I have absolutely no political agenda here.
I make no accusation of that, apologies if you thought that was the case.
This strike is political. Both sides are pushing their agendas and tbh, sorta, rightfully so. Isn't that the point. Us staff on the ground, in general, care only about our terms being destroyed and the absence of a pay rise in some time.
*Purely anecdotal. When Thameslink are on strike, the coffee shops, pubs and restaurants in St Albans are all busier than normal, as people who would have gone to London work at home, walk up to town for their coffees, and/or simply go out locally. On the last strike people were wueijg out the door of one coffee shop at 0730 in the morning! You never see that normally. People still spend the money, but in a different place. That’s why the damage done is very local, but not at a macro level.
I worked in retail for many years and the trends to follow are influenced by more than just what local transport is doing. It also affects hospitality different as well as the event space. Cancelling a theatre trip can save you a bob or two but you might only put pennies back into a local pub. Also, cancelling trips into town has the secondary impact of spending habits of the entire day. Train fare into town, couple quid on sweets at the station, lunch/meal deal, pint in the boozer, casual shopping in the area, restaurant, late night drinks and social fun times, Uber home, and a shame kebab. There is a wider economical impact.
Now we are pulling out of Covid and its almost a distant memory, people are getting pay rises, the economy is pulling back and inflation is dropping slowly. Summer is fast approaching and overall spending is pushing towards healthy. There is too much to speculate over what is and isn't making an impact. I was listening to a retail analyst the other day discussing how much the weather is impacting the economy and how that shifts trends in where money is spent. It is far more complicated than either of us are suggesting. Football season is almost over (it is for me) so my weekends are free and I have spare beer money to buy some holiday T's.