Catashtrophe?

We were all set to head to Berlin for the World Retail Congress today, organised by Retail Week’s parent company Emap, but despite having tickets to go by train, it became apparent that it would be a wasted trip because speakers and delegates who travel from all corners of the globe for the event would have enormous trouble getting there.

A real shame for my distinguished predecessor Ian McGarrigle, who put together an amazing programme for the conference. But life goes on and the event has been rescheduled for October. I’m sure it’ll be fantastic when it finally happens.

This is a truly unprecedented situation and its implications in the broader world outside retail could potentially be quite profound, but despite the scare stories, no-one here is going to go hungry (or naked for that matter). While the waste which is inevitably occuring in one or two product categories - exotic fresh produce, fish and flowers being the obvious ones - is a real shame and has the potential to make life tough for suppliers if it continues, its not air-frieghted produce which keeps us going.

The signs are that things might get better from tomorrow - as someone with both parents and a sister stranded in various places I really hope they do - but even if the situation was to go on for longer, food retailers supply chains are very sophisticated and no-one’s going to starve. We might just have to get used to eating apples again instead of papaya (quite possibly no bad thing), and go back to getting our tulips from Amsterdam for a while.

The bigger issue is people - lots of retail staff are stranded, particularly because this all kicked off at the end of the school holidays. And that creates a dilemma for retailers about how they treat their hourly paid staff. They run the risk of being accused of being scrooges if they make them take the hours they were due to work as unpaid leave or alternatively make the time up when they get back, which is what they would do if it was snowing. I’m sure Tesco will be asked the question at their prelims press conference on Tuesday.