What Is “Pandemic Window-Shopping” & Why Are So Many People Doing It? – Refinery29

What Is “Pandemic Window-Shopping” & Why Are So Many People Doing It? – Refinery29

A lot of people I’ve talked to echoed Held in saying that their pandemic window-shopping helps them feel better day-to-day and gives them something to look forward to. Martine Elyse Philippe, a dance educator in Atlanta, says she has online shopping carts full of outfits on several sites with no intention of buying (at least not most of them) thanks to her pandemic-impacted budget. “I have outfits planned for future trips and vacations, weddings, baby and bridal showers, in-person work, concerts, birthday parties, happy hour with my girlfriends, and more,” she explained. “Thinking about and shopping for future events brings me a sense of hopeful anticipation.” Meagan Fredette, 35, a writer in Brooklyn, has a “secret Pinterest board for clothes/etc. to buy when the stimmy arrives.” (That would be the long-awaited $1,400 COVID-19 relief stimulus checks from the government.) Meghan*, 36, in Boston, has spent the pandemic planning a trip to Japan in such depth that she says she could write her own travel guide. Her wedding and honeymoon had both been planned for April 2020 and had to be postponed more than once since. “It’s self-soothing for sure,” she said. “Creating these spreadsheets makes the planner part of me feel better since everything has gone to shit. It’s more elaborate than previous trips to start because it’s for our honeymoon and I wanted it to be perfectly done. It started out as wedding-planning levels of detail, but has morphed into something more intense as I’ve built up more and more vacation time and credit card points.” 

Published at Thu, 11 Mar 2021 15:00:00 +0000