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In case the semi-empty shopping malls and piles of packages on doorsteps around the neighborhood weren’t a big enough clue, Amazon had another killer holiday that kicked off with an insane Black Friday and bonkers Cyber Monday.
Holiday shopping up was up 4.9% across the country, compared to last year, but the online retailer rang up its biggest holiday shopping season to date. The retail juggernaut was nice enough to release a list of the most popular purchases for Christmas 2017 and more than a few of the items are beyond bizarre.
The most wished for and borrowed book on Amazon was A Handmaid’s Tale — a thirty-year-old novel about female slaves — thanks to the popular Hulu show. And when people weren’t reading about being a slave they were putting robots to work in their own home.
“Robot vacuums like the $699 iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum with Wi-Fi connectivity were among Amazon’s best-selling home items over the holiday shopping season, and Amazon’s top-selling kitchen product in the U.S. and worldwide was the Instant Pot DUO80 ($129.95) — a combination pressure cooker and slow cooker that can make dinner in less than 30 minutes.”
The weirdest item to appear on the Amazon most purchased list was the 23andMe DNA paternity test kit so either people were really interested in their family history or just trying to get of buying gifts for people who aren’t really blood relatives.
Amazon shoppers also bought “enough TVs to create nearly 2,500 towers the size of the Space Needle” and loaded up on Nerf guns, this party game based on memes and way, way too many K-cups.
Read more of the odd Amazon holiday purchases here.