2020/09/07 – What is it about puzzles during this reign of Covid-19 that draws us to them? If you have noticed a renewed interest in yourself and or friends in working on puzzles, it turns out you are not alone. According to one manufacturer as reported in an article on CNBC, they saw a 370% increase in sales over just two weeks. Another manufacturer we recently talked to mentioned that they had sold out of approximately 85% of their warehoused stock.
An article from Medical Press hypothesizes that it is our desire to create “order amid chaos” that draws us to solve jigsaw puzzles. The idea that “touching the pieces, moving them around with the hands, etc., allows the brain and body to interact, leading to a successful and satisfying solution…” If there is anything to their premise, that would explain at least a little about why physical sales of puzzles are booming.
Among the other positives mentioned in the Medical Press article are that they are a solitary pursuit that can be used to bring people together. One of the immediate effects of sequestering ourselves during the pandemic was how do we gain the same feelings of satisfaction with our daily lives as we did prior to it? It turns out that the lowly puzzle brings many satisfying personal feelings. Prior to social media however this satisfaction was usually never shared. Now there are groups of over 11,000 on Facebook that revel in sharing their successes, frustrations, and sometimes also abandonment of their selections.
While puzzles sell regularly over time, they certainly have not been “the” in demand product of our modern world. However, during times of uncertainty there is a history for increased demand. From the same CNBC article, we quoted from earlier they mention how “In February 1933, manufacturers were producing 10 million puzzles a week”. Of course, this is four years after the crash on Wall Street and right in the middle of the Great Depression.
So how much in demand are jigsaw puzzles? Is there the potential that they could become harder to find as manufacturers struggle to produce enough? These types of questions we will attempt to give you some insider information on in a future post. One thing we can be sure of is that we humans find puzzles attractive especially during times of chaos. With current national and world events, all the ingredients appear to be set for continued high demand of this product.