veteran

My biggest change is the intensity of my exercise: I get much hotter and need to replace both pairs of shoes after six months. I used to replace my shoes after a year or two and wear pants instead of shorts.

What wear hasn’t changed much from day to day except Sundays. I get cold while watching Zoom church so I have learned that I always have to dress warmly, always wear socks and shoes, and have a cardigan or other topper nearby.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Did you find staying at home or lockdown changed your urge or ability to shop? And when restrictions eased- did you feel like shopping?

Oh, so much, in so many ways.

To begin with, I barely shopped at all. Then, I shopped online, quite a lot-- but for garden stuff and stuff for our new home (we moved just as restrictions came into effect, and I had to figure how to online shop for some items I'd preferred to have shopped for in person).

I had zero interest in fashion for a while, really. And did not buy any clothes.

Then, I started buying up gear for my new, more suburban and lockdown lifestyle!

And then I stopped shopping for clothing again. I bought less clothing in 2021 than I've bought in a decade. Most of what I bought was replacement for worn out essentials. And the same is true for 2020, if you don't count gear. (With gear, my purchases that year were more or less in line with my average).

Overall -- alcohol sales were up here. Also takeout. Ditto houses (esp. luxury homes!) and renovations (either do-it-yourself or contracted). People also spent (even) more on gardens. And at home gym equipment and bikes were really hard to obtain for a while.

I wasn't really tempted by online shopping, which is interesting, because I'm quite a practiced online shopper, in fact. For me, it was all tied to having nowhere to go. I really dress for the occasion and with no occasions apart from walks and hikes, I had zero need or desire to buy. The exception, really, was footwear, because I'm tough on shoes and wear through them fast, so I always. need to replace.

rachylou

Veteran

I haven’t really been shopping. I did make a big clothing purchase, but it was something that came out in 2020 and covid gave me a second chance at. The designer did a rerun for this year. I have been spending A LOT on food. Prices at the grocery have really risen. I did a bit of garden shopping, seeds and trellises.

Runcarla

Veteran

We’ve experienced 3 ‘lockdowns’ in response to Covid 19 waves.

Mid March 2020 to early July 2020 (4 months)
End of December 2020 to end of February 2021 (2 months)
End of March 2021 to mid July (3.5 months)

We spent very little in 2020 and I spent 2/3 of my clothing budget. I DO NOT like online shopping! We invested in our house (painting and repairs we could do ourselves), gardening, and with some of our refunded/unspent travel money - a used convertible for day trips.

In 2021 DH invested in kitting out his workshop with some new tools and went to work building garden things (flower boxes, planters, trellis) mostly over the winter. I’ve spent 4/5 of my clothing budget and will probably spend it all by the end of the year. I did not get into leisure wear, but continued with my casual retirement clothing style.

I don’t like online shopping, but have figured it out. I’d rather shop in person, and I’m comfortable shopping local B&M, but nervous about going farther afield, even though I’m double vaxed and wear 3-ply masks. I did not shop when I travelled from my small town to a big city (Ottawa) to visit my mom. I plan to do a little targeted shopping next week when I’m in the Big City (Toronto) for a little medical business.

Hot commodities here are: real estate, building materials, labour, motor homes, swimming pools, bikes (especially e-bikes), canoes and kayaks, and other outdoor ‘toys’.

ophelia

Veteran

Chinese news sites were full of articles about people “revenge shopping” after stores opened up. I find this anger odd but suspected it would happen in the US, & indeed it has.

Sloper

Veteran

I just bought some sweats in 2020. As Rachylou said - we definitely spent more on food. Not just higher prices on our regular grocery staples. I’ve been cooking and baking more - so more experimentation with ingredients and treating ourselves. I’m definitely spending more on clothes this year. Rebound from a challenging 2019-2020 (above and beyond COVID). I’m an emotional shopper and enjoy online shopping - not the best combination.

In my area there’s been a lot of spending on home renovation, cars. Home prices have really gone up too.

Barbara Diane

Veteran

I went shopping after I was vaccinated. I felt more comfortable as it was a store in an outdoor mall so fresh air. It was the store where I have the most success. Before that I bought a few items online.
My big purchase during lockdown was an expensive instant read thermometer for cooking/baking.
Appliances for home remodeling are hard to find here.
I wanted to get a swimsuit but after one set of returns I gave up. I don’t have a lot of patience right now.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I couldn’t begin to list or count the different lockdown periods and stages of lockdown we’ve had. The last 18 months are a blur that way, or to quote Janis Joplin “it’s all the same day, man”.

The same things are selling like hotcakes here as elsewhere—yard & garden stuff, home improvement and exercise equipment. Bikes are transportation, so any bike store that does repairs is considered “essential” and stays open during shutdowns. I don’t think there has been a bike shortage here the way it was hard to get bikes in the US.

I don’t feel like shopping, at least not for clothes for me. I can’t imagine getting anything as noisy as a jetski at any time, pandemic or not. Trying to find clothes for my sister to wear after surgery may have been a stress response. I have bought several pairs of shoes, one at my personal price limit, the rest probably half that on average so far this year.

Joy

Veteran

What Suz said. No where to go. But I really need to try things on and the fitting rooms were not open for this even if a store was open. I really do not need much snd can get by. We have tried all sorts of ethnic take out, and cauliflower rice is now a staple in the freezer. I am not an experienced on line shopper and have been disappointed too many times.
In our area lots of home improvements if one can get anyone to come out. People with second homes are selling one. We have scheduled some tree removals this winter when there is a price break and plan to do some planting next spring. People are improving their yards and homes. DS2 is trying to get a kitchen remodel. It seems very ambitious

Anonymous

I would have liked to have shopped for home decor/textiles/plants/small furnishings more over the past 18 months as there were areas of my home I wanted to work on ......... but lack of stock, closed stores at times, and the general anxiety around spending any more time than absolutely necessary to accomplish these tasks meant it didn't happen. I had the urge, but online shopping for that kind of stuff doesn't work for me. As a family, we spent less on gas and most things in general . The cost of groceries has skyrocketed though, and that's stressing me out . We go through a lot of certain things that are pricey - like oat milk for example. For clothes? Yeah, I have the urge to shop, but it's always tempered by the fact that I have nowhere to wear things - which is a let down .

Sally

Veteran

My son who loves takeaways and buying sports equipment (well getting me to buy it anyway) has bought a bit of stationery and study books online. I had to order more computer print online. I bought my sister a present for her birthday in November because she lives in Australia and at least it can be delivered there. Finally having time and enthusiasm to look at putting away winter clothes and looking forward to warmer weather, I have gone online and looked at a few things, but as you say, it can't be delivered yet and this in addition to the fact that I don't know how long this lockdown will go for is putting me off shopping. We saved money last year during lockdown on petrol and food as we live where there are a lot of takeaway shops and when we cook, we tend to eat very simple mainly vegetarian food.
My birthday (50th) is coming up and it might be spent in lockdown. I"m thinking of treating myself to a new yoga mat and new leggings etc. Will that be considered essential? I guess i'll find out when I order it.

Sal

Veteran

Thanks all for sharing. Some common themes of people spending on their home environment and on outdoor activities. I will reply more later when on the laptop.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I think because we’ve been so blessed here in NZ with long periods of “normality” when we had no community transmission that my shopping has been restrained in line with my increasing feeling of wanting to be more sustainable with it, which has been in train for 5 years now. So the periods of lockdown have just restrained it even more.
Like Suz, it’s when there are fewer places to go that I don’t feel like buying. I’m happy to have had work to go to where I can at least wear the more professional clothing, and for the social events there have been I have plenty of dressy clothes and shoes. So I use the lockdown days to up wears on less worn items.
Otherwise we have mostly been saving the spare money that we can’t spend on overseas trips. We have 3 children who may need help with housing deposits in the next 10 years who we hope to help, so all savings are worthwhile for that.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I should add, I do still browse online a lot, especially Styletread

nuancedream

Veteran

The urge to shop is always there and I still browse consignment and thrift stores. Since I have almost nowhere to go and Mr. ND and I are in the process of purchasing a house, there will be few additions to my wardrobe outside of basics for the upcoming seasons. I predict most of my future shopping will be for home furnishings and appliances.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

ND, im excited for you & the new home. Maybe post updates off topic occasionally?

Staysfit

Veteran

I spent very little on wardrobe when we were in lockdown however we had a lot of home expenses. We had to replace our laundry machine and dryer, and a dishwasher, our blender, and our vacuum cleaner! We also finished our basement, which had been on the agenda pre-lockdown, but prices for materials skyrocketed! Ugh! Lots of spending!

nuancedream

Veteran

SF, Mr. ND and I submitted our offer to the seller this morning. We fell in love with the house at an open house this past Friday and decided to strike while the iron is hot. Stay tuned for further updates in the coming weeks.

Star

Veteran

I have been on a no buy for a long time. I did a major thrift shop just before the first lockdown. Obviously I had no idea there was going to be a pandemic, the timing just worked out well for me. I have never been an on-line shopper but I am very much an on-line browser. I take it as what we used to call 'window' shopping. I get ideas of what is available and on trend and find this helpful for when I go thrift shopping again.

Preppy Pear

Veteran

My urge to shop did not go away, but added more casual clothes last year. My wearing of my wardrobe changed with weight gain and staying at home. I’m back at the office as of two weeks ago and both revisiting my wardrobe and shopping more now. Since I have to be out, I feel the urge to step it up.

Ginger

Veteran

My "lockdown" was very short, so I'll just take a look at the last year and half. My spending definitely went up. I bought more clothes and fabric, and sewing patterns; the clothes and some of the fabric for adjusting my work at home uniform, and the patterns for sewing up over stash fabric not for working at home. I've bought a lot more knit cardigans in a real spectrum of colors.

I also bought reproduction shoes and jewelry from friends with small businesses that saw their sales take a sharp decline.

I mostly avoided brick and mortar for a while because the changing/variable restrictions were irksome to keep up with. And closed dressing rooms made clothes shopping pointless. I did switch to a smaller grocery store because there was less to navigate.

I have also spent a lot on the house. The biggest item was replacing about half the windows. But I've put in some serious landscaping and a lot of plants in the last two years. Last year I also bought a lot of decor for various holidays; mostly fall, and then some Christmas and Easter. Last fall there were unusual colors like pink in vogue, so I snapped up quite a lot of coordinates. (Smart, as it turns out, since I haven't seen any pink this year!) I have started to do "tablescapes" in my dining room, which is where most of the decor goes. I've also bought and been given a fair number of dishes for different seasons. My latest is an estate sale acquisition of china with pink and yellow flowers, named "Chrysanthemum." I have a lot of pink and yellow already, so this ties them together well and also brings the table into an early/hot fall. (Pumpkins would look silly right now!)

nemosmom

Veteran

We were also in lockdown in various stages from 2020 til now (cases are rising again here, and ICU capacity lowering, as kids have returned to school; families returned from vacations, so I bet more lockdowns are forthcoming...). We ended up saving in some areas (kid extracurricular), but spending in others (home/garden).

As for clothes, my urge to shop never really went away... I took advantage of the assortment of loungewear to step up my at-home capsule (instead of demoted tatty tees and such). I also added more casual-but-not-quite-gear pieces that were suitable for cold weather neighborhood walkabouts, yet still presentable for WFH zoom calls. There was a LOT of pandemic-inspired purging happening in my area, so I made frequent trips through our two local charity shops. I avoided the bigger B&M shopping, like malls, grocery stores, etc.

slim cat

Veteran

In lockdown - more pizza and some other food indulgence - but mine was short ( back to work in the middle of June 2020 ).
I needed more clothes for work - so I did shop a bit more but more deep sales, final offers, Marshall's, Ross, Rack. Couple things were not the best decisions - otherwise I did well. I used the alteration services more than before since now I know a very good seamstress.

RoseandJoan

Veteran

During the first UK lockdown I didn't buy any clothes, most online stores continued to operate, however, a lack of places to go combined with the guilt of an unnecessary purchase leading to transmission within a warehouse or delivery depot aided my decision. At the end of this lockdown I purchased three bamboo items which felt like a transition from lounge wear to proper outfits.

For a time my (disposable income) bank statement only had purchases from the Kobo store for eBooks.

Since the end of the second lockdown I have purchased two dresses, two skirts, two t-shirts and a pair of sandals. I also have a pair of jeans and a raincoat on the way. This is probably more than I would usually buy in a season but everything was on deep discount so I have probably spent less overall.

Lockdown allowed me to save for a Yoga Foundation Course which will run for the next ten months as well as adding to my emergency fund. I feel so very fortunate to be in this position given so many have not been as fortunate.

gryffin

Veteran

Wow - totally different pandemic experience. First my husband and I went on the covid get seriously healthy kick. So I've been WFPB for more than a decade but DH finally did too - thank you dr fuhrman ETL. We also got serious about lifting weights and exercising. We are physicians in active office practice and stayed open throughout the pandemic so my professional clothing needs did not change but we tried, other than frantically sourcing PPE off of ebay, to hedge our chances of not getting sick if we were to get covid by all we could do to maximize wellness. Miracously we have both remained well and the silver lining is we made and continue to make really positive changes on diet and fitness. OTOH, we spent plenty. So first we spent on gym equipment that we needed which we managed to source right before it became impossible to find. Then I had no work out clothes. So I acquired a work out capsule and new running shoes. Then I lost 5 lb, Mr. Dr G is down 75 lb, but I lost a whole size plus so I was swimming in a lot of my clothes. So I've been frantically scouring poshmark, ebay and the internet to try and replace a lot of my work wear a size down. The good news is poshmark is less costly than the orginal but it still added up plenty fast. A number of people mentioned filtering purchases through the question "would you buy it again?", I have to laugh because yes I have actually bought it again! I didn't want new just same but in the right size. I guess that's the best sign I like what I have!! DH had clothes in smaller sizes but when he reaches his goal weight, another 20 lb, he agreed to let me take him shopping. DS was also overweight. He began body buidling and watching what he ate and he's down 70 lb and got a whole new wardrobe, so I think the Gryffin family have been single handedly supporting economic growth but for the best reason possible!

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Shopping is one way that I deal with stress, so the urge has definitely never left. During our lockdown, we could still do virtual shopping, and I did my fair share. I also chose healthier ways to cope, like walking and yoga. After the lockdown, I was in great shape! lol
Being able to get what you want continues to be problematic, although my favorite retailers have mostly been able to keep up with demand.
I am still dealing with strong shopping urges, but do most of my shopping online.

CarolS

Veteran

After our first (or was it second?) lockdown lifted (25% capacity inside non-essential retail stores) I remember hearing about people lining up for hours to get into IKEA, and pretending they weren't there together to get past the "one person per household" rule. I have pretty much taken the attitude that "I can wait". Would I like things? Yes. Can I do without for a while?

I'm still not in a huge panic for things. I just feel no burning sense of urgency.

Last fall I bought a few cozy, colourful sweatshirts for working from home. I seldom use the camera on Teams calls, so I just wanted to feel cozy and warm. I'm shopping b&m for clothes again now. After this little spree is done, I probably won't shop for clothes in any seriousness until spring. Otherwise, mostly only shopping for true needs.

Reprioritizing -- yes, in the sense that I'm more determined to be grateful for the things I DO have. Increasingly interested in decreasing my possessions -- which you'd think I would have done during lockdown, but... C'est la vie.

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