Also, if you consider that people are restricted to their homes for weeks to come, even entertainment/toys can quickly be considered essential.
I don't think you understand what "essential" means. Things to avoid being dead are essential. You can get those things quickly. Things to avoid being bored are not essential. Just be bored until the global pandemic is over.
Shoes and clothes are essential if you happen to need new ones during a prolonged pandemic (eg you find that your toddler has outgrown his existing shoes). When you turn off the shopping spigot long enough, things just crop up that you have never thought to be essential before.
Having to wait 4 weeks for Amazon to send you a pair of shoes would be tremendously inconvenient, but all it requires is some forward thinking. Buy them before the child needs them so they arrive in time. If you can do that it's obvious they're not really an essential that Amazon need to be pausing shipments of bandages and disinfectant for.
Obviously this raises questions about paying for shoes, but that's a social welfare and government support for poor people issue, and discussions of that nature usually don't fair well on HN.
It is really hard to think ahead with a toddler, when are their feet going to grow, when do their shoes become too small. Are we going up one or two sizes?
Anyways, Target and Walmart still being open is a life saver for everything that isn’t food.
"Just be bored" doesn't quite cut it. Domestic violence was already a thing before the pandemic. Now imagine being constrained to home with a larger family. And even if it doesn't end up in violence, stress levels are raising largely during confinement. Fortunately I am able to work from home office, but I have to say the psycological effects are quite noticeable. And to fight the pandemic, we do depend on the cooperation and discipline of the population.
I am not saying that Amazon should do things differently, but that things, which on the surface seem to be non-essential can be far more important than it looks.
Essential is defined by what can arguably save lives and not create more load on the health system of the country.
For example: Pet food is currently deemed essential because you can't have pets dying on their owners and creating a health hazard.
Another example that makes sense: Selling heaters and spare parts.
I'm not convinced toys prevent domestic violence. You can always make toys with a bit of imagination though.
idk about the domestic violence angle, but bored people are more likely to go out and expose themselves/others to the virus. seems like anything that keeps people inside voluntarily should have at least a low spot on the priority list.
I don't think you understand what "essential" means. Things to avoid being dead are essential. You can get those things quickly. Things to avoid being bored are not essential. Just be bored until the global pandemic is over.