DECEMBER 2021 T3 27Opinion
n interesting bit of
research came to light
this month. According to
Aviva home insurance,
one in ten of us bought something
during lockdown that we regretted- and I don’t mean 5,000 rolls of
toilet paper, or cupboards full of
Spam, just in case. No, I’m talking
about classic luxury products such
as, erm, air fryers and, um, hot tubs.
All the standard treats.
This sparked a lot of amused and
slightly puritanical coverage,
crowing that people had splashed
out on frivolous nonsense and were
now ashamed of their profligacy.
However, several things in the
data don’t really add up. Firstly, one
in ten people is not a lot. If you said
‘nine in ten people bought an
exercise bike, hot tub, massive TV
or other thing to help them through
lockdown... and they bloody loved
them!’ that wouldn’t attract as
much attention, would it?
Although, as usual with surveys
of this type, everyone seemed to
be interpreting Aviva’s data
differently. The BBC quoted the
‘one in ten’ figure for regret, but
The Guardian had a more
interesting breakdown.
According to them, 90% of those
surveyed bought themselves
something nice during lockdown.
Of those, 8% of buyers said their
high-tech treats were never used.
Never! So if the population of the
UK is about 67 million, by my maths
that means about five million of us
splashed out ‘an average of £1,400’
on lockdown self-gifting... and then
never touched the things they
bought. Really?
Then on top of that, The
Guardian says, another 9% ‘no
longer use’ their pandemic treats,
while 11% use them ‘less than
expected’. Okay, well that sounds a
little more plausible. Taking some of
the quoted examples of popular
lockdown goodies, I’ve tested air
fryers in my time, and the novelty of
using what is essentially a very
small oven does wear off. You can
also easily imagine that use of
treadmills and bread makers would
drop off somewhat once everyonehigh-tech
goods in order
to fill a void in their souls. However,
this survey suggests something
quite different. Even during the
pandemic, with people going out of
their minds with boredom and
worry, and in many cases having
more disposable income than they
were used to, most purchasers of
‘treats’ were happy with them.
Whether you take the BBC’s
figure (90% did not express
dissatisfaction with their new toys)
or The Guardian’s mysteriously
different one (72%), a clear majority
bought something they wouldn’t
normally buy, liked or loved it, and
continue to use it. That doesn’t
seem too bad to me.
Personally I bought a jumbo TV
with all the OLED trimmings during
lockdown, and I am still more than
happy with that. Okay, I also bought
a 4K Blu-ray player that I’ve used
about six times but I’m not going to
beat myself up over that. There was
a pandemic on, for heaven’s sake.
Yes, yes, we probably are all
consuming too much stuff, and
soon the planet may indeed be
buried under a mound of unwanted
electronic garbage. But the reason
we do it is not that we all have more
money than sense and no self
control. We do it because it cheers
us up, and there’s nothing wrong
with that.“I bought a jumbo TV
during lockdown, and
I am still more than
happy with that”
resumed leaving the house, gyms
reopened and people collectively
remembered that bread is freely
available in shops.
The data also appeared to
suggest that ‘one in 20’
respondents had bought a hot tub.
Seriously?! That would mean well
over three million hot tubs sold!
Still, there is a reasonably serious
point to all this. It’s often said that
many people consume stuff in an
unthinking way, blindly buying shinyA
Duncan Bell
never feels
guilty
There’s no shame in buying
something you use and enjoy