The Business Evolution
When this post goes live, it will have been 315 days since this pandemic began. One thing that has become painfully truthful for some is that the business landscape has changed.
I remember in the first few weeks of the pandemic when in-person dining was removed, nearly every restaurant had pick-up, delivery and/or was loaded onto some of the various Uber Eats methods. Outside of having to spend a bit more money the amount of food options now on these services exploded and became quite tempting. Those businesses who didn't evolve with the quickly changing scene - probably found themselves in a tough situation.
Another interesting thing I discovered is one day scrolling Uber Eats I saw a "House of Burgers" restaurant to order from. It was in a location that I pass frequently and never remember seeing it, turns out its just the re-branded delivery only service building - Shamrock's Ale House. Is this just the food from Shamrock's re-branded? Or is this an establishment using the infrastructure of the brick and mortar building to prepare food? - I couldn't figure this out in my research and was too lazy to call someone to confirm.
Next up is the movie industry which was shaken up for sure. No longer feasible to sit in an indoor room for hours in close proximity to others. The first change was the ability to just buy out an entire theater for you/friends. The price tag for this varies by location, but cheaper than I would have thought.
It seems the drive-in movie attracted a lot of attention early in the pandemic with the safety of staying in/around your own vehicle outdoors while watching a movie. These theaters seem to be busier than I ever remember driving by, so good to see an older business is making a comeback.
The biggest bombshell news though in the movie industry was Warner Brothers announcing films released in 2021 would be straight to digital. They may give some exclusivity to HBO Max for the first month of each film, but otherwise films will release on a digital ecosystem.
I'm excited for this because the large ticket price to drive somewhere, get the movie experience interrupted by randoms munching down on hugely overpriced food is just not as tempting anymore as I age older. AMC is not happy with this as it threatens their business model - so we may see some changes continue in this space.
Finally, the remote era is here and I wonder how much is going to stay. Tons of jobs seemingly overnight learned they can be done remotely without an office. Turns out adults can be trusted to do what they are paid to do without being somewhere.
This of course though requires a solid Internet connection and more than likely a video camera of some sort. This is where things got shaky - overnight people realized their Internet was not good enough to support a streaming video connection and/or dropped frequently. This is 2020, we are in America and yet our Internet infrastructure at times feels embarrassingly weak. Businesses and lifestyle continues to change as COVID-19 lives on and I wonder what changes will be here to stay.