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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll wrap it up in our last 15 minutes today with the question, is anyone feeling buyer's remorse right now? I'm talking specifically about those pandemic splurges you might've made back then or what may have even seemed like pandemic survival purchases at the time when you realized or believed, even wrongly, that you were in this for the long haul. There was soaring interest, you may remember, in-home fitness, for example, back in the spring of 2020. So many people were buying Peloton stationary bikes, which started at just under $2,000, that the company reported record profits.
Now, as an interesting and kind of fun story on Vox puts it, take a peek at secondary marketplaces, and you can see a plethora of items, such as Pelotons and bicycles that were hot commodities just a year or two ago. That story, "The pandemic impulse purchases we grew to hate," is where we got the idea for this call-in, so credit to Vox. Let us know, folks, the pandemic impulse buy you might regret, whether it's an expensive stationary bike or anything else. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer.
There are things much bigger and harder to get rid of than a piece of exercise equipment in that story. A few other examples, an outdoor patio heater whose owner has had trouble getting rid of it, well, that, at the least, is a little thing, too, even offering it for free, she says it's now just sitting in her basement. Another person who lives in LA can't even bear the sight of the bicycle they bought back in 2020 when they were bored at home. It reminds them of the money they feel they wasted on it in a city that is notoriously bike-unfriendly, in LA.
Someone else, and this gets heavier, even talked to the Vox reporter about the dog they bought. They would never give it away because they're responsible dog owners, they say, but the puppy's gotten in the way of their retirement, which made me think about a family I know, though, wasn't in the pandemic, but I have a feeling this might have happened to people, who got a cute little stress bunny that's now grown into this big, ornery rabbit in your apartment. Anybody ever go through anything like that?
The story on Vox is also about houses. There's a stat that two-thirds of people who bought new homes during the pandemic have come to regret it. Does that sound like you? Did you move? Did you move from the city to the suburbs, for example, as it was so wildly reported that people who could afford to were doing and now you regret it? What else did you buy? A pandemic purchase regret. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. There is the other side of this, too. I have a feeling people bought things that you never dreamed that you would ever want, but that you're now addicted to using. Did that happen? What did you get because of the pandemic that you never thought to get but now you're really, really glad you have? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
I'll give you an example. I know somebody who's started getting food deliveries for the first time. Always went to the grocery store, got their own food, started getting deliveries as a pandemic safety precaution in 2020, and then decided, "Well, I kind of like this. It's worth paying for the delivery charge from name-your-service or name-your-store," and not to have to go through the aisles yourselves all the time, or maybe for some people who still feel at risk going into crowded public places like that. Maybe you, like the person I know, just said, "You know, I kind of like this getting it delivered to my door. I'm going to pay for this convenience and spend my time in other ways." Call in about the pandemic purchases you regret and the things that you started buying or started doing that cost you money in the pandemic that you now wish you had started 10 years earlier. 212-433-WNYC. We'll take your calls right after this.
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Brian Lehrer on WNYC, now with a nod to Emily Stewart from Vox for the inspiration for this call-in from her article called "The pandemic impulse purchases we grew to hate." Ella in Park Slope, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ella.
Ella: Hey, Brian. I'm a huge fan. I am calling about what I like to call my clown wardrobe. I was back in Colorado for a large portion of the pandemic, and I ended up buying some very ridiculous pieces of clothing because I just imagined this new life for myself in New York, once I got back. I have worn not a single one of those pieces of clothing. It really is a wardrobe fit for a clown. I don't know what to do with it.
Brian: Like what? Give us an example. Why do you say clown wardrobe?
Ella: It's very colorful, lots of patterns, lots of strange pieces. I have a pair of silk, mint green shorts that come down to my knees. I'm very short, and I simply don't know where or when I will ever wear those. I've been trying to foist them up on everyone I know, but no one wants them.
Brian: It's so funny because-
Ella: I think I might have to go to [crosstalk].
Brian: -one of the things that really crashed early in the pandemic was clothing sales. While people were buying stationary bikes and computers and stuff like that, and people weren't going out, so they weren't buying new wardrobe items very much. Was this for your reemergence when that time would happen?
Ella: Yes, exactly. I think I just imagined, like, "Oh, when everything opens back up, I'm going to be this person who's always out on the town, and I'm going to be really bold with my choices." I can report that now that things are a little bit more open, I'm back to my blue jeans and white T-shirt every day.
Brian: [chuckles] Ella, thank you very much. Steven in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Steven.
Steven: Thank you for taking my call, Brian. Yes, I'm a nurse, and I am inundated with PPE. I've gone so far as buying a HEPA filtration system, it looks like a spacesuit, that cost me almost $1,400. I've used it once. I do home care, and I have one very sick patient, I wasn't sure. I have N95s up the kazoo. I bought an N99, a little stronger, plus all the regular so-called surgical masks and everything else. It's just a mess. I've really gone tremendously overboard with the PPE. I heard that it's clogging up the environment.
Brian: But you use the masks, I presume, when you're going to people's homes, since you're doing in-home care, right?
Steven: I used an N99 just a little while ago. I had a doctor's appointment in Metropolitan Hospital. I wore the N95, and not the KN95, the regular one, which fits much better.
Brian: It's just that you bought so many of them, and then this big sort of hazmat suit that you haven't gotten that far as to wear?
Steven: Yes, the spacesuit, I've only used once. [chuckles]
Brian: Steven, thank you very much. Dell in Highland Park, bought something that they do not regret. Hi, Dell, you're on WNYC.
Dell: Brian, long-time first-time. How exciting.
Brian: Glad you are on.
Dell: Me too. I bought a very high-end hot tub, which I never would've allowed myself to buy before. I could barely afford it. It's wonderful. I am addicted to it. It's the best purchase I ever made. It's helped with my mental health, it helps my sleep. It's just something pleasurable for myself. I'm so happy that I felt like I could do that for myself.
Brian: Nice. The pandemic inspired you to buy a hot tub, and now you're glad you have it, though you never would've bought it before. Good story. Call us again. Lauren in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Loren. Do you have a regret or something-
Lauren: Hey, Brian.
Brian: -that you never thought you would get? Hi.
Lauren: I called you during another segment on pandemic pets about my dog, Larry. I've started to travel again, and I will say, sometimes I take a pause when I'm trying to figure out what to do with him or find out the price of what I'm doing with him, but I will say, I have no regrets about Larry. He is more of a responsibility now that we're returning to office and traveling a bit more, but honestly, he brought so much joy to me while I was quarantining alone. I'm sometimes like, "Yes, I could have not got this job but I might not have gotten through the years of the pandemic." So, yes, six months in March.
Brian: Do you think if the pandemic hadn't happened that you would have ever thought to get a dog?
Lauren: I was considering it, but honestly, because of how often I was out of the house, it didn't seem realistic. Once I got five to eight weeks in March 2020, they said five to eight weeks working from home, which obviously ballooned to more than two years.
Brian: [laughs]
Lauren: I was like, "This is the time to get the dog and train a puppy before I get back to work."
Brian: There you go.
Lauren: I ended up having that two years together at home.
Brian: Hello, Larry. Hi, Larry. Good dog, Larry. Good dog. Lauren, thank you very much. Max and Flatbush, you're on WNYC. Hi, Max.
Max: Hello, is that me?
Brian: That's you.
Max: That's me. Hi. I don't know if I regret this purchase, but I invested in the world of audio journalism heavily. I bought a bunch of microphones and started a podcast and invested in audio editing software. I took a radio bootcamp course with Sally Herships over at Columbia University, who's awesome. Shout out to her. I'm a freelance musician so when the pandemic hit, I lost pretty much all of my income very suddenly. I had a lot of free time and that was what I dove into. Then my work came back equally as suddenly. Some of that stuff is sitting in boxes, unopened, and I'm just waiting for a time that I'll have the time to get back into it because I really loved it and enjoyed it. Now I'm back at work full-time. [crosstalk]
Brian: You have those boxes sitting in your appointment. Max, thank you very much. Max is going to get the last word with his mixed results. Thank you for your calls on your pandemic purchases that you came to hate and those that you didn't. I will say that, at least on our caller board, more of you were happy with your pandemic purchases that you never might have made otherwise than the opposite. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Zach Gottehrer-Cohen, who edits our daily politics podcast. Our interns this summer Emily Lowinger, Amanda Rozon, and Anna Venarchik. Juliana Fonda at the audio controls.
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