As a real estate attorney, I am thinking about what retail concepts succeed and what don’t since I often find myself working on transactions at the beginning and end of a store’s lifespan. There was a lot of talk about how within the span of 48 hours several large retailers announced they would be closing more than 300 stores across the United States. There is a lot to the equation but along with many others, I’ve written that “bad retail” is dead and with the influx of digitally native brands there will continue to be a transition to brands and experiences that resonate with consumers.Gap/Victoria’s Secret/JC Penney (the brands that are closing stores) are concepts and experiences that weren’t working in this “new” environment. While digitally native brands will find ways to take root in physical retail, I don’t believe it’s all doom and gloom for the legacy retailer. For example, I see TJ Maxx and Five Below as traditional discount brands that are succeeding.
That, of course, is a nice segue to the latest episode of the New York Launch Pod featuring Jenny Fleiss of Jetblack, where we talk about the future of retail and forthcoming trends. While the episode doesn’t cover the whole retail picture, you’ll probably have a better sense of the direction of retail after listening. Big players like Walmart (who is backing Jetblack) will be transforming the future. Amazon will certainly have input in this arena as well, just WITHOUT an HQ in New York City. Turns out they couldn’t handle the “cost” of $3 Billion in tax incentives.