Pandemic 101

• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Author: Ronald Paul Hill
• Date: 01 June 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12303

EDITORIAL

Pandemic 101

People around the globe are looking at a “new normal”to emerge out of the recent crisis, yet

they have few good models of what it might look like. As a professor of marketing and public

policy in the Kogod School at American University in Washington, DC, I have had the opportu-

nity to work with consumers who are considered vulnerable in the marketplace for over three

decades (see Hill, 2001 for some examples). It seems as if their plight has now expanded to most

everyone. Some lessons are in order.

Market vulnerability is caused by a lack of sufficient resource–control combinations to meet

a set of needs that reach consumption adequacy (Hill and Sharma, 2020). This is likely difficult

for many people to understand, but it can be made tangible by noting that resources are simply

the goods and services you look for at various stores and online, and control is the ability to

acquire them. Together, they determine if one is able to access products they either need or

desire.

Consumption adequacy suggests that consumers have the ability to meet their most impor-

tant and generic needs (Martin and Hill, 2012). Categories include healthful and sufficient

quantities of food; clothing consistent with weather conditions and cultural tastes; safe and ade-

quate shelter for occupants; preventative and remedial health care; and opportunities for

growth through training, education, and jobs. The homeless and urban and rural poor, as well

as persons at the base of the global economic pyramid, have yielded many insights about how

consumer behavior manifests when they lack such adequacy.

The current crisis has moved entire societies into such deficits. For most people in devel-

oped economies, nothing like this pandemic has occurred since the end of World War II, leav-

ing no good approximations in recent history. Of course, the poorest citizens in most nations,

including the United States, go without consumption adequacy on a regular basis. Even in

major cities with affluent communities, some neighborhoods are characterized by food deserts,

lack of banking options, and a dearth of adequate places for living and working. While the term

learned helplessness has been used to capture their lived experiences, most find ways of getting

enough to survive. Yet they continue to suffer both emotionally and physically.

Are their common reactions now going mainstream? Consider that the poor often view situ-

ations as uncertain and without a discernible endpoint. Anxiety, depression, lack of self-effi-

cacy, and control are potential responses, along with physical outcomes such as obesity, illegal

drug use, and substance abuse of tobacco and alcohol. Sound familiar? Carryout food is on the

rise, alcohol consumption has increased (and its sale is considered an “essential”business), and

gun owners are filling their reserves in case of armed rebellion.

So, what should governments and businesses do now? First, the vacillation from the

highest levels of government must cease and desist. It is possible that keeping the citizenry on

edge and fearful may serve certain political interests, but it does little to assuage the feelings

of fear and uncertainty that come from prognostications that shift from day to day. Working

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12303

Copyright 2020 by The American Council on Consumer Interests

J Consum Aff. 2020;54:393–394. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 393