Coronavirus and the entrepreneurial spirit

Hong Kong is a strange place sometimes.  I've been here for five years now and I'm constantly amazed by how stagnant the society has become at times.  Technology is surprisingly backwards.  E-Commerce seems trapped in the noughties.  Digital payments is still painfully slow in its uptake.  Something as simple as paying for a taxi requires a handful of cash, with the ability to pay with card rare as hens' teeth.  Yet at other times, I'm truly amazed by how vibrant and ingenious the people are.  One of these areas has always been how quick it is that people here identify (and act on) ways to make money!

Over the last few months, the selling of surgical and face masks has started to go into overdrive.  At first, everyone tried to get in on the game and stores which sold items completely unrelated to surgical masks started to stock this most valuable of commodity.  Now, things have become even more professional as the dedicated stores have started to open.

These mask stores have started to pop up everywhere.  Often in extremely high end (or at the very least formerly high end) locations.  They don't look like the short term stores trying to sell goods quickly at a discounted price.  Instead, these are fancy looking stores, with quality branding and sleek facades.

For me, these stores are an incredible example of just how entrepreneurial people can be.  They've identified a need and they've pounced on it.

Then again, there's also something more terrifying about it all.  Seeing these stores, there is a permanence about them.  These don't look like the short term pop ups that once existed to merely fill a gap between more permanent tenants.  Rather they seem like a fixture, here for a far longer period than any of us would like to admit or accept.