I understand how much a local area depends on people working in the businesses in their area. I'm in metro Detroit. About 20 years ago all of the auto companies changed their rules about customers taking employees out for meals. For the most part it killed customer lunches. The hit to local restaurants was huge. It's never really recovered to the same level.
But then I thought so? Money is shifted from one area to another so who loses in the regional end? People aren't eating at restaurants but they're getting food at the grocery store for meals now as an example. So we're still buying food, we're just not eating out as much. Then I considered who owns the grocery stores and who owns the chain restaurants and which have more power in DC. The big restaurants have all been bought up by hedge funds and the like. They have lots of political clout. Many grocery stores are locally owned or maybe regional like Kroger in the midwest. But not owned by hedge funds and their political clout is negligible. Same with the large clothing companies like Polo, Burberry, Old Navy, etc. All owned by hedge funds and the like
Not to mention how much it'll destroy the commercial real estate market which has already been surviving on band aids for years. This is probably the biggest factor in the push to back to office. Unfortunately the more powerful from different segments scream, the more likely there is to get results.
Personally I haven't been able to stay home. I work IT at a manufacturing plant and have to be onsite as a lot of my work requires me to go on the plant floor. The restaurants around the plant are still doing well. My wife has been able to work from home the whole time thankfully. Her company has hedged back and forth about returning. She may go in once a month. Because her work site is near thousands of apartments, the local area is still doing well