Like many, I first want to say how proud I am to be associated with the retail food industry. The efforts on the part of everyone in the industry to keep stores in stock, associates safe and customers served as best as possible is nothing
With jobless claims spiking to 3.3 M last week and more states moving to “Stay at Home”, Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc across the U.S. Many retailers have displayed agility and innovation to quickly implement new tactics to keep business going as well as contribute
What a week! Covid-19 reaction hit the tipping point in the United States. As of Sunday, March 22, one in four Americans is required to stay at home unless seeking or providing an essential service. Most consumers in the rest of the country are voluntarily
Unprecedented. In my over three decades of covering and working in the retail industry, we have never seen anything like the impact of Coronavirus on the global retail scene. 9/11 temporarily ground business in the United States to a halt as fear and uncertainty gripped the
There have been two major developments with Amazon Go in the past few weeks. First, they opened a “jumbo” sized store (at least for a Go) in Seattle. And, they just announced that they would make the technology available to other retailers and just named
Less than three years ago, I was part of a consulting team that participated in a strategic planning retreat for Art Van Furniture’s senior management. At the time (mid 2017), the company was riding high: it was immensely profitable, growing fast, entering new markets and
Impacts on supply chain due to the Covid-19 coronavirus are happening quickly. Depending on your business, it is safe to assume that there will be 10-30% (or more) of incoming merchandise impacted by supply disruptions or delays. In addition, due to the diverse impact of
Since 2005, we have published the Global Retail Trends & Innovations Report in collaboration with Ebeltoft Group, a consortium of international retail consultancies of which we are a founding member. In this year’s report, Retail Innovations 2020, we explore stores and concepts on the cutting
News reports today indicate that Brandless, the SoftBank Vision Fund backed start-up, will shut down permanently. This news follows a tumultuous few years for the once promising start-up that offered high quality, “brandless” goods for a single fixed price point of $3. Brandless was an e-commerce
The grocery retail world has been rocked these past few weeks with the perils of overexpansion and the subsequent closures of some prominent chains that, just a few years prior, were seen as rising stars and potential national chains. Earth Fare just announced that they have
