Retail and hospitality industry is going to be disrupted for a long time if a COVID vaccine is not invented and applied quickly. The doomsday sayers are forecsting:
“The retail industry is faced with the greatest disruption in recent memory: a global pandemic with massive economic impact. Certain aspects of consumerism as we know it are possibly forever changed.”[i] “Shutter flagships, Empty mall. Cancel orders. Risks of bankruptcy. The coronavirus has hit the behemoths of the retail world.”[ii]
The Death of the Department Store: Very Few Are Likely to Survive’
“American department stores, once all-powerful shopping meccas that anchored malls and Main Streets across the country, have been dealt blow after blow in the past decade. J.C. Penney and Sears were upended by hedge funds. Macy’s has been closing stores and cutting corporate staff. Barneys New York filed for bankruptcy last year. But nothing compares to the shock the weakened industry has taken from the coronavirus pandemic. The sales of clothing and accessories fell by more than half in March, a trend that is expected to only get worse in April. The entire executive team at Lord & Taylor was let go this month. Nordstrom has canceled orders and put off paying its vendors. The Neiman Marcus Group, the most glittering of the American department store chains, is expected to declare bankruptcy in the coming days, the first major retailer felled during the current crisis.”[iii]
Hard Lesson Earned: Do you care about fashion and how you look while you’re working from home during the COVID pandemic? Probably not. But, your lack of interest and decisions to disregard fashion and not purchase the latest has huge ripple impacts on work. First, retail shops will close because of the lack of your fashion consumption. Entire design, manufacturing, shipping, and supply chains stop with rippling consequences across global economies. No consumption. No production. More work disruption throughout the world. Fast fashion suppliers will idle factories throughout Asia. More unemployed workers.
[i] ‘The Retail and Hospitality Industry and COVID: Prepare for the Future of Work, Retail Dive, April 15, 2020.
[ii] the behemoths of the retail world.”
[ii] ‘The Death of the Department Store: Very Few Are Likely to Survive’, NY Times, April 21, 2020.
[iii] ‘The Death of the Department Store: Very Few Are Likely to Survive’, NY Times, April 21, 2020.