What I didn’t miss during covid! And how that will change the dynamics.
A lot has been written and spoken about the things we all missed during the lockdown and through this pandemic. Like traveling, meeting people at events, socializing, working from office, kid’s school, eating and drinking out etc. And we are now seeing a resurgence of demand in all these spheres of life. Travel and hospitality is slowly but surely bouncing back as we get vaccinated and find a way to deal with covid. Offices are opening now and inviting employees back. There is revenge consumption in the market with all that pent up desire to buy and spend. So, we can see the revival.
However, it is one thing to talk about what we missed due to covid, but what’s even more interesting to discuss is what WE DIDN’T MISS. Why? Because those are the industries which will see true disruption and will witness actual behavioral changes going forward. The things we didn’t miss are possibly now redundant in our lives… and that is a big alarm for many businesses which will find themselves in trouble!
Here are some of the things I didn’t miss:
1.Going to the Multiplexes for a movie– I just didn’t miss this outing at all. With all the latest content available on my TV, the cinema experience was brought home with no compromise at all. I could easily upgrade my TV if I wanted or add more TVs to my house for each room. But to spend 1000/- on one movie and with so much crowd around was clearly an option I didn’t miss much.
Who stands to lose– PVR, INOX, Malls, cinema distributors.
Who stands to gain– Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, TV brands, projectors, smart phones.
2. Driving/traveling for avoidable face to face meetings– There are many clients who would ask to see me face to face only because they were uncomfortable with an online meeting. It would often require a full day or 2 days (if I had to travel to another city). With covid, this reduced and I was the happiest. We saved a lot of time and money.
Who stands to lose– Ola, Uber, Business Hotels, Eateries, Airlines
Who stands to gain– Zoom, Meet, Teams, Speakerphones, headphones, earphones, Hi- speed internet, laptops.
3. Visits to the ATM or paying by card – I thoroughly enjoyed the contactless payment SOP that came into action thanks to covid. I didn’t miss the visits to the ATM or the use of cards and typing of pin codes each time. It was the best disruption of the season!
Who stands to lose– Visa, Mastercard, Banks, landlords of ATM spaces.
Who stands to gain– Paytm, Phone Pe, Google Pay, smartphones, data packages
4. Sending physical bills and paperwork to my CA- For the longest time, I was trying to get my CA to accept scanned copies of bills and paperwork instead of sending them physically. And this finally happened thanks to covid.
Who stands to lose– Courier services, stationery manufacturers
Who stands to gain– Smartphones, scanners, softwares for scanning.
I am sure your list of things you didn’t miss will differ from mine. May be you are done with physical newspapers. Or didn’t miss the visit to the grocery stores. But only when we look at all the things we didn’t miss, we realize that we will adapt ourselves forever to the new. And it is indeed a sign of the future of demand and businesses.