Page 9 - BusinessWest March 31, 2021

ery will play out and who will benefit “One of the worries when you’re coming carmakers started offering almost
most. With that, Melnik talked about the growing sentiment that the recov- ery has been, and will continue to be, K-shaped in nature, with lines going both up and down, depending on which income bracket you’re in.
“We’ve definitely seen a bifurcation in terms of educational attainment in industry, wages, and who’s been able to work and who’s been more likely to be unemployed, and long-term unem- ployed,” he explained. “Those people who tend to have limited educational attainment who were working in face- to-face industries, service-type sectors, including food service, restaurants, and hospitality, and other services like barber shops, dry cleaners, nail salons, and auto-repair places ... those kinds of industries have been hurt dramati- cally, and they really haven’t recovered many of the lost jobs.
“In many ways, this recession has been the most unequal we’ve ever seen,” he went on. “And it has really exacerbated existing social inequali- ties, both in Massachusetts and nationally. People who were vulner- able to begin with are just made more vulnerable.”
Looking ahead and to what course the recovery will take, Nakosteen and others said so much depends on how comfortable people will be to go back to what life was like pre-pandemic, if you will.
“How are people going to feel going out in public when the public isn’t wearing masks?” he asked, add- ing quickly that he doesn’t know the answer. But whatever that answer is, it will go a long way toward determining how quickly and how profoundly the country, and this region, are able to rebound.
“It isn’t just vaccinations and deal- ing with these new variants,” he went on. “A lot of what will determine if there’s pent-up demand and how it’s released is truly behavioral. There’s no economic reason for there not to be a sharp rebound; I think it’s behavioral, it’s epidemiological, it’s medical.”
What’s in Store?
As for spending ... area retailers are obviously looking for the lid to come off, although in some cases, the lid wasn’t on very hard to begin with.
Dave DiRico, owner of the golf shop in West Springfield that bears
his name, said that, after a very quiet early spring last year, there was a surge in spending on golf equipment and apparel as many people picked up the game, or picked it up again, because it was one of the few things people could actually do.
It’s early in the new year, but that trend is continuing, he told Business- West, adding that the store has been packed with players loading up for the coming year.
“We’ve been really, really busy, even for this time of year,” he said. “A lot of people have money to spend, and ...
KARL PETRICK
out of recession is that you know you’re going to go back to your trend growth rate — that’s why it’s the trend. You just don’t want to go back too soon.”
unprecedented incentives, and con- sumer confidence picked up.
Granted, lack of inventory, fueled by supply-chain issues, slowed the pace of progress somewhat, but many consumers simply ordered vehicles and waited — sometimes for months — for them to arrive at the dealership.
“The main things for us is consum- er confidence,” he noted. “If the con- sumer has confidence in the economy as a whole and in their own situation, where they don’t feel like they’re going to lose their job next week, that’s when
Recovery
Continued on page 45
they’re spending it. We’re seeing a lot of people coming in telling us they’re spending their stimulus money, and that’s a good thing. That’s what it’s for, when you get right down to it — stim- ulating the economy.”
Peter Wirth, co-owner of Mer- cedes-Benz of Springfield, expressed similar sentiments, noting that, after sales ground to a halt right after the lockdown of last March, they picked back up as stimulus checks came in,
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