Covid19 - The Spark that started the Convenience Revolution?

Question

Throughout history, work industries and employment are defined by technology innovations and shifts. Some examples are the Financial-agricultural revolution (1600–1740), the Industrial Revolution (1780-1840) and the Digital Revolution (1975-2020).

Covid19 has closed down specific industries and employment is shifting already. Those who worked in retail, tourism, restaurants and hotels are shifting to new employment opportunities in the "convenience" or even "automation" space. Labor is shifting to delivery services (Amazon), UPS, etc.

Companies such as Netflix, EA games, Outschool(Online Learning), Zoom, Slack and other online service providers are hiring and seeing interesting positive repercussions.

Will this shift cement in the already strong online delivery/remote services and kick off a "Convenience" Revolution? One which shifts employment to these sectors of remote convenience, increases automation processes and further encourages the use of online or delivery services.

How will this impact our tenant base? Will Class C type tenants be the quickest to bounce back from job loss as they shift to these new employment offerings with greater ease. Will Class A/B type tenants be more affected as the need for higher paying jobs requires higher level of training or lengthier hiring processes?

What are the longer term implications of this whole Covid19 as a whole or is it too soon to tell?

Rich Hupper · Answer

Covid 19 is a bad case of the flu blown out of proportion by social media, the dinosaur media, and the fact that our society as a whole is hypersensitive to everything.

Anthony Angotti · Answer

@Chris Levarek robots and computers were going to be taking jobs for generations.

I can see your point to an extent, but it seems like throughout history all of these industry shifts lead to new jobs and new opportunities. There may be some changes, but I think the biggest shift to Real Estate may be those landlords that rent space to big corporate headquarters/offices.

This shift may lead to employers realizing that many of their employees can easily work from home and that they can reduce their square footage needed at offices. I don't think this will be overnight, and I think it was probably going to happen anyway as millennials take leadership roles in organizations, but the COVID-19 related restrictions may have accelerated that a bit.

As for a change to rental housing I think that larger apartments may be in more demand in the future as people work from home because they need an "office" area.

All of these speculations on my end are pretty long term so in the next 5 year period I don't think we will see a huge change in how people live and work once everything returns to semi-normal.

Chris Levarek · Answer

@Anthony Angotti Good points. With the United States at over 135k documented cases(3/30/20) and looking at the data, I feel this will stretch on longer then originally estimated. If this indeed is the case, without alternative action taken, it is my opinion, work will shift dramatically to W@H or employment sectors enabling quarantine measures.

Furloughed workers from the Hotel, Restaurant and Travel industries will not be able to provide for their families on the 1-2 months of stimulus as I expect this to last longer then 1-2 months. Just looking at this article from NPR, the shift is already happening and doesn't look to be slowing :

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/24/820624379/from-grocery-stores-to-pizza-delivery-some-companies-are-on-a-hiring-spree

With thousands of displaced workers in other countries(think India), I expect the number of Upwork, Fiverr and Virtual Assistant jobs to vastly increase as well.

I've already had 2-3 tenants who are unable to pay rent for this next month due to job loss. We are implementing payment plans with our current properties however additionally we are looking into currently hiring companies/programs to which to recommend tenants in hardship.

Joe M. · Answer

Its like Andrew Yang was right

Rich Hupper · Answer

Wow that's pretty crazy for the national guard to do that

Edwin Fernandez · Answer

Agreed. It could also be used as a tool to support a political agenda. Btw, I don't give a $h1t about left or right, the truth is in the middle somewhere...

We must be vigilante, tyranny is encroaching on our freedoms. Its getting creepy, how far are we going to take this hysteria? In RI, nearby where I live, the national guard allegedly went door to door looking for NY residents that have recently fled the state. Wtf.

Covid19 - The Spark that started the Convenience Revolution?

Covid19 - The Spark that started the Convenience Revolution?

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