Imagine a visit to a mall where you are the only person within a 10ft x 10ft space. Think about the situation that when you enter a PVR theatre with your husband and child to watch a firstday, firstshow blockbuster, you confront “staggered seating arrangement”, empty seats on both sides, and floor stickers to indicate the onemetre socialdistancing gap. Visualise a logistics company that offers you the option to not just workfromhome, but workfromanywhere.
COVID19 has changed the professional and social atmosphere in offices and factories, transformed business models across sectors, and altered the mindset of consumers. This is especially true of segments such as tourism, travel, and hospitality, where physical proximity and persontoperson politeness was considered inevitable, and an intimate part of businesses. No longer can owners, employees, and customers feel the same, or behave in the same manner, as they did yesterday.
We look at three sectors—physical retail, logistics, and entertainment —where the hus tleandbustle and congregation of crowds was considered a norm. In the future, footfalls may fall in the malls, but percapita spending will go up. A simplified model of “click, ship, done” may be adopted in logistics. Amusement will largely be in the form of homeentertainment, without live audience or restricted one, and with a focus on how to curate con tent, rather than merely to create it.
Physical Retail: A slow-and-steady approach
This story is from the July 27, 2020 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 27, 2020 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Propaganda Files
A recent spate of Hindi films distorts facts and creates imaginary villains. Century-old propaganda cinema has always relied on this tactic
Will Hindutva Survive After 2024?
The idealogy of Hindutva faces a challenge in staying relevant
A Terrific Tragicomedy
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a tender and extravagant sketch of apocalypse
Trapped in a Template
In the upcoming election, more than the Congress, the future of the Gandhi family is at stake
IDEOLOGY
Public opinion will never be devoid of ideology: but we shall destroy ourselves without philosophical courage
The Many Kerala Stories
How Kerala responded to the propaganda film The Kerala Story
Movies and a Mirage
Previously portrayed as a peaceful paradise, post-1990s Kashmir in Bollywood has become politicised
Lights, Cinema, Politics
FOR eight months before the 1983 state elections in undivided Andhra Pradesh, a modified green Chevrolet van would travel non-stop, except for the occasional pit stops and food breaks, across the state.
Cut, Copy, Paste
Representation of Muslim characters in Indian cinema has been limited—they are either terrorists or glorified individuals who have no substance other than fixed ideas of patriotism
The Spectre of Eisenstein
Cinema’s real potency to harness the power of enchantment might want to militate against its use as a servile, conformist propaganda vehicle