BNH Book Review: Retail Therapy

"Retail Therapy: Why the Retail Industry Is Broken—And What Can Be Done to Fix It"
by Mark Pilkington
2019, Bloomsbury Business    
$28.00/329 pages

Buy-buy.

If you’re in retail, those words cause mixed feelings. They’re what you wish people were doing, but they sound like what people are saying. Here’s the evidence: Toys R Us, Sears and Macy’s. What’s going on? The better question author Mark Pilkington asks in Retail Therapy is: How can we stop it?

It’s happened before, but “This is different,” says Pilkington, and the struggle has potential to affect not just consumers, but also restaurants, banks and communities.

Roughly one in four workers in the U.S. is employed by a physical retail store, and these establishments are closing at alarming rates: more than 8,000 in 2017, including many that have teetered on the brink since 2008. A closed store means less foot traffic, less taxable income, and loss of business for local restaurants.

To survive, he says, owners of retail stores need to embrace the ways of e-commerce. Distribution has improved, and there’s no longer a reason to keep a large inventory.

He says consider becoming a “Lean Store,” rethink your pricing and create a reason for people to talk about you.

Pilkington says it is plain to see why e-commerce is killing brick-and-mortar stores, but his statistics show how many shoppers still prefer them—including some millennials. Such stats are not quite explored enough.

Even so, there’s an enormous amount of information and advice inside this book. Retail Therapy is a book to buy-buy.