How Will Your Life Change After The COVID-19 Lockdown?

For the past six weeks, the Central government has suspended air travel, inter-state buses, as well as metro rail across India to limit the spread of COVID-19. Other services have also been shut down including restaurants, hotels, malls, cinemas, sports complexes, gyms, colleges, schools, along with religious, cultural, political, social, and other gatherings.

However, even when the lockdown ends or the curbs are lifted, your life will forever change. There will be significant changes in how we shop, travel, check in at hotels, watch movies, and even eat out.

Most companies providing services like food & beverages, retail, air travel, and hotels will likely cut down on their offerings in the first months back as they have to comply with social distancing norms. They may also cut down on cost overhead to deal with the tough business environment. Firms are preparing to reopen their businesses once the lockdown ends.

For most industries, demand is expected to remain low until at least October before the festive season comes, raising consumer sentiment. Managers of shopping malls, retailers, airlines, and hotels say that they will play it safe when reopening.

After classifying districts into green, orange, and red zones, the government has gradually removed restrictions at non-hotspots locations, allowing establishments and shops to reopen. It was also suggested that after May 17, more economic activities will be allowed to resume operation.

The government will revise the classification regularly and areas with no new COVID-19 cases can be categorized as green zones.

Many industry experts believe the pandemic will lead to significant changes in consumers’ attitudes, preferences, and behaviors while products and services will be remodeled accordingly. Consumers are expected to pay more attention to their health and concerned more about hygiene from services.

Shopping malls

The customer experience at shopping malls will certainly change, as projected by industry insiders. Mall owners are making new rules regarding building structure and customer footfall.

According to the Gaurs Group Managing Director Manoj Gaur, large format stores such as Big Bizzar could be advised to practice social distancing and limit entry while smaller stores could be prioritized to reopened first. Gaur particularly said:

“The large format stores would be advised to maintain social distancing norms, high standards of hygiene and limit entry of people.”

Talking about possible higher operating costs and lower revenue, Gaur said there needs to be a relief package, including lower Goods and Services Tax, without which many people could lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, Metro Cash And Carry India Pvt Ltd has banned customers without a mask or with 99-100 degrees of body temperature. Arvind Mediratta, CEO and MD of Metro Cash and Carry India, said:

“We have mandated wearing mask for every customer. We are doing infrared temperature scan for everyone and those with 99-100 temperature are not being allowed. Only limited people are allowed every hour, 50-60 as against 500-600 at any given time earlier. To ensure safety of both customers and employees, cashiers are required to wear face shields.”

Furthermore, the German retailer’s arm in India has begun giving phone or electronic appointments to customers to avoid overcrowding.

At the same time, Woodland, a footwear and apparel retailer, would limit customer footfall at a time while requiring them to wear gloves and masks. It’s also making plans for product disinfection after a customer tries it on. Aero Club MD Harkirat Singh, stated:

“Normally when we try shoes and all, we have disposable socks. Similarly, we will see how a product which is tried can be disinfected. Even for garments we are working on something like that.”

Cinema

There won’t likely be new releases right after the lockdown, sadly. Due to the pandemic, movie productions has paused making movies and cinemas will likely have to play old movies. Multiplex owners will discuss with distributors regarding future plans after official announcements about the lockdown. Deepak Asher, the President of Multiplex Association of India, said:

“It is difficult to say. We will have to see how things go. We will have to start talking to distributors at that point of time and see what kind of content pipeline is there and what all options we have. So, that is difficult to predict at this point of time.”

He also said that cinemas may play older Hindi movies or English ones. He added that only half the seats will be available to remain social distancing, making sure there will be at least one gap between two people.

“We are planning to stagger timings of films and intermissions to ensure that too many people do not come to lobby or other areas.”

Airlines

Vistara has temporarily removed all reading material from seatback pockets among attempts to make flights more secure. Airlines will also face lower demand as well as higher expenses during the first months when applying social distancing norms.

Besides, there will be an uncertainty of travel routes as some states may lengthen the lockdown if they are labeled as orange and red zones. The resumption of air travel and the continuation of lockdowns will double the challenges for airlines and air travelers. Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said:

“Grounding the aircraft is quicker than flying them again! Because when you ground the aircraft you park it wherever you find the place and it is parked all over the place, not necessarily in official parking bays which have fuel pump links, etc. To get them back into operations will take many days longer than grounding them.”

The demand for air travel in the first days will likely increase as people stuck in places due to the lockdown will avail the service. But it will go down again because people will be more careful about taking flights.

Hotels

Hotels expect the demand to go up after at least half a year after the lockdown ends. However, following social distancing norms, they will not offer space for events, weddings, and conferences. There will likely human resource cuts, as well as other costs, and not all the services will be back at the same time. Sarovar Hotel MD Ajay Bakaya said:

“Business will come back starting with accommodation. In terms of meetings, conferences, weddings, we are looking at much longer gap before the states allow you to do those things and people feel comfortable getting together in closed places. So, we are looking at probably accommodation first and just room service for dining. Then gradually restaurants for in-house guests and then for outside guests to come in too.”

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