Debate with the IPPR on the UK’s crisis in retailing
In the wake of the announcement of up to 6,000 job losses at House of Fraser, the High Street should combat Amazon with automation and new physical sensations
The High Street faces challenges around where and how we buy, but the discussion about online competition, business rates and slow consumer expenditure misses the responsibility of retailers themselves to innovate. Investment in automating back office activity, and making innovative changes to ensure an interesting consumer experience, are vital if the High Street is to survive. Here James discusses the issue with Catherine Colebrook, chief economist at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Online stores like Amazon are very good for efficient online ordering for delivery, but lack a rewarding and enriching customer experience. James argues that shops are just not exciting enough: to beat Jeff Bezos, they need more tastes, smells, theatre, 3D printing, education, cinema and exhibitions. Wages will also have to rise, if the the consumer experience is to be improved through more responsive and knowledgeable staff.
Good luck to the #farmers on their march today!
I probably don't need to tell you to wrap up warm. But please remember that no part of the UK's green agenda is your friend. All of it is intended to deprive you of your livelihood, one way or another. That is its design.
Brilliant piece by @danielbenami. RECOMMENDED
Innovators I like
Robert Furchgott – discovered that nitric oxide transmits signals within the human body
Barry Marshall – showed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers, reversing decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods, and too much acid
N Joseph Woodland – co-inventor of the barcode
Jocelyn Bell Burnell – she discovered the first radio pulsars
John Tyndall – the man who worked out why the sky was blue
Rosalind Franklin co-discovered the structure of DNA, with Crick and Watson
Rosalyn Sussman Yallow – development of radioimmunoassay (RIA), a method of quantifying minute amounts of biological substances in the body
Jonas Salk – discovery and development of the first successful polio vaccine
John Waterlow – discovered that lack of body potassium causes altitude sickness. First experiment: on himself
Werner Forssmann – the first man to insert a catheter into a human heart: his own
Bruce Bayer – scientist with Kodak whose invention of a colour filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture colour
Yuri Gagarin – first man in space. My piece of fandom: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/10421
Sir Godfrey Hounsfield – inventor, with Robert Ledley, of the CAT scanner
Martin Cooper – inventor of the mobile phone
George Devol – 'father of robotics’ who helped to revolutionise carmaking
Thomas Tuohy – Windscale manager who doused the flames of the 1957 fire
Eugene Polley – TV remote controls
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