Years later, pandemic purchases trigger buyer’s remorse
Years later, pandemic purchases trigger buyer’s remorse
If you were a parent in 2020, you know exactly how Sarah Tremblay, a reference and instruction librarian in North Shore, Massachusetts, felt when she started working from home.
“You know, my son would come in and be like, ‘Mom, question!’ And then my husband would come in and be like, ‘When’s dinner?'” she said. “I was going stir crazy.”
That’s around the time she started reading about walking pads, portable treadmills that fit under a desk.
“And I kind of was treating it as like, ‘yes, I’m going to get on this and then I’m going to become a runner,'” said Tremblay. She didn’t end up running, but walked while working or listening to a podcast.
Still, the thrill was short-lived. After a year, the treadmill’s belt stopped working. Long story short, the company, Treadly, went out of business, leaving her with an 80 pound, $800 machine that barely works.
“When I have to, like, scoot it around to get to a box in my basement I’m like ‘ugh, this piece of garbage, why is it in my house?'” she said.
Plenty of people tried to buy their way through the pandemic, if they had jobs and means to do so. Fueled by staying at home and stimulus checks, the average person spent thousands more per year than they did in 2019. There were booms in exercise equipment, air fryers and outdoor heaters. But now that life is basically back to normal, some of those purchases are collecting dust.
Shopping is actually a very normal, human response to chaos. It’s what Christine Whelan, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, calls credible costly commitments. These are purchases we think may solve our problems.
One example: I bought a Peloton during the pandemic. I used it a lot. I still do, sometimes. But I can’t decide if it’s because I actually enjoy it or because I spent so much on it.
“And, you know, that actually could be ok,” said Whelan. “So the idea of buying something expensive and then feeling so guilty that you have to use it, that is a commitment strategy in and of itself.”
The word “guilt” is big here because the pandemic forced a lot of us to think about who we are and the people we’ve always wanted to be — someone who runs marathons, bakes bread or plays the guitar.
“Well, those things just sort of fell by the wayside when we realized that in fact the reason why we hadn’t done those previously is because we actually didn’t want to do them ever,” she said.
When those purchases go unused, they remind us of our failures. And the bigger, more expensive and more life-changing the item, the more it weighs on us.
“I try not to regret things as a matter of principle,” said Michael Selik, who lives in Seattle. “But we used to be so carefree.”
Selik is not talking about his Peloton, though he got one of those, too. He’s talking about the home he and his wife Cristina Kendall bought during the pandemic. Like many people, they were lured by low interest rates.
“And we thought ‘oh, well, what if we buy what’s in our budget and we renovate,'” said Selik.
You can probably sense where this is going. The house needed a lot of work: a corroded sewer line, flaking lead paint and a closet in the basement that Selik calls “a forest of fungus.” They had a contractor take a look. The quote was $900,000 — close to the original listing price of the house.
“And I told him you could build a new house for that much,” said Selik. “And he said, ‘Well yeah, but you like your house.'”
The couple have thought about moving, but they don’t want to let go of their mortgage rate of 2.75%. So, they’ll begrudgingly tackle one project at a time.
Meanwhile, the Peloton they bought is sitting in the moldy basement.
I recently looked up my Peloton’s resale value. The going rate is about a quarter of what I paid.
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