We’re still coming to grips with the world after COVID-19. The tragedy of loved ones lost continues, as it will for months, as we learn to live with this new virus and prepare for the one after it — indeed, as we learn to live in the pandemic age. That is what this new time will surely be called. It has earned that moniker with what we’ve already seen, let alone what is to come.
They say you never return from a journey the same, and this has been a journey. So what has changed?
We used to live in a world where our individual domain included public space, to which we had open access. What the COVID pandemic has demonstrated, however, is that the only space you can count on is what lies between your walls or your property lines.
That is to say, public space is now a conditional. It is not a given. It will certainly be restricted in some ways, and it may be denied.
That was the visceral lesson over which literally billions of people brooded this spring as they sat sheltering at home, with their favorite bars, cafes, restaurants, health clubs, music halls, theatres, arenas and parks padlocked.
As those weeks crawled by, there were few people in the entire world who didn’t wish that they had a little nicer shelter, with a few more things to do and better spaces to relax. That lesson and that feeling will be fresh in mind in the post-crisis economy. Even after the world “fully” opens again, those weeks of longing and fear of public space will leave behind, as we like to say in the recreational water industry, a “residual.”
And that residual will be reflected in purchasing decisions. At AQUA, we are hearing that from just about everyone we talk to that maintains or improves the backyard. They’re telling us this isn’t just talk, it’s real.
The world really has changed. For better or worse, it has become more insular. Less public. Close quarters with strangers is now considered vaguely dangerous. Even after COVID-19 is vaccinated off the stage, that lesson will remain.
What this has to mean is that a percentage of the disposable income that was spent on travel, performance and sports tickets will be spent at home or around it. People are now looking at their homes as a place where they may have to spend a lot more time than they planned. And that’s good news for our industry moving forward.
