What will 2021 hold for us?

The New Year is a great time to plan ahead. Setting the agenda for one’s pattern of life during 2021 is a little more difficult. So what are the decisions being made by households about the year to come, given the effects of Covid in 2020?

The Covid lockdowns of 2020 are fresh in the memory. They involved adopting a totally new way of life for millions of people. The shut down of a nation. Even the pubs were closed. And as that country opens up, what will we all venture out to do?

You may have a memory of a holiday abroad on your wall staring at you in the shape of a personalised clock willing you to get going to book a foreign getaway. And you may have still to use airline ticket vouchers . It’s not so easy to plan ahead as restrictions are still likely to be a part of travelling to different destinations. Airlines are gearing up to a better year ahead for travel given the vaccine roll out.

So the focus has been very much on the home during the pandemic. One’s immediate surroundings have for a lot of people provided security & reassurance that the world outside the home has failed to do. There’s been an increase in home cooking and crafts. People have taken up hobbies - it’s no coincidence that firms like Hornby selling train sets have had a record year.

It may be that some of the house has been delineated according to those interests - a design your own plaque marked ‘Dad’s shed’ is a case in point! Curtains’ sales are up as people adapt their interiors to create a living environment that is not only a home but a home office.

Millions of workers are not now faced with the daily commute into offices. They may be asked to do so sporadically. As this is saving hours of journeys on public transport, people are adapting to the new work environment at home. How far this will revert to how it was is difficult to know. Google Meet Free & Zoom make it much easier to interact with colleagues online. Organisations like the National Trust are even providing virtual backgrounds for video conferencing using their heritage locations.

More than ever the online world has increased in importance and relevance to everyday life. And due to the economic climate some of our familiar high street stores are no longer viable. More coffee shops & charity shops are appearing in their place. And yet some brands have achieved progress by combining a melange of online shopping and click & collect. Supermarket chains like Sainsburys have gone down this route and other stores like Currys PC World have taken things a stage further. If you have questions about your order instead of getting a pop up digital helper you now have the option of a real person talking through your queries via video 24/7. It’s a useful way forward and still acknowledges, albeit a remote service, the demand for human to human contact.