Bloomberg News analyzed foot traffic data for downtown merchants in five major U.S. cities and compared them to merchants in five nearby suburbs.

(Bloomberg)—The Chicago Loop Alliance, which promotes the downtown core, rolled out a Back-to-Work website in early October encouraging workers to put on slacks again and try returning to the office.

Its hope was short-lived. Covid-19 came roaring back in Chicago within weeks of the campaign’s launch, and the alliance quickly toned down the program. “The hard push to get people to come back has definitely softened, for now,” said Jessica Cabe, a spokeswoman for the group.

In recent weeks, foot traffic at downtown merchants was down by around 70% in U.S. cities including Chicago and San Francisco, according to smartphone data compiled by SafeGraph Inc. Suburban businesses are closer to normal, though still down from 2019.

One of the biggest shifts of 2020 was the flow of economic activity into suburban or rural main streets from urban downtowns. Many Americans abandoned commutes into cities or sought larger living spaces as they worked from home, a trend that looks to endure even after the virus-threat subsides. The transformation portends dire repercussions for metropolitan business districts.

Bloomberg News analyzed foot traffic data for downtown merchants in five major U.S. cities and compared them to merchants in five nearby suburbs for the period spanning mid-October through November — a period that included Black Friday.