Covid19 - The Spark that started the Convenience Revolution?

[Chris Levarek]

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?

[Anthony Angotti]

@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.