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Comment by avalys | Hacker News Reader

Really? What are people buying?

Everything! Art prints, books, photo books, workout gear, gardening equipment, seeds, kitchen equipment. Purchasing tangible items seems to bring more joy than it did two months ago.

If anyone is looking for a good way to support an arts non-profit with their stimulus check, checkout Aperture, they are having a huge sale on books. I'm not affiliated; I just like photo books.

https://aperture.org/shop/books/library-sale/library-sale

>Purchasing tangible items seems to bring more joy than it did two months ago.

I wonder if this will remain true after Covid lock-in ends. It felt like the pendulum had swung awfully far towards people valuing experiences over items.

Also, howdy 11201 neighbor.

Everything? Amazon is crushing it and clearing out the space for essentials. Costco Online is selling out of food and sundries as soon as they refresh the web page.

Anecdotally, I'm getting UPS packages delivered at any time between 8am - 10pm. The night driver has to use a headlamp to read building numbers.

A local wood-fired pizza shop has a Shopify store up now. They deliver 4 packs of frozen pizzas and give all of the profits to their employees.

It's pretty impressive that a small business like that can have a functional site up in a few days.

ChannelAdvisor breaks it down by industry, which is neat: https://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/industry-trends/the-impa...

A local bakery spun up an online sales site for pickup or delivery. They sell cakes but also groceries. I bought flour and raspberries from them. When I went for pickup, they had dozens of bags prepared in the window. Clearly doing good business, all online.

I feel like it's unfair that you're getting downvoted. This seems like a genuine question. Clearly people are buying groceries and toilet paper but with so many people out of work, it may be surprising to hear that people are buying non-essentials.

All those side projects you never had time for. I setup my turntables and ordered a new DJ equipment. Workout gear demand has gone through the roof. Anything related to cooking, such as baking ingredients are sold out.

Thanks for the responses. Personally all my hobbies (that cost money, anyway) are outside the house, so my discretionary spending has gone basically to zero. Good to know that some people are still spending on non-essentials though!

Good story here

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/shoppers-buying-online-ecom...

Food, workout items, entertainment. A lot of categories are through the roof!

I went to my local big box store maybe three weeks ago and the whole fitness section had been cleaned out. It seems like bikes are getting very popular (at least here in PNW) and I wouldn't be surprised if it's very hard to find a decent bike in 2 or 3 months. As we cycle through the seasons different items / categories are going to get unexpectedly popular. Nobody really knows how to keep themselves sane during August in a pandemic, but there's probably a product or product category that will help with that.

we will get forest fires in August and everyone will be sitting inside.

> workout items

I wonder if gyms will ever come back from this. Gold's announced yesterday they are permanently closing 30+ locations. Even when people go back out, gyms were never the cleanest places to start with. Some places will require masks for the near future, so how does that work at a gym? Now that I'm been forced to finish my home gym, I'll likely cancel my membership once things open again.

I’m worried about the YMCA. They do an admirable job of serving the community and poorer populations, but they apparently do so (at least here) by discounting on income.

If they lose any significant portion of the people who could afford to buy home equipment, can they still serve those who can’t?

I still keep my YMCA membership at the moment. YMCA and Boys and Girls Club had a huge impact on my childhood.

Yeah, I'm fine with my small contribution to the cause; it's been very important to me over the last few years, so I'm not in any hurry to terminate my membership.

Whether I'll use it again once it's open, though, is a much trickier question.

I prefer to workout with other people around vs being at home all day. Crossfit gyms have a community feeling but I don't want to do those type of workouts. :P

Personally, I really miss going to the gym. I like the routine of going somewhere else, and having lots of other people around. My gym has lots of equipment and classes I want to try, and also has saunas and pools that I really miss. I am working out in my living room or basement now, and it's really not the same.

Odd timing for me specifically. I had my home gym 90% built before this started. I had planned to dump the gum shortly.

Home gyms have always been decent in places where space is cheap, not so great in NYC and SF.

These e-commerce sites are competing for stimulus money.

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