While it makes sense that some businesses have grown during the pandemic – delivery services, for instance, and color-by-numbers books for adults – nobody has been able to explain the incredible demand for three-prong plug adapters.
“Factories are working around the clock and we still can’t keep up!” says Miles Tamroff, president of the US Plug Adapters Manufacturing Association.
In 2019, according to Tamroff, 40 companies manufactured about 30 million of the adapters, which enable three-prong plugs to be inserted into two-hole electric outlets. A year later there are over 100,000 manufacturers, with dozens more opening every week. Sales are on track to hit 90 billion in 2021. That’s about 300 for every person in the country, and hardware stores still keep running out.
The product shortage has resulted in protests across the country, including one in Kansas City last November in which 16 women chained themselves to the refrigerators at a HomeHearthPlace store. One of the demonstrators, Celia Witherman, told the Kansas City Star: “This is not about plug converters. This is about one of our freedoms.”
“We’re asking people to be patient,” says Tamroff. “Everyone will get their converters.” The institute is awaiting final results of a $10 million study by Cleveland’s Passing Institute, examining what has caused such high demand.
“What they’re telling us preliminarily,” says Tamroff, “is that people appear to be plugging in more three-prong plugs into two-hole outlets.”
