COVID-19 has our cookware working overtime as Aussies embrace domestic life Food & Entertainment by Laura Albulario 9th Apr 2021 5:53 AM Australians are putting more effort into cooking than their appearance, with an enthusiasm for domestic life an enduring effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a year since the nationwide lockdown, supermarkets continue to experience a surge in demand for cookware and baking ingredients, while sales of beauty products has dipped 10 per cent over the past 12 months. Lockdown has seen home cooks wear out their pots and pans at record rates, with Coles reporting a 35 per cent rise in cookware sales. Since COVID, shoppers have been buying more than twice as many homewares items, and are buying 30 per cent more baking mixes, herbs and spices, flour, cleaning goods and dishwashing products.