Question

1. Discuss the Future of Retail …even before Covid- there were declines in brick and mortar stores...

There are only 3 Amazon Stores right now. But the buzz they are generating is amazing.

Read the article : Amazon Opens a brick and Mortar

and discuss

A. What are the take-a-ways? Be sure to have a detailed analysis. Will they continue down this path?

B. Post a question?

Answer 1

Q 1 answer

COVID-19 has obviously been terrible for retail, but the struggles faced by “brick-and-mortar distributors” predated the novel coronavirus. The structural headwinds faced by the retail industry are rooted in changing human behavior, values, and demographics, and have been building for at least 20 years.

Retail represents, at its most fundamental level, a deal between consumers and manufacturers. From a consumer perspective, the ideal scenario for acquiring a functional physical item is for that item to instantly appear, fully assembled, in the home. From the manufacturer’s perspective, the ideal scenario is for the consumer to pick the item up, at the factory, with no packaging or marketing material surrounding it. In both cases, utility is maximized. When retail shifted from local to mass in the post-war period, a stable equilibrium was reached. Large stores would accept packaged items from manufacturers, and house and market these items. Consumers would drive to these stores and bring the items home. This equilibrium lasted until roughly 2000.

future plan

To start, retailers have to adapt their brick-and-mortar operations to comply with health-and-safety regulations and meet basic customer expectations. This includes mask wearing, ensuring physical distancing, and controlling the number of employees and customers in stores, instituting contactless transactions, improving speed of service, and introducing more self-service options