Marie Driscoll : We’ve been through tumultuous times, including bankruptcies matched with extensive store closures and the birth of digital retailers. What’s next
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Jerry Storch : Stories of the death of retail were greatly exaggerated. Q4 sequential and year-over-year improvement for many retailers led many to conclude everything is now stable. However, everything has changed forever. The future will be nothing like the past. Improved Q4 results do not mark a return to business as usual. More dramatic change is afoot. We are just at the introduction for writing a book on the Internet effect, and by no means at the last chapter! The Internet is the most disruptive force of our generation and this chaos will only accelerate. Some established retailers will boom, those that adapt to change, build all-channel businesses and have products which meet consumer demands. Retailers mired in the past without differentiated product will start to fail.