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You can care deeply about health care workers and the safety of all of us from a pandemic ...
... and you can absolutely feel for retail / small business owners who are being wiped out and are either told to close or told to operate at a loss.
It's not hard to do both.
... and you can absolutely feel for retail / small business owners who are being wiped out and are either told to close or told to operate at a loss.
It's not hard to do both.
Retail was in terrible shape prior to the pandemic.
Now it is being mulched.
There is going to be a hole that will take a long time to fill, and will fundamentally change what retail looks like going forward.
Now it is being mulched.
There is going to be a hole that will take a long time to fill, and will fundamentally change what retail looks like going forward.
Retail was already shifting into "stuff that Amazon can't do" mode before the pandemic. Not "omnichannel" ... but "stuff that Amazon can't do."
The future sure looks like a fusion of that and "safety" ... and I mean "safety" in multiple ways.
The future sure looks like a fusion of that and "safety" ... and I mean "safety" in multiple ways.
Safety means that the product you sell in a store has to be so darn productive that you protect your p&l. You won't be able to take risks ... you won't be able to afford to take risks. And that is terrible for retail.
Safety means you have to provide a safe environment, even though for the next few years the people most likely to shop in your store are the ones least likely to think the virus is a threat.
Safety means you have to care about your employees ... the polar opposite of Tyson.
Safety means you care about customer privacy. It means you probably shouldn't take a picture of a license plate or sniff a mobile phone via wifi and then know the customer was in the parking lot and then start emailing the customer.
Safety means you pick third party vendors carefully. You don't take advantage of your customer for the sake of helping out a third party.
Safety means protecting your p&l.
This means you cannot (going forward) have stores that are performing at 10% pre-tax profit or worse. You can't assume that level of risk. You must safely navigate low performance environments.
This means you cannot (going forward) have stores that are performing at 10% pre-tax profit or worse. You can't assume that level of risk. You must safely navigate low performance environments.
So the next five years in retail are a complete reinvention ... my industry is replacing the engine, transmission, and tires on a bus while the bus is moving down the freeway.
And forcing small businesses to close, while well-intentioned by Government to protect people, is really, really, really painful for those who are trying replace the engine, transmission, & tires on a bus while the bus is moving down the freeway.
Show me how the small business owner is supposed to survive being closed?
Seriously.
Show we what your solution is for those people if you shut them down?
Seriously.
Show we what your solution is for those people if you shut them down?
Nobody seems to have solutions for these poor people.
Imagine you run a restaurant ... and you are told to operate at < 25% capacity and told to "make a sacrifice" while you see Target / Walmart not being asked to "make a sacrifice".
Seems kinda cruel, doesn't it?
Imagine you run a restaurant ... and you are told to operate at < 25% capacity and told to "make a sacrifice" while you see Target / Walmart not being asked to "make a sacrifice".
Seems kinda cruel, doesn't it?
