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You and Yours: City Living; Retail Bots; Work from Bed

18/01/2021

City Living; Retail Bots; Work from Bed

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, City Living; Retail Bots; Work from Bed

Has the pandemic changed the allure of city living forever?

Why some people are deciding to not only work from home, but to work from bed.

There's a lot of speculation about how the pandemic might change things - how we work for example and where we want to live.  This month, PWC put out a report, predicting that a shift away from city-living is likely to decrease the population of London for the first time in more than 30 years.   What happens in the end will come down to people and their preferences.  We'll hear from Josh and Sarah.  Josh is a barrister and he lives in one of the high rise apartment blocks in Manchester. He has no plans to move leave the city.  Whereas Sarah moved back to her parent's farm in Cheshire when the first lock down hit, and she's since reevaluated her life in Manchester and her career in finance - she's gone from being a banker to a baker. 

A lot of people want to buy the new PlayStation 5 and a lot of people have been disappointed. A big part of the problem is that dealers are using automated computer software - or bots - to bulk buy games consoles like PlayStation 5, so they can sell them on at inflated prices. It's reached the point where MPs are getting involved, calling for these bots to be banned, we'll hear more about that campaign and how bots work.

And, why thousands of us are now choosing to work from bed.  There are more than 16 thousand posts on Instagram of people 'working from bed'.   John Lewis says shoppers have been buying wedge pillows to prop themselves up in bed while they work.   Sales were up 65 percent in December. Etsy is reporting a big increase in searches for laptop stands.  Let us know if you work from bed - email youandyours@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Jess Quayle

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