LAUSR

Dear Editors, Suddenly, one virus was spreading to the rest of the worldwide. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disorder caused by the new coronavirus disease a pandemic. From January 3, 2020 to February 23, 2021, there have been 111,279,860 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,466,639 deaths, reported to WHO (World Health Organization, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong social, economic, and political impact worldwide. Allied to feelings of uncertainty and concern about the future, feelings of panic emerged. The fear of the unknown caused substantial changes in the lives and behaviors of individuals. All these changes have interfered with the mental health of the individuals in diverse ways. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and stress were noted (Jacob et al., 2020). As a result of all these implications, society’s daily life changed throughout this period, triggering also changes in consumer habits. In times of crisis, such as the pandemic we are currently living in, coping strategies are necessary. That facilitates the management of stressful situations and similar problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, buying may also have served as a coping mechanism for individuals. In this sense, several purchasing behaviors were verified throughout the pandemic, such as compulsive buying (Jaspal et al., 2020), impulsive buying (Naeem, 2020), panic buying (Arafat et al., 2020), and revenge buying. Of these buying behaviors, panic buying, and revenge buying were the most prominent. Both are compensatory buying behavior and a coping strategy for alleviating the negative feelings. Panic buying occurs when people buy more things than usual and is a consequence of negative feelings such as fear, panic, and uncertainty, generally caused by periods of crisis and disruptive events (Lins & Aquino, 2020). This behavior was universally observed mainly at the beginning of the pandemic, and it was related to the purchase of necessities such as food or hygiene products. While at the beginning of the pandemic, panic buying was intended to deal with the possible scarcity of products, revenge buying, present in a later period of the pandemic, functioned as a defense and compensation mechanism. Revenge buying was first reported in mid-March 2020 in China and later observed in other countries. After the deconfinement, this buying behavior was observed when the physical stores were reopened, especially in luxury products stores. The purchase of luxury products is also frequent because conspicuous products provide sensations, pleasures, and emotions and compensate for negative feelings experienced (Cappellari et al., 2016). The revenge buying mechanism is thought to have emerged as a response to frustration and psychological discomfort caused by the period when people were deprived of buying. Unlike panic buying, revenge buying seems to be more related to the purchase of hedonic products, such as suitcases, clothes, and decorative items. Although little is known about the subject, it is stressed that the concept of revenge buying is not recent. The phenomenon was first verified in China in the 1980s and was called ‘baofuxing xiaofei’. This term describes the sudden demand for foreign branded products after China’s opening to international trade in 1976 (Darshan & Krishnegowda, 2020). In that case, the revenge buying occurred because the Chinese had been deprived of purchasing western products for many decades due to poverty and deprivation during the Cultural Revolution. In the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the main driving forces for revenge buying was the temporary closure of the traditional brick and mortar stores in the confinement period, making it impossible for people to buy. This period of deprivation evoked feelings of frustration and anger in consumers. These feelings were worsened because many brands do not offer an e-commerce alternative, making it unfeasible to buy their products. After the reopening of the stores, consumers went shopping to make up for the period they were deprived of it and ease the negative feelings. A better understanding of revenge buying behavior can be considered by Reactance Theory (Brehm, 1989). According to this theory, people driven by a threat or hindering of behavioral freedom tend to seek to restore the threatened autonomy. In the case of revenge buying, the elimination of behavioral From panic to revenge: Compensatory buying behaviors during the pandemic