Editor's note: Julie Levine is senior manager consumer insights at Cuisinart. Levine can be reached by e-mail at julielevine621@gmail.com.
There has been no shortage of research on consumer trends during the pandemic. We’ve all been reading about them: Which product categories are gaining, which are falling? What are consumers doing more of (baking!) and what do they miss the most? How are their levels of fear and anxiety evolving week to week? What will post-pandemic look like? Will retail ever be the same? What about the restaurant industry? Or the airlines? How do consumer trends vary by state, generation or political affiliation? As professional researchers, the number of webinars, newsletters and whitepapers is overwhelming.
That’s why it was so refreshing to attend a recent Women in Research (WIRe) virtual event, The Great Reset 2020. We were a group of professional men and women across North America meeting over Zoom to talk about how we were handling the shift during the COVID-19 shut-down.
The Great Reset
The Great Reset is an initiative founded by Kalinda Fisher and launched in October 2018 with the goal of spurring civil conversations around difficult topics. Fischer, a recent winner of the Ginny Valentine Badge of Courage Award, inspired us with her story and gave us the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations. The event stood out from others by offering breakout rooms where we were able to discuss how the current crisis will impact our working lives forever and how we were coping. These sessions were soulfully like much needed therapy, and it felt both comforting and validating to share our perspectives.
The focus was on ourselves, as researchers, and how we have been personally managing during this challenging time. Before the event began, there was a preliminary survey to determine what our experiences were. Nearly 90% of us worked from home, most everyone had great support from our employers, and almost 40% of us were also responsible for home-schooling. These data were shared with us at the start of the meeting, and the bond began to form.
Silver linings
The objective was to discuss how we managed current challenges, where we found successes, and if we came out of this with any silver linings. For me, the silver lining was connecting to other researchers not to discuss consumer trends and the “new normal,” but to share our own journeys. As an introvert, I wondered if I was going through this isolated time differently from my colleagues, who seemed dominantly extroverted. Working from home means sharing my space with my husband and two college-aged sons, as well as working full-time from the dining room, which wasn’t so bad! I didn’t experience the loneliness that some of my single colleagues suffered, and there were surely enough virtual meetings, lunches and happy hours to keep me engaged with others.
Certain that my views were counter to what most others experienced, I then heard from another young woman in my breakout room – she was an introvert too, and while she lived alone, we shared many of the same feelings about being in the comfort of our homes amidst the pandemic. Despite our differences in age and life stage, all of us in the breakout room shared a bond through how we were managing in this new world. Shared through the world of Zoom meetings in the raw – without makeup, professional outfits, or coiffed (and colored) hair. It was refreshing being me, and I had lots of company.