Retail Ice Age

The Retail Ice Age.  This is described on business channels as the decline of retail stores in favor of online shopping.  Why? It’s easier, cheaper, and quicker.  Guilty, I am.  Big chains such as Macy's, Sears, Penny's and others are suffering in sales, store closings, and stock devaluations.

But, much of this bad news story accrues to the retail stores themselves. About twenty years or more ago, retail decided to cut costs by reducing staff, particularly knowledgeable staff, creating cash register stations, and diminishing help to customers.  Basically, the customer entered the store knowing full well they were on their own.  The online buying explosion is little more than the transfer from going to a store offering no help to an online page offering no help. 

If you've  visited any of these stores in the last many years, you know this to be true. Hardly any help anywhere, and sometimes you need to walk a long way just to pay, often to a queue, like the grocery store.

However, a few store sectors still have some staff expertise, and they seem to survive.  Hardware is one example. Automobile and luxury goods stores are others, though even these are under pressure from the GOM, i.e. the Great Online Movement.

Retail, in their interest of greater profit, created an environment that invited in the door Amazon and other online market places to carve them up and spit them out.

The brain trusts at these stores have responded, not by changing and improving the in-store experience, but by adding their own versions of online shopping.  Capitulation.

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