NRF’s 2022 Big Show was far from big but it was the first in person gathering at a scale that the industry has seen since early 2020. Similar to what happened at CES this year, most of the big tech companies such as Intel and SAP did not show. Many of the medium sized firms also opted out. This opened up the opportunity for younger, smaller Innovators including tech startups to shine. Their show footprint and density were consistent with prior years, whereas the main exhibitor space had major gaps. The State of Retail The uneven …
Experience
Reimagining the Supermarket
Note: The following has been excerpted from “How We Eat, the Brave New World of Food and Drink.” Copyright © 2022 by Peckshee, LLC. All good businesses gaze into their crystal ball in an attempt to arrive at the future an hour or two before everyone else. In Italy, “The Supermarket of the Future” has existed for some time. It was the name of a project that the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati created in 2015 for the Milan World Expo. The experimental store was part of a “future food district pavilion” sponsored by Coop Italia, the country’s …
Here’s Why Retailers Can Stop All That Discounting
We're closing out a year that saw stores cautiously open with pandemic protocols, then saw doors open wide because vaccines were introduced, then saw mask rules go back into effect because of the Delta variant, all while online shopping grew for both ecommerce-only and traditional retailers because it was a safe and stable way to shop -- until the supply chain crisis kicked in. ...Who needs a nap? Agile Retail Retailers and brands have been pushed to be more creative and responsive than ever, especially since consumers have remained motivated …
Four Retail Lessons from the Hospitality Sector
It’s no coincidence that people have a love affair with cooking shows, and I’m certainly no exception. Whether I’m scrolling through Netflix, Hulu, FuboTV, or even the Travel Channel, a wide variety of chefs are ready to take viewers on a journey from individual ingredients to the finished dish. But it’s not the game-changing tips and tricks and generous servings of comfort and sophistication that grab our attention – it’s the entire cooking experience. Watching these shows got me thinking about the overall fashion retail experience. …
The Joe Behind Trader Joe’s
In the entire world of retailing perhaps there is no single operation that breaks more rules, defies more standard practices and is so successful as Trader Joe’s, the grocery chain founded by Joe Coulombe … and now 500 stores strong. Coulombe, who sold the company to the big German retailer Aldi Nord in 1979, died earlier this year at age 89, but not before he had written “Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys,” a combination autobiography and business guide whose title pretty much sums up the company’s …
Why Amazon Has a Hold on Millennials
Since its inception, Jeff Bezos has been playing the long game at Amazon. He put everyone on notice in his first shareholder letter in 1997: “We believe that a fundamental measure of our success will be shareholder value we create over the long term. We choose to prioritize growth.” Profits took a back seat to growth and early on he took a lot of flak about it, as when Forrester Research analyst George Colony called the company “Amazon. Toast.” The winning strategy as laid out in that first letter and followed ever since is “customer …
Generation Alpha Steps Up to the Plate
Members of Generation Alpha were born after 2010, so the oldest members of this generation are about to enter their teen years. They’ve been dubbed “mini-millennials” because of the similarities in purchasing behavior between this demographic and their millennial parents. (Not unlike the similarities between Gen Z and their Boomer grandparents.) As the most educated generation, Generation Alpha is already highly opinionated and activists, with a fully developed position on most current issues. In a 2019 survey published in Business Wire, Gen …
The New Luxury: Sustainable Fashion
What will luxury look like moving forward? Ask a millennial or Gen Z and they will unequivocally say, “Sustainable.” This isn’t just a slogan; it’s becoming an operating principle. We caught up with Tina Bhojwani, the CEO of Aera, the world’s first sustainable luxury footwear brand and a co-founder of Figure Eight, a pop-up installation in New York’s Soho neighborhood dedicated to showcasing an eclectic portfolio of innovative, stylish sustainable luxury goods. Footwear with an Invisible Footprint After an impressive career in the world of …