Will we want to repurpose our homes or escape them back to the office?
As homes become more important to many of us, given we spend 24/7 of our time there, many people want them to be healthy environments — with more outdoor space to relax or even grow food, plants & light, more sustainable- with more biodegradable products, organic food, preloved clothes or furniture, and apps to assess our carbon footprint and save on energy, and more flexible with people wanting to be able to adapt their rooms for different functions, particularly if there’s a growth in multi-generational homes.
Will we be destroying or reinventing the high street as we spend more time buying online while yearning to buy locally?
Will that mean fewer chain high street stores and more digital high street platforms, fewer fast fashion shops and more library of things, fewer clone streets and more digital retail cooperatives? Will we invest in growing much more local supply chains both because they are more sustainable but also because it makes our neighbourhoods more self-sufficient and resilient to future shocks like the one we are going through?
Will we want to embrace or escape digital?
As we use tools to help us be more productive and compensate for lack of face to face contact while spending more time where we can not using digital, be it greater time in the outdoors, reading or making DIY. Or even, like in the Roaring 1920s after the Spanish Flu, people wanting to escape to more hedonistic activities. For others, it is escaping to the past, watching old soaps or films that remind them of their youth.
For many businesses, while it can take a week to shut their operations down, it can take much longer to restart, particularly if we continue in the “stop/start” way the government is operating with lockdowns.
75% of people according to McKinsey have tried a new shopping behaviour. Many people say the pandemic has made them want to eat healthier and cook at home, while others say it’s been making them eat more comfort food and order takeaways. During the pandemic, there’s been everything from distilleries making hand sanitiser, Zoom funerals, and local pubs and restaurants turning into takeaways.
Will people want those innovations in the future — only being able to take part in a funeral virtually or not be able to go to the local pub and instead drink at home?
