High Transaction Cost During Pandemic

There's many ways transaction cost goes up during pandemic. Some are obvious while others are sneakily devastating.

  • The cost of mask every time you go out
  • Shipping cost of item you could normally buy in store nearby but now need to bought online from afar
  • Having to pay shipping multiple times for multiple items because you can't get it all in one trip to the shopping mall
  • Handling cost of fragile items made certain things more expensive. More protective packaging are needed or need to be delivered by expensive despatch service
  • Worse, the fragile item you ordered is broken and you have to fork out more money to buy again
  • In a similar vein, the cost of ordering the wrong item and you can't return it
  • Time cost of waiting for the item to arrive
  • Getting subpar product delivered instead of picking it up in store - this is especially true for highly perishable goods like seafood, vegetables and fruits
  • Being flagged as casual or close contact due to an outbreak at the store you visited - this can cost anything from stress, swab test, or missed income due to quarantine
  • Your favorite food costs more due to food delivery platform comission fee
  • You spend more because using cashless payment method intead of cold hard cash