# Businesses that either won’t be hurt or will profit during the COVID-19 crisis **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 24, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150 "2020-03-24T05:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/41 "2020-03-25T20:54:00Z")
Pet food suppliers because doggies are being walked more. Kit and sexbot makers as isolated folks seek distraction at home. Suppliers of fences, GO AWAY doormats, electroshock doorknobs, etc. Makers of self-sterilizing single-occupancy vehicles and dining nooks. Suppliers of hula-hoops, juggling swords, and ugly face masks. Makers of autonomous-driving kits to retrofit dumb vehicles. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/42 "2020-03-26T02:19:10Z")
I think there will be a big shift to online retail. So the obvious winners here are Amazon, eBay and other online retailers and shippers like Fedex and UPS. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/43 "2020-03-26T04:06:36Z")
Is there an economist here? Of all of these businesses iisted, what percentage of GDP are they normally, and how much will that increase? A lot pf people are predicting a depression and I’m wondering how likely that is. Pretty much guaranteed? Very likely? 50/50? How many people are not working now, or will not be working , in the next 2- 3 months as the virus growns to states not severly affected now? And what percentage of GDP is that? In NJ where I live and in NYC, there is no retail. The employees are not going into the stores. But Amazon, or Ebay, can pick up some of that if people order online. Now of course some of these companies will go out of business, because people don’t know they can, or don’t bother to, order online. There is a store that sells hats for cats (Is that real, or did I see that on a sitcom?) Probably going out of businees. But other, larger companies will be able to survive. When this over, (I don’t mean entirely over, I mean to the point where there aren’t massive shutdows), let’s be optimistic and assume three months, won’t many companies need to either hire additional workers, or have large amounts of overtime, to catch up? if Hats for Cats survives, the store may be flooded with customers. They may not have enought hats to sell, because the factories that made them have been closed. When this is over, milions of people will go back to work. And they won’t be putting their paycheck into 401ks, they will be putting them into the economy. They will pay back rent, and make up for payments on their car loans. Millions of people will be going to restaurants, and bars, and movies, and any form of entertainment you can name. I know none of this will make up for all of the GDP that is being lost, but how much of a percentage will it make up for? ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/44 "2020-03-26T04:13:36Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > With restaurant and bar closings, the grocery stores are capturing more of the food market. And once this blows over, I doubt everyone is going to finish off that last can of ravioli they bought “just in case” before they start shopping normally again. We’ve already decided that when this blows over, we’re going to have “pantry night” twice a week until we consume all the excess. But it’s not all panic shopping, people legitimately need more of everything because the entire family is home all day. That translates to needing more food and yes, more toilet paper. I probably should get up early tomorrow and see if I can score some at Walmart, the only place I’ve had any luck. But they limit the quantity so I already need to replenish. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/45 "2020-03-26T04:28:11Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > IT companies that provide Remote Access Solutions that support remote working. Like the one I work for. > > We have been so busy supporting customers that need new solutions (often built on extended time eval licenses) or have over-stressed their existing solution and need to upgrade/scale up. > > It will be the same at our competitors, and at the companies that sell hypervisors for virtual infrastructure, and cloud server providers as people build new solutions on AWS/Google/Amazon … > > And at the end of all this, some employers are going to find it hard to pry employees from their new home office. This will mean a good proportion of those eval licenses will turn into real licenses, support contracts and hardware. > > I was always resistant to working from home, but it isn’t bad at all, and I get heaps more sleep. Our physical office space is going to downsize, I suspect. That is true for me. I am a project manager for a translation company in health care. We are all on-call on the weekends for possible urgent translation needs, and we are all working from home. I’ve worked from home before, from 2009 to 2014 in Rhode Island, but when I moved back to NJ I started going into the office. I don’t have to, half of our staff lives in Argentina, but I need to get out of the apartment. But for now I am loving the extra 45 minutes of sleep I get every day. And also, in normal times, we sometimes have slow periods during the day, I think most companies do. If that happens, I can lie down on the couch for 20 minutes. Can’t do that in the office, there, it’s like in Office Space - “I just stare at my desk, it looks like I’m working.” And you are right, many employees will want to continue working from home, and many companies will realize it’s OK. Which could lead to a huge increase in people working from home, which could save companies money on office space. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/46 "2020-03-26T04:35:39Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > We’ve already decided that when this blows over, we’re going to have “pantry night” twice a week until we consume all the excess. > > But it’s not all panic shopping, people legitimately need more of everything because the entire family is home all day. That translates to needing more food and yes, more toilet paper. I probably should get up early tomorrow and see if I can score some at Walmart, the only place I’ve had any luck. But they limit the quantity so I already need to replenish. You can get napkins on Amazon. I know you are not normally supposed to flush napkins, but I tear them into 4 pieces and they are very thin. They are less dense than the 3 sections of TP that I have left. And I only flush 2 at a time. If you can get real TP get it, I can’t any anywhere around here. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FXFPSKI/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o01\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FXFPSKI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/47 "2020-03-26T05:56:29Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > How about [this article](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epg75n/bored-people-flooding-best-buy-office-depot-lowes-sherwin-williams-during-coronavirus), which claims that bored people are shopping for entertainment. An anonymous Lowe’s employee said they did $100,000 more than usual in one day of business, and people weren’t buying cleaning or other essential supplies. So, some places may do well just because they’re open, and people aren’t bothering to isolate Maybe they’re also doing home repairs and need supplies? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/48 "2020-03-26T17:24:10Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > An online vegetable seed merchant I know said they’re currently flat out keeping up with their increased demand- a lot of people stuck at home are working in the garden, worried about getting fresh vegetables in the months to come, or teaching the kids to grow stuff while they’re off school. I can believe it. The local place where I usually get my seeds and plants is also a feed store, so they are probably open. But since we have more time at home, I just bought my Marionberry plants on line. They will be here in a couple of days without me having to interact with anyone other than the delivery person, who will probably just leave them. And spring will not wait until this all blows over, the next 4-8 weeks are the critical gardening time, and we seem to have more spare time right now. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/49 "2020-03-26T18:07:12Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > You can get napkins on Amazon. I know you are not normally supposed to flush napkins, but I tear them into 4 pieces and they are very thin. They are less dense than the 3 sections of TP that I have left. And I only flush 2 at a time. If you can get real TP get it, I can’t any anywhere around here. > > [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FXFPSKI/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o01\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FXFPSKI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) No need. I got out early and scored big, 28 “mega rolls” total between 2 different stores. Now I won’t have to get up at 6AM again for a while, I hope. I can find most everything else most of the time later in the day, but the early bird gets all the TP. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150/50 "2020-03-26T20:33:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > My grandparents were funeral directors during the Great Depression. Oh, sure, they had plenty of customers but supposedly more than one funeral/burial was paid for by chickens or similar barter. They did alright, but they didn’t get rich. Speaking funeral directors… We live not so far from a crematorium, so occasionally when I’m out on the bike I will cycle past a hearse and funeral cortege, making it’s way there. It’s just something I notice once in a while. Today, on the bike, I cycled past three. Fluke? Confirmation bias? I hope so. j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/businesses-that-either-won-t-be-hurt-or-will-profit-during-the-covid-19-crisis/850150.md?page=2)