THE WEEK IN RETAIL
EDITOR’S COMMENT SHARE YOUR NEWS AND VIEWS WITH ME AT ABEGLEY@55NORTH.COM
WE ALL WANT TO LIVE IN A BETTER WORLD It wasn’t exactly done on purpose, but something was very obvious to me as I checked though this issue of The Week In Retail and, indeed, last week as I checked over the latest issue of SLR before it went to press: a huge amount of the content is, in on way or another, driven by what might loosely be called more ethical retailing and more ethical consumption. From this issue’s cover story subject, Jillian Elizabeth and her zero waste store in Dundee, at one end of the spectrum to spirits behemoth Pernod Ricard and their initiative to encourage global brands to get more active about dealing with social media hateful content, it’s pretty clear, to me at least, that coronavirus has maybe triggered a new tipping point. It looks like more people than ever just want to live in a better world. Ok, it’s easy to be cynical about the motives
driving mammoth conglomerates like Pernod Ricard and Coca-Cola and the like, but surely it’s got to be a good thing that organisations like this with their huge budgets and massive influence are pushing decent social, human and environmental agendas? Yes, their bottom line still remains their bottom line, but that applies to us all and I’d rather have them inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in. The major concern is that all this love thy neighbour and take care of the planet stuff is merely the latest fad and that we’ll be onto something else next week. But it doesn’t feel that way. Bigger concerns - the planet, our friends and family, our communities, mental health, work-life balance and so on - are seeping deep into the modern psychology and that will inevitably influence a lot of important decisions in the future, and hopefully mostly for the better.
ANTONYBEGLEY ANTONYBEGLEY ANTONYBEGLEY
ANTONY BEGLEY, EDITOR
WEDNESDAY 05 AUGUST 2020 / ISSUE 16 / SLRMAG.CO.UK / 3
