Real estate, bonds, foreign stocks, oil. There's a billion options out there. Or they can just sit and wait. Losing for a bit of inflation is better than losing 20-30% in a recession.
Except you can't time it like that. Inflation eats your savings all the time, while recessions are short.
I have a friend who's been saying "stocks are too risky" since about 2010. He prefers the predictable ~3% inflation...