Consuming to Cope: The Luxury of Consuming in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Set in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic this paper examines the consumption choices of participants during the pandemic, presenting an exploratory study of how consumption was used as a means of coping with the crisis. It investigates the nature of consumption decisions and the key factors that influenced these choices. The findings suggest that the uncertainties, the pressures, and the unknown aspects of COVID-19 influenced participants. Government and media communication did little to inform the public and with the lack of information, consumption was used as a coping strategy. Moreover, the article details the pleasure experienced by participants of consuming luxury in the crisis and the hedonic nature of luxury consumption. These findings have direct relevance to future research on how luxury consumption is perceived and used to cope with crisis situations.