For too long, retail has been cut a raw deal.
Singled out for criticism over working practices, overlooked in Parliament when thousands of jobs are being lost and ignored despite countless pleas to change the business rates system, this industry has never quite gained the respect it deserves.
Even amid the current coronavirus crisis, pictures of empty shelves and tales of in-store scraps over the last toilet roll have created the more popular narrative at many media outlets.
But once again retail is putting all of that aside to stand up and be counted – and companies and their workforces deserve far more congratulations than criticism for their near-heroic response to the coronavirus crisis to date.
During what are unprecedented times for the industry and the country as a whole, retail is keeping calm and carrying on.
Extraordinary circumstances
My local Tesco Extra on Sunday morning was nothing short of pandemonium. There were empty shelves in categories you would expect under the circumstances – toilet roll, hand sanitiser, rice, frozen vegetables – shoppers jostled for position, seemingly mistaking their trolleys for bumper cars, and shopfloor staff grappled to maintain order in the aisles and on the checkouts.
Yet workers remained friendly, helpful and calm under intense pressure – traits worthy of huge praise at a time when there was carnage ensuing around them. It is a story that will be replicated in supermarkets up and down the country.
Those retail workers are doing a difficult job in extraordinary circumstances – and their employers are having to make some difficult decisions, too.
On Saturday morning, Apple sent a signal to the market, shutting all its stores outside China for two weeks to help combat the spread of the virus.
Before the weekend was out, others had followed suit. Urban Outfitters closed all shops globally, Nike shut stores across the US and Western Europe, Zara shut up shop in Spain, and Patagonia called a temporary halt to trading not just through its physical locations, but online too.
It is in times of such adversity that we see who we really are. The world is currently seeing retail for what it really is – an inspirational sector that is led by people, for people, with a social conscience potentially greater than any other industry on the planet.
While some companies warn of cost cuts or plea for government bailouts, retailers and brands are springing into much more positive action in the only way they know how – striving to do what’s right not for their bottom lines, but for their customers, employees and suppliers.
Apple is just one of them. Alongside the revelation that it was closing shops, chief executive Tim Cook tweeted on Saturday that the tech titan would commit $15m (£12.25m) “to help with worldwide recovery”.
People over profit
But there are plenty more feel-good stories that deserve to be told.
LVMH, the French luxury goods group that owns brands like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co, has started producing hand sanitiser at three of its perfume and cosmetics factories in France. It will be distributed, free of charge, to hospitals grappling to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Paris hospitals chief Martine Hirsch told AFP that LVMH “made us this offer on Saturday night at 9pm” and confirmed the plan the next day.
It demonstrated the ability of FMCG brands to turn on a sixpence and do what is right for people rather than profit.
Carrefour in France and Woolworths in Australia have taken similar views, opening their stores only to older and disabled shoppers for the first hour of trading. The move will allow vulnerable members of society easier access to products that are being stockpiled by consumers who fear being left in lockdown.
“People across the globe are now learning what a critical and charitable industry retail truly is. It is about time the current prime minister recognised it, too”
In the UK, Iceland will trial a similar “elderly hour” at one of its stores in Belfast tomorrow and is encouraging all store managers to dedicate the first two hours of trading on Wednesday morning to older and vulnerable customers.
Morrisons will pay smaller suppliers within 48 hours to help support their cashflows. The supermarket chain has also reclassified what it means by a ‘small supplier’ from those with £100,000 of business every year with Morrisons to those with up to £1m deals. As a result, an extra 1,000 small food businesses will be paid under the new, speedier terms.
I could go on and there will no doubt be countless new stories like this to tell in the coming weeks as retail increasingly steps up.
To borrow a few choice words from a former prime minister, there is no education like adversity. People across the globe are now learning what a critical and charitable industry retail truly is.
It is about time the current prime minister recognised it, too.
No comments yet