Why is that? they arent forced to "buy" at gunpoint.
I mean in the sense of certain goods, like one needs to physically survive. And also the things for your business to survive.
Those goods are cheap and abundant.
But people have been buying these necessities before the pandemic. If spending shifted from services to goods, that implies that it's non-essentials that people are increasing consumption of. Unless people started eating more?
I great term I came across in the retail gas industry is "hostile purchase"... as in no one "wants" to buy gas in the sense that you wake up one day and think "Oh boy, I can hardly wait to go out and get some 87 octane today" and after the purchase, "wow, that was awesome gas!"...