Retail Apocalypse


Book Description




Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement


Book Description

In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation. Built on the goals, organization, and momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of store workers and consumers to promote black freedom in the mid-twentieth century. Sponsoring lunch counter sit-ins and protests in the 1950s and 1960s, and challenging discrimination in the courts in the 1970s, this movement ended in the early 1980s with the conclusion of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. affirmative action cases and the transformation and consolidation of American department stores. In documenting the experiences of African American workers and consumers during this era, Parker highlights the department store as a key site for the inception of a modern black middle class, and demonstrates the ways that both work and consumption were battlegrounds for civil rights.




Hollywood Remembered


Book Description

In Hollywood Remembered, a wide array of Tinseltown veterans share their stories of life in the city of dreams from the days of silent pictures to the present. The 35 voices, many of whom have come to know Hollywood inside-out, range from film producers and movie stars to restaurateurs and preservationists. Actress Evelyn Keyes recalls how, fresh from Georgia, she met Cecil B. DeMille and was soon acting in Gone With the Wind; Blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein tells how he transformed his McCarthy era-experiences into drama with The Front; Steve Allen speaks out on how Hollywood has changed since he first came there in the 1920s; and Jonathan Winters relates how he left a mental institution to come work with Stanley Kramer in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.




Retail Isn't Dead


Book Description

This book provides an accessible and multifaceted vision of the ongoing changes in the retail industry, presenting practical steps a retailer can take in their store to adapt to the digitized world. The benefits of online commerce can be transferred to physical retail, and brick-and-mortar businesses can expand on their existing advantages. Using these strategies, physical stores can not only compete with online retail, they can offer even more to their customers. Store closures are taking place at a staggering rate, and this book offers guidance on how to overcome the so-called retail apocalypse. The book offers 15 innovative strategies on how to: Transfer the benefits of online shopping to physical stores Develop new, interactive brand experiences Apply latest in-store technologies Present customers a more sustainable, greener store experience Also included are practical tips for each strategy and 50 best-practice examples from around the world. With this book, readers will learn to navigate the changing retail landscape.




Retail Jail


Book Description

BOBBY DAZZLER, a strong, strategic British Columbian retailer, had been a leader in the industry for nearly 30 years. Lasting many years in a field that is notorious for ups and downs, now she is speaking up about the abusive and bullying nature of large organizations, showing us how small local retail is not able to survive nor thrive. As it shares this experience, this business memoir blows the whistle and reveals the truth so others can also learn and be helped to understand the struggle of this small retailer. After experiencing the retail apocalypse first hand, and going through many general and personal challenges, a time had come for this retailer to change directions. After dealing with humanity on a material level, a self-discovery evolved from the struggles, the problems and all the adversity, leading to another path that was much more aligned to the soul purpose. In the meantime, a wonderful personal story had been created that was meant to be shared for many to enjoy about this small, local independent businesswoman who lasted so long in the challenging retail world.







Remarkable Retail


Book Description

Physical retail isn’t dead—but boring retail is! Remarkable Retail equips the savvy retailer with eight essential strategies to thrive in an increasingly volatile and uncertain future. Digital technology has profoundly altered the competitive landscape for retailers. In Remarkable Retail, industry thought leader Steve Dennis argues that in a world of nearly infinite choice, where the lines between digital and physical are increasingly blurred, even being very good is no longer good enough. To win and keep customers today, retailers must be nothing short of remarkable. In most retail categories, digital channels are often central to the consumer’s journey, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t also shopping in stores; they’re just using them differently, often browsing in one channel and buying in the other. The notion of a physical store channel and an ecommerce channel is increasingly a distinction without a difference; the customer is the channel. The future belongs to those who embrace the blur of digital and physical that represents modern retail today and work to deliver an experience that is more harmonized and more memorable, regardless of how consumers decide to shop. Packed with illuminating case studies from some of modern retail’s biggest success stories—and leveraging Dennis’s more than thirty years as a senior executive and strategic consultant to dozens of brands—Remarkable Retail lays out the case for going beyond a slightly better version of mediocre and forging a path to being truly remarkable. To help retailers on this transformation journey, Dennis presents eight essential strategies for visionary leaders who are prepared to reimagine their way of doing business. A remarkable retailer is digitally enabled, human-centered, harmonized, mobile, personal, connected, memorable, and radical. In an age where consumers have short attention spans, myriad options, and a digitally integrated relationship with every brand, Remarkable Retail is your indispensable guide to creating a powerful retail experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.




The New Rules of Retail


Book Description

In The New Rules of Retail, industry gurus Robin Lewis and Michael Dart explained how unprecedented consumer power, enabled by technology and globalization, is revolutionizing retail. They warned that survival in these dynamic times called for a business model based on three distinct competencies: preemptive, perpetual distribution; a neurological customer connection; and total control of the value chain. In the years since that book published, many of their predictions have come true. Now, they revisit timeless case studies like Ralph Lauren and Sears, as well as new additions like Trader Joe's, Lululemon, and Warby Parker, to assess how retailers must continue to evolve in the era of e-commerce, data mining, and tiered distribution. They also identify the five current trends that are currently driving consumer demand, including technology integration and channel consolidation, as exemplified by Jeff Bezos at Amazon. This is a fully revised and updated guide from two proven retail prognosticators.




Retail Therapy


Book Description

Almost weekly, the news is full of stories about disappearing retail chains. From House of Fraser and BHS to Toys'R'Us and Sears, recognised names are vanishing overnight – as such large organizations disappear, so the malls, shopping centres, high streets and main streets become emptier and less appealing to visit. The retail sector is hugely important in terms of job numbers: in the US, it employs around 30 million people (directly and indirectly); in the UK, around 10 million. As such, anything that jeopardises the retail sector will have a deep and lasting impact on millions of lives, as well as on public policy. While many blame the 'Amazon effect', this is an oversimplification. Deeper forces are at work that are changing people's relationships with brands, the balance of power between producers and consumers, and the whole nature of the supply chain that has existed since the industrial revolution. Retail Therapy offers a comprehensive analysis of these forces and their impact on the world of retailing. More importantly, it presents a cogent analysis of the longer term trends that are shaping retailing, and outlines a clear road map for sustainable success in the future.




Retail Recovery


Book Description

Shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2022 The world's retail sector has been devastated in recent years by two unstoppable forces: internet shopping and the Covid-19 lockdown. The result: huge numbers of prestigious brands have gone under, or are now a shadow of their former selves, and large parts of the world economy have fallen into a recession, with reduced employment and incomes across large parts of society. High streets and shopping malls lie half-empty, causing a vacuum at the heart of our communities and societies, and many discretionary products have simply become too expensive for people to buy on a regular basis. There is now an urgent need to regenerate our local shopping areas, so how can retailers and brands respond to this crisis? Fortunately, new shoots of recovery are emerging from the wreckage of the old order – new brands, new ways of providing value, and new and innovative methods of creating interest to draw in consumers, all of which have the potential to kick-start the retail economy. Retail Recovery offers a comprehensive analysis of these new forces that are changing the way in which we browse for and buy products, and how we experience and engage with the brands themselves. It includes in-depth interviews with some of the most innovative players in the UK, Europe and North America, in the hope of drawing out key learning points for the rest of the industry. It also provides essential guidelines for governments, as they strive to rebuild and reinforce the retail spaces within our communities, allowing them to create a more effective economic lifeline for retailers, shoppers, retail workers, manufacturers and distributors.