Lifestyle

Rich New Yorkers desperately seek tacky above-ground pools amid lockdown

Aesthetically pleasing they are not, but there’s been a run on above-ground pools this summer as the coronavirus lockdown forces people to resign themselves to staycations rather than trips to cool off at the beach or lake.

Retailers can barely keep up with demand now that most kids’ camps are canceled for safety reasons and entertainment needs to be available at home.

Many pool-supply companies have the pools on backorder while stores such as Home Depot and Target are telling customers to keep checking back until the stock becomes available again.

Contacted by The Post, an employee at Staten Island Pool & Spa said most of their pools were on backorder for between four and six weeks.

Westchester resident Jennifer Jaicks Ciardullo counts herself lucky. She managed to score a $650 15-foot by 4-foot Intex pool from Walmart after weeks of searching online.

“Everywhere was sold out, or they were advertised on Amazon for a huge markup to something like $2,000,” says the 49-year-old mom who picks up her pool Wednesday. “I can’t believe I managed to get one, but I found it by Googling like crazy one night.”

She and her husband bought the pool for their 14-year-old daughter, who is likely going to be disappointed that the camp she has attended for 10 years is closed. They hope her friends will come over and play in it.

But Ciardullo admits that the beauty of her backyard has had to be sacrificed for the “big blue monstrosity.”

“I never imagined we’d have one of these, but desperate times call for desperate measures,” says the full-time human resources worker. “My sister-in-law calls it a ‘ghetto pool’ while I call it $650 of peace and happiness filled with laughing 14- and 15-year-olds.”

As for the large patch of grass which will be destroyed by its footprint, she jokes: “Will that grass ever grow?”

Meanwhile, another mom from Westchester, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, turned to eBay to find her family’s $1,800 Intex pool which measures 24 feet by 12 feet.

“We paid around $300 more than the recommended retail price, because I couldn’t buy it anywhere else,” she says. “We thought it was worth it for our 7-year-old twins who had a blast splashing around in it over Memorial Day weekend.”

The 35-year-old describes the look compared to an in-ground pool as “awful” but, like Ciardullo, agrees it’s a case of “needs must.”