Are you still hoarding toilet paper? What about cleaning wipes and coffee?
Slowing sales for paper goods indicate people may be finally diving into their pandemic stockpiles, but some of our buying habits may have changed for good. Toilet paper sales fell in January more than 4% from the year before when everyone was clearing the shelves, but people are still buying things that they may not have before.
Those that bought coffeemakers instead of going out for their daily latte will need filters, pods or grinds just as people who adopted pets will still need food and toys.
"We’re going to decline some, about 1% to 2%, but we’re still going to be up 7.5% to 8.5% demand throughout the course of this year over 2019, which is kind of the last normal year we have on record," said Katie Denis, vice president of research at the Consumer Brands Association. "So, I don’t know if this is going to be a completely normal year in any way. I hope that it gets there but I still think we’re preparing to weather a little bit of a longer demand period."
There are going to be permanent changes coming out of the pandemic, Denis added.
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"The biggest thing is going to be those societal changes," she said. "We did a survey recently where 82% of people who were able to work virtually wanted to continue doing so in some way. That’s going to be a sea change and that’s going to be more at-home consumption on a permanent basis."
Just look at all the cargo ships still anchored in the Bay waiting to offload.
That's not just toilet paper. It’s boba tea pearls and bike parts.
Things that, for some of us, are still essentials.
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