The universally sad state of 2020 retail, gasping for air in a feeble attempt to outlast the viral pandemic, brings to mind the farcical exchange between Joe Pesci’s talented underdog lawyer Vinny Gambini and his lovely fiancée Mona Lisa Vito from the 1992 classic.
Vinny Gambini: “Lisa, I don’t need this. I swear to God, I do not need this right now, okay? I’ve got a judge that’s just aching to throw me in jail. An idiot who wants to fight me for $200. Slaughtered pigs. Giant loud whistles. I ain’t slept in five days. I got no money, a dress code problem and a little murder case which, in the balance, holds the lives of two innocent kids. Not to mention your [taps his foot] biological clock — my career, your life, our marriage and, let me see, what else can we pile on? Is there any more sh*t we can pile on to the top of the outcome of this case? Is it possible?”
Mona Lisa Vito: [beat] “Maybe it was a bad time to bring it up.”
Even with the risk of sounding too ultracrepidarian, we wonder how much longer the diminishing retail sector can take the onslaught of ever-emerging crises and when it would actually be a good time to “bring it up.” So what might be on a retailer’s mind these days?
The Amazon Factor
People are buying (almost) everything from Amazon. When they’re not buying (almost) everything from Amazon, they’re buying from online retailers and even — are you ready for this — directly from manufacturers in China and other dollar-store hotspots on this planet where cost of labor has not yet made everything under the sun unaffordable.
Yes, this is the economically frail beauty of our global village, a village filled with AliExpresses, Sheins, Wishes and eBays. If customers can’t get Purell while standing, socially-distanced, masked and in line at their local supermarket, pharmacy or bodega, the digital world is always at the ready to lend a helping hand.
But this is not news. People have been doing this for quite some time now. E-commerce is not the way of the future. Brick-and-mortar commerce is simply the way of the past. People don’t necessarily need to try on their polka-dotted pair of shorts in a local boutique or in their neighborhood Target or Barneys (oh, wait, Barneys is no more!) or Modell’s Sporting Goods (you already see where this is going). They can do that at home and return said pair of shorts free of charge should they find the fit to be unflattering. The COVID-19 pandemic has simply solidified our pre-existing habits. And given how we humans tend to stick to our habits, this one is likely to be a keeper. When was the last time, after all, that you managed to find something in a store because you couldn’t find it online?
Reluctance to Return
People are not particularly keen on going back to work. People don’t feel like marbling cappuccinos or (wo)manning the registers for oft-reduced pay and/or increased risk of infection. They don’t feel like spending time in stores ranging from, in customer interest level, fairly-empty to ghostly. They don’t feel like wondering if they got infected that day simply for having reported to their retail workplace. People, upon whom brick-and-mortar retail depends to run its everyday existence, are looking for alternatives.
Supply Chain Woes
The supply chain rattled retailers. Regardless of format (omnichannel, urban specialty, big box, brick-and-mortar), stores are struggling to keep their basics covered and to stay relevant. Iconic brands with shrinking footprints are grappling to develop new strategies to react to the ever-changing real-time events.
Downsizing
Retail space operators and their landlords are committed (likely, without their accountants being particularly excited) to pouring their dwindling (if any) revenue into keeping staff and customers safe … without an end in sight. As they struggle to retain and bring in customers, “correct-sizing” the customer experience is becoming all the rage. The politically-correct term is an emotionally appropriate synonym for downsizing, a prospect faced by many retailers even before the pandemic. What else can we pile on?
As the “retaildemic” unfolds, it is sure to transform from an affordability crisis to a landlord crisis, as they grapple with the very tip of the iceberg of uncollected rents.
So, in closing, for retail mid-2020, maybe this was … a bad time to bring it up.
Aleksandra Scepanovic
Ideal Properties Group
Brooklyn, NY
ascepanovic@ipg.nyc
718-840-2757
