July 28, 2022 • 6 mins
Let’s talk about all those pandemic impulse buys you may be regretting. It was a time when everyone had a lot of time on their hands and some extra money, so people bought Peloton bikes, roller skates, bread makers, even new homes or pets, but now that things have returned a little more to normal those things have hit the back burner. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox, joins us for pandemic buyer’s remorse.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Thursday July. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. Let's
talk about all those pandemic impulse buys you may be regretting.
It was a time when everyone had a lot of
time in their hands and some extra money, so people
bought peloton bikes, roller skates, breadmakers, even new homes or pets.
(00:21):
But now that things have returned a little more to normal,
those things have hit the backburner. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent
at The Box, joins us for pandemic buyers remorse. Thanks
for joining us, Emily, thanks for having me. Let's talk
about all that stuff that we bought throughout the pandemic.
A lot of people were buying these big impulse buys.
(00:41):
You know, we had a lot of time on our hands.
We had a lot of money on our hands at
that time too. That's partly what happened with the supply
chain crisis, is when we were buying too many things
and then we couldn't get all that stuff. But right
now what we're seeing is a lot of people have
been a little bit of buyers remorse for some of
the products and things that they bought. It depends on
what it is. It could be as anything from you know,
buying a bicycle, these Peloton bikes people are trying to
(01:03):
resell now on secondary marketplaces, or bigger things, you know,
things that carry a little more weight, like a new
home or a pet. We saw a lot of people
buying pets throughout this time. So Emily tell us a
little bit about what we're seeing out there with people
kind of hating some of the purchases they made during
the pandemic. Right, So, you know, we're about two and
a half years into this, and I think we happened
(01:25):
with a lot of people. We all remember one you're
sitting at home, you're feeling a little bit still the crazy,
little bit stir crazy, and maybe buying things that you
might not normally. People tend to buy when they feel
a little bit uncertain, when they feel a little bit anxious.
It gives us a little bit more of a sense
of control. So people bought a lot of stuff. People
also thought their circumstances were going to stay the same.
(01:47):
Maybe they bought a house because they thought they were
never going back to the office, or they adopted a
pet thinking while I'm at home all of the time,
and now his life has gone a little bit more
back to normal. For a lot of people, they're sitting
around looking at this thinking, man, I didn't want this,
And I've heard from people who, you know, maybe got
I talked to one guy who got a bike and
was like, I decided I was going to be a
(02:08):
bike person. And it turns out of pandemic does not
develop you a new personality. If you don't like biking,
maybe you're just never going to get into it. Um.
I heard a lot of people who bought appliances. I
had talked to somebody who bought a countertop dishwasher that said,
you know, now my trash fans sits on top of it. Yeah,
And a lot of these things, you know, as you
mentioned in the article, when you look at these secondary marketplaces,
(02:31):
you see a lot of this stuff on sale now,
looking at bikes and pelets on specifically even Google searchers
that you know how to sell my pelets on bike.
Those Google searches have gone up. So those are big purchases,
but something you can do away with pretty easily. As
you said, your personality doesn't change throughout the pandemic. You
don't automatically become a bike person. But some of these
bigger ones are a lot more interesting new pets that
(02:52):
I always love stories about animals and things, so that
caught my eye here. And he spoke to a couple
who were retired. Now they bought the pet during the pandemic,
and now they're finding out that they've kind of lost
out on all the spontaneity of being retired. They can't
do anything anymore because they need to make sure someone's
always taking care of their pet, right, I mean, I
like again they people, the white specially was very generous
(03:14):
in talking to me, because a lot of people don't
want to admit right that they don't like their pet,
and people can get a little bit mean about people
not like you know, potentially clear they are very they
love it. They're not getting rid of it. You know.
She said, they got the pet in in the spring
of one um and now they want to trouble. They
wanted to do a road trip always well the the
(03:34):
dog doesn't like cars, um, and they did kind of
really change the outside of their lives. You know, it's
kind of it's very it's a little bit funny. You know,
like it's kind of a silly situation. But I was
talking to the woman and the thing that she said
to me was two dogs lived for a long time.
And I really kind of changed the trajectory of my
retirement because we can't do the things that we wanted
(03:55):
to do. And I think a lot of people are
in that position. You know, it's not just with pets.
It's all so again always at home. There. There's plenty
plenty of people bought houses and you see holes and
stuff that say, like a lot of people do now
have regrets about their bys. And maybe it doesn't mean
that they didn't want the house or that they don't
want the house, but it might have been people were
(04:15):
out putting each other. They were paying a lot of money,
and maybe they moved a little bit farther than they wanted,
or had it not been the pandemic, they might not
have moved so quickly totally. And then on some of
these other things, you know, maybe not such at these
big purchases, but in a lot of the people that
you spoke to, really the kind of attitude of it
all is to shrug it all off. It's kind of
this oh well, you know, I bought that thing when
(04:35):
I did. Now I have it and I don't use it,
and you know, what are you gonna do now? And
that's I mean, obviously that's the case. Really, what are
you going to do if you can't sell it and
get rid of it and recoup some of those losses?
You know, you are stuck with it. As you mentioned
that person's uh countertop dishwashers now sits on their trash
canon all right, I mean I bought one of the
I bought kind of a knock off ruba and find
(04:56):
being honest here six times and it's it's in my
I'm staring at it right now, like I could get
rid of it. I probably should have returned it, but
instead it's just like a fun little reminder of a
silly thing that I did in a weird moment in
my life. And through all of this though, even some
of the people that you spoke to, psychologists and all,
they say, buying stuff does make you feel happy. I know,
we know a lot when you go on that shopping
(05:17):
trip and you get all that cool new stuff, you know,
you do feel good after that, or buying things for
other people, so you know, there was always something that
was going to kind of happen during a moment like that,
such as the pandemic. Right, Like I said before, it
does make people feel like they have a little bit
more control. People get kind of a dopamine hit from it. Um. Obviously,
there's a difference between kind of doing something that makes
(05:38):
you feel a little bit better versus something that's like,
you know, you're a compulsive buyer, but I think sometimes
we think about this stuff and I tend to be
a person who gets upset about my own consumerism and think,
so I shouldn't buy this stuff. But at the same time,
like it's been a rough two and a half years,
and people need to be a little bit forgiving of
themselves and others. And if you bought some lower skates
that you maybe had a nice time with even for
(06:00):
few hours, and you're not dying because the money's gone,
like whatever, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So you're not alone. There's
plenty of other people out there that had made a
questionable purchases throughout the pandemic. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox,
thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramirez, and this has been reopening America. Don't
(06:21):
forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check
me out in the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday,
so follow us an i Heeart Radio, or wherever you
get your podcast
It's Thursday July. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. Let's
talk about all those pandemic impulse buys you may be regretting.
It was a time when everyone had a lot of
time in their hands and some extra money, so people
bought peloton bikes, roller skates, breadmakers, even new homes or pets.
(00:21):
But now that things have returned a little more to normal,
those things have hit the backburner. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent
at The Box, joins us for pandemic buyers remorse. Thanks
for joining us, Emily, thanks for having me. Let's talk
about all that stuff that we bought throughout the pandemic.
A lot of people were buying these big impulse buys.
(00:41):
You know, we had a lot of time on our hands.
We had a lot of money on our hands at
that time too. That's partly what happened with the supply
chain crisis, is when we were buying too many things
and then we couldn't get all that stuff. But right
now what we're seeing is a lot of people have
been a little bit of buyers remorse for some of
the products and things that they bought. It depends on
what it is. It could be as anything from you know,
buying a bicycle, these Peloton bikes people are trying to
(01:03):
resell now on secondary marketplaces, or bigger things, you know,
things that carry a little more weight, like a new
home or a pet. We saw a lot of people
buying pets throughout this time. So Emily tell us a
little bit about what we're seeing out there with people
kind of hating some of the purchases they made during
the pandemic. Right, So, you know, we're about two and
a half years into this, and I think we happened
(01:25):
with a lot of people. We all remember one you're
sitting at home, you're feeling a little bit still the crazy,
little bit stir crazy, and maybe buying things that you
might not normally. People tend to buy when they feel
a little bit uncertain, when they feel a little bit anxious.
It gives us a little bit more of a sense
of control. So people bought a lot of stuff. People
also thought their circumstances were going to stay the same.
(01:47):
Maybe they bought a house because they thought they were
never going back to the office, or they adopted a
pet thinking while I'm at home all of the time,
and now his life has gone a little bit more
back to normal. For a lot of people, they're sitting
around looking at this thinking, man, I didn't want this,
And I've heard from people who, you know, maybe got
I talked to one guy who got a bike and
was like, I decided I was going to be a
(02:08):
bike person. And it turns out of pandemic does not
develop you a new personality. If you don't like biking,
maybe you're just never going to get into it. Um.
I heard a lot of people who bought appliances. I
had talked to somebody who bought a countertop dishwasher that said,
you know, now my trash fans sits on top of it. Yeah,
And a lot of these things, you know, as you
mentioned in the article, when you look at these secondary marketplaces,
(02:31):
you see a lot of this stuff on sale now,
looking at bikes and pelets on specifically even Google searchers
that you know how to sell my pelets on bike.
Those Google searches have gone up. So those are big purchases,
but something you can do away with pretty easily. As
you said, your personality doesn't change throughout the pandemic. You
don't automatically become a bike person. But some of these
bigger ones are a lot more interesting new pets that
(02:52):
I always love stories about animals and things, so that
caught my eye here. And he spoke to a couple
who were retired. Now they bought the pet during the pandemic,
and now they're finding out that they've kind of lost
out on all the spontaneity of being retired. They can't
do anything anymore because they need to make sure someone's
always taking care of their pet, right, I mean, I
like again they people, the white specially was very generous
(03:14):
in talking to me, because a lot of people don't
want to admit right that they don't like their pet,
and people can get a little bit mean about people
not like you know, potentially clear they are very they
love it. They're not getting rid of it. You know.
She said, they got the pet in in the spring
of one um and now they want to trouble. They
wanted to do a road trip always well the the
(03:34):
dog doesn't like cars, um, and they did kind of
really change the outside of their lives. You know, it's
kind of it's very it's a little bit funny. You know,
like it's kind of a silly situation. But I was
talking to the woman and the thing that she said
to me was two dogs lived for a long time.
And I really kind of changed the trajectory of my
retirement because we can't do the things that we wanted
(03:55):
to do. And I think a lot of people are
in that position. You know, it's not just with pets.
It's all so again always at home. There. There's plenty
plenty of people bought houses and you see holes and
stuff that say, like a lot of people do now
have regrets about their bys. And maybe it doesn't mean
that they didn't want the house or that they don't
want the house, but it might have been people were
(04:15):
out putting each other. They were paying a lot of money,
and maybe they moved a little bit farther than they wanted,
or had it not been the pandemic, they might not
have moved so quickly totally. And then on some of
these other things, you know, maybe not such at these
big purchases, but in a lot of the people that
you spoke to, really the kind of attitude of it
all is to shrug it all off. It's kind of
this oh well, you know, I bought that thing when
(04:35):
I did. Now I have it and I don't use it,
and you know, what are you gonna do now? And
that's I mean, obviously that's the case. Really, what are
you going to do if you can't sell it and
get rid of it and recoup some of those losses?
You know, you are stuck with it. As you mentioned
that person's uh countertop dishwashers now sits on their trash
canon all right, I mean I bought one of the
I bought kind of a knock off ruba and find
(04:56):
being honest here six times and it's it's in my
I'm staring at it right now, like I could get
rid of it. I probably should have returned it, but
instead it's just like a fun little reminder of a
silly thing that I did in a weird moment in
my life. And through all of this though, even some
of the people that you spoke to, psychologists and all,
they say, buying stuff does make you feel happy. I know,
we know a lot when you go on that shopping
(05:17):
trip and you get all that cool new stuff, you know,
you do feel good after that, or buying things for
other people, so you know, there was always something that
was going to kind of happen during a moment like that,
such as the pandemic. Right, Like I said before, it
does make people feel like they have a little bit
more control. People get kind of a dopamine hit from it. Um. Obviously,
there's a difference between kind of doing something that makes
(05:38):
you feel a little bit better versus something that's like,
you know, you're a compulsive buyer, but I think sometimes
we think about this stuff and I tend to be
a person who gets upset about my own consumerism and think,
so I shouldn't buy this stuff. But at the same time,
like it's been a rough two and a half years,
and people need to be a little bit forgiving of
themselves and others. And if you bought some lower skates
that you maybe had a nice time with even for
(06:00):
few hours, and you're not dying because the money's gone,
like whatever, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, So you're not alone. There's
plenty of other people out there that had made a
questionable purchases throughout the pandemic. Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox,
thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramirez, and this has been reopening America. Don't
(06:21):
forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check
me out in the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday,
so follow us an i Heeart Radio, or wherever you
get your podcast
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