MA Coronavirus: Sympathy Cards Are The Latest Hot Commodity

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — When a friend's 97-year-old mother died of COVID-19, Lizete Alcalai-Nichols headed to a store in Swampscott to buy a sympathy card. She thought the card would offer a more personal touch during a pandemic in which almost all communication has been electronic.

"I was astonished when I saw the sympathy card shelves: empty but with two cards, other than loss of a pet," Alcalai-Nichols said. "All the other shelves were full."

First it was hand sanitizer and toilet paper. Now, sympathy cards are the hard-to-find item in the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers across the country are reporting increased demand for sympathy cards at a time when more people are dying and social distancing advisories and orders are upending the traditional ways of mourning in person at a wake or a funeral.

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CVS, one of the biggest sellers of greeting cards, said in a news release that demand has increased that and several of its stores were reporting shortages. At Etsy, the online retailer of handmade goods, searches for sympathy cards more than doubled between March 1 and April 17 over the same period a year ago.

The number of deaths in Massachusetts between March 8 and April 11 was 120 percent higher than the average for the five previous years, leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to suggest that death tolls related to the new coronavirus are higher than the daily tally reported by the state Department of Public Health.

However, according to a New York Times report, the sympathy card shortage has more to do with supply chain disruptions than an increase in deaths.

Pharmacies and supermarkets, the two biggest sellers of greeting cards in the United States, have been focused on stocking essential supplies. In some areas of the country, social distancing measures have prevented greeting card companies from coming into the stores to restock shelves.

More Coronavirus Coverage On Massachusetts Patch:

• State Needs To Increase Coronavirus Testing To Safely Reopen
• CDC Data Suggests Coronavirus Death Count Higher
• Many MA Residents Still Waiting For Coronavirus Stimulus Checks
• Coronavirus Case Counts For Every Massachusetts Town (Updated April 29)

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).