Back to Normal in the Age of Covid-19? Not So Fast, US Consumers Say

American consumers, a vital engine of the country’s economy, aren’t quite ready for life to return to normal.

A Bain/Dynata survey of US consumers, conducted April 6–8, finds that 42% or respondents are not at all comfortable returning to their normal social activities, such as going out to restaurants, due to fears over the coronavirus pandemic. Respondents were more likely to be comfortable returning to their normal places of work, with only 29% reporting low comfort levels.

There were noticeable differences among age groups, however, with 67% of older respondents (age 65 and over) expressing discomfort returning to their social lives. Only 30% of younger Americans (age 18 to 29) are uncomfortable with normal social activities, and even fewer—19%—are uncomfortable returning to work, perhaps because of the disproportionate economic pain they’re feeling.

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Karen Harris is managing director of Bain & Company's Macro Trends Group and is based in the firm's New York office. 

Dynata provides first-party data for the Bain Consumer Health Index and provides a nationally representative sample of US adults (weekly) that constitutes the underlying data for this analysis.

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