This week, as the world emerges as though from a terrifying and surreal hibernation, we’re asking ourselves what we want to leave behind, and how we want to live from here on out. Yesterday, from River Island to John Lewis, shops on the high street reopened their doors, albeit with necessary (but no less dystopian) measures in place to keep customers and staff safe. Having temperatures taken at the door, plastic screens keeping checkout employees at a distance, and more antibacterial hand sanitiser than our poor, chapped digits can handle will soon become par for the course but it’s not just the IRL retail experience that will change the way we shop. Where many household names are inviting us in, others, like Inditex, the parent company of high street giant Zara, which announced last week that it would be absorbing up to 1,200 of its stores globally to boost online shopping and fight the 44% downturn in sales over the lockdown period, will be streamlining their IRL spaces. Meanwhile some high street classics didn't make it through the crisis at all, with Oasis and Warehouse filing for bankruptcy in April. Let’s not forget, though, that the World Health Organization is warning England to remain cautious of lockdown lifting as we’re still in a "very active phase of the pandemic" . We’re all aware of the economic fallout of coronavirus – and no one wants to see further job losses or more fashion stalwarts fold – but the government’s move to ease social distancing measures and encourage us to spend our money on the high street is heavily motivated by pressure from business leaders who are concerned about their stores going into administration.