We crave one thing right now: the ‘old normal’ life

A host of over-hyped names the world bought into in lockdowns have fallen by the wayside – with their shares falling into oblivion

For a company that makes over-priced exercise bikes, it is unfortunate that Peloton finds itself in need of resuscitation. Its latest heart attack includes missed revenue targets; turnover forecasts slashed; a bigger quarterly loss than anticipated; and a new chief executive who sounds like he needs a lie down, not a spin a class, after complaining that the whole charade is proving to be “intellectually challenging, emotionally draining, physically exhausting, and all-consuming”.

The optimistic view is that Barry Mccarthy’s turnaround plan – steep job cuts, scaled back manufacturing and price rises – will save the day.

A more simple explanation is that Peloton, like so many of the supposed “lockdown winners”, will prove to be another “reopening loser”, and will never regain the dizzy heights it briefly attained when Covid was sweeping the world.

Remember all those rash claims about how society had changed forever because people had ordered a few more takeaways, shopped online, and were watching more Netflix?

Increasingly it looks like they were wrong. There is little evidence of a permanent change in behaviour, or at least not nearly as dramatically as many experts and commentators predicted.

On the contrary, we have been quick to return to our previous ways, leaving a growing list of over-hyped names by the wayside.

Peloton is simply symptomatic of a certain type of company that thrived during lockdown and has suddenly found that it is no longer in vogue.

Take Netflix. The streaming behemoth has gone from expectations of pending world dominance to fears that it may have already peaked, in blisteringly short time.

A share price that soared to nearly $700 (£570) at the height of lockdown now stands at four-anda-half year lows of just $176 after the first fall in subscriber numbers in a decade, the moment that Wall Street had long dreaded. Netflix must once again compete with old-fashioned entertainment such as live events, the cinema, and dining out. Even the mighty Amazon, a company that looked unstoppable, is battling its slowest growth for 20 years.

It’s a story being played out across Silicon Valley. Shares in food delivery darling Doordash have lost three quarters of their value in just six months, tumbling from highs of $245 last November to an all-time low of just $69. This has happened despite claims from chief executive Tony Xu that it would be able to thrive after Covid-19 because “habits, especially consumer habits, tend to stick”.

Still, Xu may console himself with the knowledge that all his main rivals are experiencing similar problems. Dutch-anglo outfit Just Eat Takeaway got so spectacularly carried away that it is having to regurgitate its £5.8bn takeover of Grubhub just one year after regulators gave it the green light.

It will be remembered as the moment that the wheels truly came off an industry where the economics never stacked up. More orders means more riders, and therefore more costs. Even when orders rocketed, profits largely remained elusive across the entire industry.

In a world where an overpriced pizza can arrive cold, late, and looking like it was dropped on the road, it is hardly surprising that people have quickly rediscovered the joys of eating out.

At Ocado, one of the City’s favourite lockdown beneficiaries, growth forecasts have been slashed. Tim Steiner, the chief executive, has blamed cost-of-living pressures but there may be a more simple explanation, which is that the great majority of the population prefers buying groceries in-store and will only ever supplement food shopping with the odd online transaction.

Human interaction and communication is what defines us as a species. We crave conversation, face-to-face exchanges, not isolation. Leisure time is vital to our wellbeing too. People have flocked back to the shops, restaurants, gigs, and gyms. The internet sucks the joy out of just about everything.

Holidays are back with a bang too. With Covid travel restrictions having almost disappeared in some parts of the world, holiday giant Tui expects summer bookings to “almost reach” 2019 levels this year. The one aberration remains working patterns. With shares in video-call specialist Zoom having surrendered all its lockdown gains, it is tempting to conclude that working from home was a short-lived phenomenon.

But after recovering strongly following the end of restrictions, the numbers going back to the office have plateaued. That likely represents a stand-off between employees and employers who are reluctant to order staff to return. However, there are signs that the pendulum is shifting back as big corporations lose patience.

Apple’s demands that staff come into the office for three days a week have been met with some resistance but it may open the floodgates to similar edicts now that the Government has scrapped a controversial employment bill that would have allowed staff a “default” option to work remotely. Ultimately there will probably be an inexorable longer term drift back.

Part of the correction in so-called “pandemic stocks” is simply a reflection of the wider inflationary led sell-off in technology shares as investors seek so-called “safe haven” defensive stocks, yet it’s far more than just that.

The virus hasn’t gone away but vaccines, and the Government’s “living with Covid” plan, have empowered people to reject the “new normal” and demand the “old normal” back.

‘Remember all those rash claims about how society had changed forever. We were wrong’