The mantra of 2022 should really be: No one knows anything.
It’s stunning how little we understand about how the pandemic has changed our lives and our country. It’s not clear whether the U.S. economy is hot or not, or if big cities like New York will be forever scarred. We aren’t sure if women’s careers have been permanently impaired or if our mental health will be OK.
The future of our online shopping habits is another unknown.
The government disclosed recently that the United States’ e-commerce boom during the pandemic was even bigger than it previously believed. But in 2021, that trend started to backslide a bit. Physical stores beat e-commerce last year, and they continue to do so this year. The trajectory of internet buying has flipped from bananas to bananas confusing.
Now, corporate executives, retail analysts and economists are trying to figure out how quickly we might
