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Some online businesses thrived during lockdown – how are they doing now?
- Overtonwindow 4y agoOne industry that completely thrived but has declined, are the folks making the masks. I recall when Grandmothers rejoiced as they broke out their sewing machines and we’re making masks left and right raking in money. In a way, it reminded me of the modern day victory Garden.
- haggy102 4y agoThat was always going to be a very temporary boom. The only reason there was an opportunity was because supply was suddenly and vastly dwarfed by demand for weeks. As soon as large mask manufacturers were able to ramp up production, the grannies were doomed.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoGood point, but I think that microcosm event, home spun mask businesses, will be an MBA case study. If it hasn’t already.
- harry8 4y agoYeah that and the knowledge we now have that N95 masks work great for both the wearer and for those exposed to the wearer while cloth masks are basically useless for preventing any kind of spread without some additional filter that most cottage industrialists do not include in their design and manufacturing process.
- jimmaswell 4y agoSome crazies want to make them permanent, thankfully only a vocal minority it seems.
- rhino369 4y agoFrom what I've heard, it was mostly the mask manufactures that ramped up production that were doomed since they made large investments and now demand is back to nothing and Chinese imports are back. The real winners were those who already had production capacity and didn't make any capital investment. The Grannies made some money and then stopped. but they didn't go broke.
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- daenz 4y agoIt makes sense. When we were forced to adapt to remote-everything, we discovered a lot of goods and services that we may not have found otherwise. Remote-first became normalized. But now with restrictions gone, many things are going back to the way they were. A few things are sticking though, like a remote-first culture in tech, because we now see the overwhelming benefits, regardless of lockdown restrictions.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoQuestion: When you say things will go back to the way they work, what do you think will drive this? Perhaps cost, time, convenience?
- daenz 4y agoIs "work" meant as "were" here? If so, I think it's familiarity and wanting to socialize and be around people again that will bring things back to the way they were. There are a few benefits that some people have discovered, like a culture of remote-first work, or living in a smaller city, that won't go back, but I would bet that most things go back.
- randomsearch 4y agoWhat are the benefits for the employer?
- daenz 4y agoIt doesn't need to benefit the employer for it to be overwhelmingly beneficial for everyone else.
- krageon 4y agoHappier employees that are just as productive are beneficial for everyone, including the employer.
- randomsearch 4y ago
- HomeGear 4y agoI worked for a company that was saved from bankruptcy due to COVID (i.e. product was instantly of high demand). Instead of using this “gift” to stabilize the company, management used it to raise their wages, hire outside consultants, and further invest in our out losing strategy.
- vishnugupta 4y agoYeah, online schooling will feel the heat. Some of them already are, see this HN news[1] from a few days ago "Eight hundred employees resign after WhiteHat Jr asks them to work from office". Don't go by the title, it has nothing to do with back to office thing. They are firing as many as they can while trying to avoid bad publicity [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31379722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31379722
- dustinmoris 4y agoMy barber shop thrived during lockdown and they said all their barber friends thrived as well and they all wanted lockdowns to continue as long as possible, because they got money from the government and at the same time received lots of enquiries from customers to cut their hair (illegally) in their gardens. My barber said he's made more money than ever in his life because people paid so much more and tipped him extra for coming to their houses whilst still getting government money. I on the other hand was one of the few idiots who didn't go on furlough and then used my furlough money to holiday in Spain and instead was working throughout the entire pandemic like an idiot and now I have to pay more taxes for all the expensive COVID-19 measures which I believe until today we should have never done and let nature filter an overpopulated planet like it's meant to be.
- gidorah 4y agoI work for an ecommerce business. Year end Oct-20 and Year end Oct-21 were great. Huge sales. They now suck. Looks like YE22 will be ~50% of prior year. Possibly lower than YE19. Looks like everyone bought what they needed between Mar-20 and Nov-21.