Retail -- Nothing About The Bakken -- October 12, 2020

Earlier this afternoon -- I guess it "was" yesterday -- Sunday afternoon -- October 11, 2020, the oldest granddaughter and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things we didn't need. I had not been to any store other than the neighborhood grocery store in the past month or so. I had not been to Walmart in maybe two months. Wow, was I blown away. Walmart has completely refurbished their store here on Cheek-Sparger, right on the Grapevine / Bedford, TX, line. Brand new entrances; brand new self-checkout kiosks, and lots of them.

The place was overflowing with merchandise. It looks like Walmart is getting ready for some kind of surge. It was amazing, and I've never seen so many Walmart employees. And cleaning? Wow, cleaning going on everywhere. 

Amazon, link here:

The coronavirus crisis has divided retail companies into two distinct groups: those with functioning e-commerce businesses, and those without.

Many of the have-nots won't survive.

The winners: The pandemic forced Amazon to hire more workers and overhaul its supply chains. But Jeff Bezos' juggernaut has emerged stronger than ever, repeatedly trouncing Wall Street's sales expectations.

Other retailers that invested heavily in e-commerce before the pandemic are also thriving. Walmart is one example, but there are other less obvious success stories. Ikea, which is best known for its cavernous big box stores, reported a 45% increase in online sales over the 12 months to August.

Going bust: The ranks of the less fortunate include companies that didn't fully embrace online shopping, or that relied too heavily on sales in malls. J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, Sur La Table and Men's Wearhouse owner Tailored Brands have all filed for bankruptcy in recent months. The company behind Pringle sweaters and Harris Tweed is also at risk of collapse.

I didn't know about Sur La Table -- one of my favorite kitchen stores to visit, but not to buy. Way, way too expensive. I doubt Sur La Table's problem was e-commerce. They simply couldn't compete on price or customer service with the likes of Amazon. Really too bad; like I said, I really like the store. but whenever I visited -- well before the pandemic -- foot traffic seemed almost non-existent. I doubted they would survive. 

I wonder about REI. It had record sales in 2019, but I see it laid off 5% of its staff back in July.

Jazz Mix, Candy Dulfer