The coronavirus lockdown hit, you were transitioned to telecommute, look at all the benefits of working at home, plus you are saving all that money in the daily commute. You review your bank statement, and you say, “I should have more money working from home,” but it appears you are spending more.
What’s happening here?
No more high transportations costs, no parking, dry cleaning, expensive coffees, lunches, after-work rendezvous, that translates to more money in your pocket, right?
On the surface, of course, the answer is, “Yes.” Only, something happened that you didn’t expect, you started spending the money you saved in other ways, and it snuck up on you. You didn’t even know it was happening.
Granted, since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the cost of groceries has increased, but still, that’s barely a blip on the radar. Today, you are ordering more on the fly online. Nothing to see here, just click and wait for it to show up on your doorstep. This is the world we live in today.
Impulse Buying
We have Milton Hershey to thank for all those impulse items stacked up at the checkout stand at the supermarket, today we have Jeff Bezos to thank for nearly everything (“everything” if he has his way) on the planet is just one click away.
And we click.
There are increases in other costs of doing business from your home, like increased electric bills, Internet, printer supplies, maybe some mobile technology-related items that make working from home a little easier or more efficient, the rest? Well, the rest is just unrestricted impulse buying online.
What does that boil down to?
Every American that mutated from traditional office work to telecommuting is saving the money from the old-fashioned commuting but is making up the difference and then some in increased expenses and extraneous online convenience-buying.
How much more?
On average, every person in the USA that transitioned to remote work is spending an extra $27 per week.
$27 per week
$27-a-week may not sound like much to you, but if only the extra (those dollars more than the pre-pandemic regular work expenses) are being spent at Amazon. Well, that is considerable, indeed.
My grandfather used to say, “If you want to find out the truth about anything, follow the money.”
Top 10 Pandemic Businesses
If I were to take his advice and take a look at the Top 10 business (not counting hospitals, insurance companies, and healthcare) who are raking in profits fast that you can say, “Where’d that money go?” the list would look like this:
1. Amazon.com
2. eBay Inc.
3. Apple
4. Netflix
5. Alphabet/Google
6. FedEx Corp.
7. United Parcel Service
8. Microsoft Corp.
9. Facebook
10. Zoom
I don’t know exactly what this list reveals but seeing Amazon.com at the top of it doesn’t surprise me.
And if you are one of the teleworkers in silicon valley who moved outside of silicon valley to cut your monthly overhead, be aware that your bay-area employer may follow Mark Zuckerberg’s lead who announced he will be cutting the wages of those Facebook remote workers who moved outside of the San Francisco Bay Area as a part of the teleworking urban exodus to save a few dollars on their work from home expenses.