Some are already reminiscing about these past few weeks. About WFH, lockdown, FaceTime, Zoom calls, and the quality time that we got to spend with our close families. But it might be too soon to think these kinds of thoughts as it’s not that the coronavirus crisis is behind us or anything.
It is inevitable, however, that people start thinking about the day after. We also talked about it recently. But how will this day be different compared to the pre-corona times, retail-wise?
The Bots Are Coming
AT&T’s SVP of Advanced Solutions, Chris Penrose, spoke to Business Insider about how the pandemic is impacting demand for IoT connectivity in healthcare. Among other things, he talked about what he thinks will be the new normal in terms of connectivity post-coronavirus, and had this interesting nugget to share:
“There’ a term out there I kind of like, it’s called “Cobots.” [It refers to] the whole concept of robots working alongside humans to do different tasks that don’t require the human, or are more dangerous or more of a dirty type of job. So, I think that those are going to become the new norm.”
Department Stores Are Falling
In retail, CNBC’s Lauren Thomas is trying to figure out whether there will be enough room for all major department stores in America, the day after.
From Nordstrom’s leaning on loyalty to Kohl’s turning to curbside pickups, and JC Penny skipping a mid-April interest payment – the overall conclusion for department stores out there is that the future seems pretty bleak.
Since the beginning of 2020, $12.3 billion has been wiped from the market caps of the above-mentioned department stores (J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Kohl’s combined.)
Diversity in Offering
Another way the pandemic is causing companies to accelerate new initiatives is evident in the food industry. Pret a Manger, an international sandwich/coffee shop chain based in the United Kingdom, popularly referred to as Pret, is responding in a by-the-book best-practice way.
Attempting to adapt its business to the changing world, the food-to-go chain recently made public its hastened launch of a coffee range – soon to be found in supermarkets.
“The senior management team had been thinking about getting into the retail market in premium supermarkets, but it was a year project. We’ve basically done a year’ s work in a week,” said Côte’s Chief Executive, Alex Scrimgeour – who runs 26 Pret sites in the U.K.
Leon, the fast-food chain, altered 57 of its stores to reopen as mini supermarkets and launched a platform for selling boxes of meals called “Feed Britain.” Fast-food mini supermarkets, huh? Are we going to see a 7eleven-like boom?
Leon’s Chief Executive, John Vincent, said the group plans to “quadruple the range of boxes this year.” Adding that “operators must be flexible coming out of coronavirus and must be ready to respond to how people are going to behave.”
The smartest ones, are already responding, as we can see.