[3xblah]

There are countries, this may or may not include the USA, please forgive my ignorance, where only sellers of "essential" goods/services and their suppliers have been allowed to operate during lockdown.

During this time what is the motivation for companies to spend on internet advertising for "non-essential" goods/services.

The longer consumers are given to adapt to a lifestyle of purchasing only "essential" goods/services, spending more time with family, cooking for themselves, staying local, enjoying simpler, less expensive pleasures and leaving a lighter environmental footprint, how susceptible will they be, in the long-term, to internet advertising that aims to motivate them to purchase non-essential goods/services.

Perhaps it is only temporary, but lockdowns are providing a paradigm shift away from internet advertising and toward increased non-commercial use of the internet.

Those who advocate web advertising as necessary in order to support a functioning internet may have to change their arguments in the event that the internet does not become "useless" as advertising spend decreases.

[vikramkr]

You describe it as if people are enjoying the experience. People around me are desperate to get out of the house, have some genuine human interaction, get their jobs back, maybe go to a bar or restaurant with some friends, go on a date, etc etc etc. And you can still get random stuff on amazon. And I dont know what " simpler, less expensive pleasures" you are referring to, but people are spending way more time on Netflix and YouTube. Cooking is more expensive because food delivery is expensive, you cant go to a hobby store, and so on. For most people this is hell and they can't wait for it to end - if anything I can see there being an overreaction to the crisis ending where people go out more and eat out more and so on

[ewidar]

> Cooking is more expensive because food delivery is expensive

No, eating out is more expensive. Cooking is just as cheap as before.

[vikramkr]

Depends on where you are. I've got to pay an extra 8 to 18 bucks a shipment to get things shipped via instacart or whatever, and nothing is ever in stock. Things I stocked up on are cheaper, otherwise I'm overpaying for all delivered groceries here in New York. Parts of the country hit by the pandemic are not having a fun time. Everything is more expensive

[tekromancr]

If you or people in your household aren't immunocompromised or in high-risk groups, you can still put your gloves and mask on and go get groceries. I live in NYC and can assure you that that is still an option. It's not totally risk-free, but the fact that stores are letting fewer people in at a time definitely helps mitigate the risk a lot.

If you are at-risk, there are huge groups doing mutual aid all across the city on a volunteer basis that are more than happy to do grocery runs for you. I'm in a slack group for Bed Stuy and I am seeing requests come in and get delivered all day long.

The idea that you need to rely on SV companies like Amazon or Instacart to bring you groceries is madness.