We're all talking excitedly about the possibility that working from home will become much more normal after this. For some firms, it could become the default. The fallout for small businesses that rely on commuters is already apparent 1/some

We've seen lots of small news agents, coffee shops and sandwich shops struggling and that's part of the reason we're being urged to start going back to work. But when you think about the possible impact of a seismic shift in how we work the economic ripples are enormous

If we commute less and eat out less, we will see falling demand for food on the go. That has already affected sandwich suppliers in lockdown - if it persisted, it would also impact eg factories supplying individual cake bars to coffee chains. Producers of individual milk packets

Then the already struggling transport links - trains and buses get even more squeezed by the loss of business and need more government subsidy or cut even further - potentially more jobs

Then consider a 2-adult house where both are working from home more. Maybe they only need one car, not two in their new set-up? Further pressure on struggling car manufacturers.

Those are just the few sectors I could think of while my tea brewed. If the covid crisis does birth a new wave of working from home, the labour pains could be substantial.