Bad Economy or Bad Retail?

Lessons from Amazon, Kohl's and Whole Foods

Bad Economy or Bad Retail: Lessons from Amazon, Whole Foods and Kohl's Despite an economic downturn, retailers like Amazon, Whole Foods, and Kohl's have managed to succeed. What qualities might such retailers share? You guessed it: Innovative thinking coupled with an ability to truly turn on a dime when it comes to building relationships with constantly changing shoppers. For these innovative retailers, such qualities have enabled them to not only grow profitably, but prosper, even in a recesion and despite being overshadowed by legacy competition that often dwarfs them in terms of revenues and market share. Legacy retailers like Sears and A&P, are often quick to point to the economy as the source of flatlining sales, yet as we describe here, many aging retailers are out of step with shoppers today, and instead of blaming the economy should be looking to shoppers—and what used to be called "niche competition"—inspiration.