March 23, 2020 by Matthew
Broberg-Moffitt
The list of goods seeing a spike in sales
related to the Coronavirus Pandemic is extensive. Some items, such as hand
sanitizer, disposable gloves, and masks are somewhat logical. Other items, like
toilet paper make slightly less sense. Even others like board
games make some sense given the fact that millions of people
are stuck at home. And a few products are even more inscrutable. Enter: shoe
covers and painter's tape.
Shoe covers have seen a sharp increase in
Amazon ($NASDAQ:AMZN)
sales tank, moving from a rank of 76 (out of 100) on February 23th to 35
on February 25th. Shoe covers continue to see popularity, with a sales rank of
13 on March 16th. Utilizing shoe covers to help slow the spread of surface
contamination of COVID-19 is a fairly intuitive, if unproven, development.
Remember that the lower the number on the
chart the better the sales.
Painter's tape has also seen jump in sales
rank, somewhat more inexplicably. On and before March 6th, painter's tape had a
fairly consistent rank of 89. On March 8th, it skyrocketed to number 33.
This coincided with a number of blogs
recommending using blue painter's tape and a marker to help delineate between
items used by individuals in close proximity within self-quarantine. The rank
steadily normalized over the course of the next week and then shot back up
again on March 16th.
A little bit of digging uncovered that the
second round of unusual sales corresponds with several news pieces regarding
Ohio polling stations using blue painter's tape to help cordon off six-foot
walking paths to assist visually with maintaining social distancing.
COVID-19 continues to influence every market
and social trend in unpredictable ways.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the
information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and
app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring,
revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only
account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge
performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
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