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THE WEEK IN RETAIL ISSUE 27
EDITOR’S COMMENT
IF YOU’RE NOT FAST, YOU’RE LAST
Well, we’re onto Issue 27 of The Week In Retail already. Time flies when the world is collapsing around your ears and everything you thought you knew turns out to be wrong. But the thing that is most striking to me about producing a weekly magazine under coronavirus is just how dizzyingly fast the world of retail has become. It’s impossible to miss how the pandemic has accelerated all sorts of trends with retailers, wholesalers and suppliers surprising even themselves with how quickly they’ve been able to adapt and evolve when they’ve absolutely had to.
That thought struck me again as we were putting this issue together. There’s hardly a week goes by without a wave of major announcements to choose from when selecting the content for The Week In Retail. Nisa launches a new food centric format for smaller stores, Asda opens a fullon sustainability trial store, Costcutter unveils a predictive analytics solution for retailers, the Co-op opens its first franchise store in Scotland and so on. The pace of change has moved to an entirely new level.
What can independent retailers learn from this? Well, firstly that the major retailers and groups are racing towards to the future under the pandemic, rather than sitting tight and waiting to see what happens. Secondly, that there are some clear trends there as to where they’re placing their bets with regards to what will be important to post-pandemic shoppers: sustainability, tech, digital, food-to-go, health, home delivery and so on. And last, but certainly not least, the clearest lesson of all is that now is the time to be investing both time and money in re-shaping your own store for a very changed future.
If you choose to stand still at the moment, there’s a significant risk that you won’t just be left behind, you’ll be cut adrift. Retail is hurtling ahead. We all need to be hurtling along with it.
