The Polarisation Of Retail, Are You A Survivor Or A Darwin?

They say that in life there are only two things which are certain; taxes and death. And it seems that both have now formed an unholy alliance in the form of a new Covid surcharge which some restaurants in the U.S. are now applying.

Whether this becomes a global phenomena remains to be seen but it is just another example of how we are all going to have to pay for this, and how hospitality and retail will struggle for many, many months to come.

Retail is rapidly becoming a sector not simply categorised by essential and non-essential but by ‘survival’ versus ‘darwin’. In other words, there are those retailers, the survivors, who have not simply shut up shop, they are actively planning not simply for a return but what the shape of the new business will look like.

Because no retail business will reappear as if nothing had ever happened, picking up where they left off back in March.

And then there are the ‘darwin’ retailers, those who were already struggling, long before the COVID-19 coronavirus ever hit us. What would have taken more agonising months, if not years, for them to perish, will now take weeks. But for ‘survival’ retail, the threat will be pivoted into a huge opportunity.

Because the two meter tango is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future, so smart retailers are rethinking their use of space. And that’s not simply all about closing stores. It’s about reworking the space in their individual stores. Initially of course, this will be done through necessity, but it won’t take very long for them to realise that this can be turned to their advantage.

Once their business model has successfully migrated to reflect a lower footfall in store, the imposed different use of space will spawn more attractive, better stores which ironically will deliver the customer experience that they had previously spent years trying to discover.

Socially distanced shopping is rapidly becoming a thing, and this is set to accelerate when the non-essential retailers are allowed to reopen alongside the supermarkets, hardware, cycle shops and so forth.

Shopping, as we know, is a social activity and while many of us don’t like to admit it, men especially, we actually quite enjoy it as an activity. It’s not known as retail therapy for nothing.

We like to go window shopping, browsing but not necessarily entering or if we do, spending less time there when we do. Window shopping? Now there’s a thing. Purchasing items on display in the window and having them delivered to your door or brought to the store entrance for those reluctant to enter what they might feel is an unsafe environment.

These will be the characteristics of survival retail, because they will be the ones who will adapt to the new consumer behavior and attitudes.