Here are the businesses that people turned to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 hit the global economy like a double slap on the face: it left us shocked, bewildered, and disoriented. For a time, economies came to a halt, and we all felt it. Time called it a global depression: “...unemployment numbers remain dizzyingly high, even as the U.S. stock market continues to defy gravity. We’re headed into a global depression — a period of economic misery that few living people have experienced.”
People scrambled to make ends meet, and ventured into monetizing their skills and hobbies just to earn income. Many became bakers, cooks, urban farmers, virtual assistants, online English teachers — whatever was out there, if they can do it, they will. It was (and is still not) a time to be picky when it comes to livelihood. We don’t know until when this pandemic will go and how long its effects will be felt.
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Industries that flourished
It is not all sad stories, though. Certain industries thrived and scaled during the lockdown. People had no choice but to stay home, and so a new way of working and running the household came to be. The same also went for recreation and self-care.
1. Online shopping
Because people couldn’t go to stores, the stores came to them. From medicines to groceries to food and pet needs, almost anything can now be ordered online. Shipping from another part of the world? No problem. People have all the time to wait at home now.
The big winner in this arena is Amazon. According to Forbes, “On March 12, the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, the company’s stock price closed at $1,676.61. By the end of June, it was nearly $1,000 higher than it was just a few months prior.”
2. Virtual meetings
After getting over the initial shock of what COVID-19 had become, people realized that they still (painfully) had to make a living in order to support their families, and so remote working became the norm and no longer an exception. Companies like Facebook are letting people work remotely permanently.
And where people work together, meetings are inevitable. This is where Zoom found its place in the spotlight. It has become a household name not just for official virtual gatherings but for personal gatherings as well.
“Zoom’s adoption rate surpassed previous industry frontrunners GoToWebinar and Cisco during the past three months when companies scheduled virtual meetings when it became impossible to host in-person gatherings.” (Forbes)
3. Supermarkets
While restaurants closed, supermarkets remained open since they were considered essential even during the lockdown. And because people couldn’t eat out, they had to eat in, so they had to buy the ingredients they needed to kind of recreate that dine-out experience at home.
As mentioned earlier, people also tried to make money by baking and cooking and selling their products, which meant they also had to take regular trips to the grocery. Many are now “weekend warriors” who work day jobs from home on weekdays, cook on Fridays, and deliver on Saturdays.
4. Sanitation products
Alcohol, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes — these quickly became must-haves for good reason. Part of the “new normal” of establishments like office buildings, malls, and hospitals is having sanitizers everywhere in their building, plus maintenance staff regularly wiping down areas where people stay and touch things, like escalators.
According to Forbes, in the US “during the pandemic, the number of hand-sanitizing kiosks has grown to 90,000 nationwide and is expected to approach 150,000 kiosks by the end of the year.” Even public transport uses them now.
5. Liquor
People could no longer drive everywhere, and the terms “coronavirus burnout” and “pandemic fatigue” became commonplace. The times are hard for the mind, but people have no choice but to keep on and to push so they can at least survive the pandemic. This means happy hour is no longer limited to Fridays or weekends.
Because they miss their friends and family, people are also hosting virtual “wine-down” and cocktail sessions to at least have a semblance of socialization. It is a way by which they now decompress. This is especially true for parents who now have to homeschool their children, too. (But drink in moderation!)
6. Entertainment
Closed movie theaters (because it is a form of mass gathering) meant people turned to their phones, tablets, laptops, or smart TVs to escape into a movie for an hour or two before returning to reality. Sadly, though, this hit the film and theatre industries hard, with theatres in London’s West End closing for the meantime.
“Netflix added nearly 16 million new subscribers during the first quarter of 2020, and its growth numbers more than doubled what the company predicted (in) January. Q1’20 was the largest three-month jump in the streaming service’s 13-year history.” (Forbes)
The COVID-19 pandemic may have cast a shadow on economies but it challenges us to find ways to make it through and make it work for us.
If you are considering having a startup or continuing to run your business while cutting back on overhead costs, the pros at BizScale are just the people you need to make it work. Pay per hour or get more value with a package. Sign up with BizScale today.
