In China, the
Cultural Revolution during the 1960s and
COVID-19 crisis nearly sixty years later are examples of collective traumas that resulted in revenge buying. It reoccurred in China in April 2020, when the lockdown was mostly lifted and markets reopened. At that time, the French luxury brand
Hermès made US$2.7 million in sales in a single day. According to a March 2020 article in
Business Insider, retail sales dropped 20.5 percent after the pandemic hit China—a percentage not seen since the
2008 financial crisis. The apparel industry suffered greatly during the pandemic; several notable retailers, including J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney, Brooks Brothers,
Ascena Retail Group, Debenhams, Arcadia Group, GNC, and Lord & Taylor, filed for
bankruptcy. , the volume of total retail sales recovered to similar levels as before the COVID-19 pandemic. China was the first country hit by the COVID-19 pandemic; by the summer 2020, it had successfully contained community transmission and thereafter lifted significant restrictions. The term
revenge buying entered popular consciousness with the immediate economic recovery of the French fashion company Hermès, which recorded $2.7 million in sales at its flagship store in
Guangzhou, China, on the day it reopened in April 2020, setting a record for most single-day shopping at any luxury outlet in China. A similar level of consumer enthusiasm was observed by the press in the
United States and
Europe after their economies mostly reopened in April 2021. == Explanation ==