There is no new normal in retail, there’s just change
As the coronavirus continues to rewrite the retail rulebook, people should stop talking about how awful it is today and when we will return to a new normal. Instead, they need to take a longer term outlook.
That’s the view of FinTech guru Chris Skinner. In a blog post, he argues: “There is no new normal. There’s just change. The issue is that no one is focusing upon the change. How will the pandemic change our industries, services, societies? What’s the long-term outlook?”
He adds: “I am frustrated that no one is talking about the end of shopping malls, the rise of local, the digital upside and physical downside. We are in fundamental transition to the internet folks. We’ve known this for a quarter century, but it’s been turbocharged by coronavirus so, what are you doing about it?”
Due to the recalibration of physical and digital, we will need to rethink infrastructure, roads, transport and more, Skinner believes. Shopping malls were already dying. The coronavirus will just make their death faster.
However, other parts of the retail sector will come back. “We still need to eat and drink, meet and socialise, so bars, restaurants, concerts, entertainment and sport will come back. It’s just a question of when and how. Will the theatres and venues still exist? Will they still be the same?” Skinner asks.
Answers on a postcard, please, to the usual address…
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