Retail Unwrapped from The Robin Report

A Data Expert Uncovers the Power of Re-Commerce

Retail Unwrapped — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The consumer movement to invest in secondhand is led by values: meaning, provenance, and sustainability. Re-commerce is not a niche; it’s a $180-$200 billion global, parallel economy growing up to five times faster than traditional retail. The brands that get this right think beyond the first sale and plan for the lifetime value of a product, including multiple sales. Join Shelley and Romain Fouache, CEO of Akeneo, as they discuss why eBay’s acquisition of Depop for $1.2 billion strengthens its core business and marks a structural inflection point. A data expert, Romain makes the case for the power of transparency. Secondhand operations are logistically incompatible with firsthand retail models. Every resale item is its own unique SKU, its own story, condition, and context. Brands that attempt to glue re-commerce onto traditional operations without rethinking their infrastructure are setting themselves up for expensive failure. Listen and learn how the brands that will win in re-commerce will be the ones with the richest, most comprehensive product information, including materials, origin, manufacturing details, and use history.

Special Guests

Romain Fouache, CEO, Akeneo

Transcript

How Barnes & Noble Made a Comeback

Mark Faithfull — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Depending on what you read, no one is reading books anymore. Are we addicted streamers? A 2025 study found that daily reading for pleasure dropped by over 40 percent in the last 20 years, with nearly 46 percent of U.S. adults not reading a single book in 2023. Americans are reading an average of 12.6 books per year. Invoking the 80/20 rule, in 2025, 19 percent of adults (those who read 10+ books) accounted for 82 percent of all books read.

The numbers would validate the fact that the iconic Barnes & Noble bookseller was pushed to the edge of extinction, accelerated by the unrelenting digital rise of Amazon. So, it is all the more counterintuitive that Barnes & Noble stands as one of the most remarkable retail turnarounds of the past decade.

How did Barnes & Noble turn around a dying business? And the answer is: James Daunt revitalized an iconic brand by re-humanizing the business.

B&N Rising from the Ashes

If you follow the readership numbers, it is surprising that under the leadership of James Daunt, the English-born bookseller has not only clawed back relevance but has also expanded to the point that its private equity owner is readying an initial public offering for the combined Barnes & Noble and Waterstones business.

Elliott Management is expected to hire investment bank Rothschild & Co. to advise on options for a public offering of its retail group, which could happen as early as the second quarter of this year and is likely to be on the London Stock Exchange. So just how did an ailing bookseller turn the tables on a global digital giant with endless bookshelves and its own e-readers glued to its proprietary screens? And then is the 20 percent of book-reading consumers responsible for Barnes & Noble’s success? It’s a logical assumption.

Elliott Takes Waterstones Formula to the U.S.

When Elliott Investment Management acquired Barnes & Noble in 2019 for $683 million, revenue was in decline, losses were mounting, and it faced a formidable competitor in Amazon; the digital behemoth had fundamentally changed how Americans bought and consumed books. For years, Amazon’s market dominance, ease of purchase, low prices and proprietary Kindle e-reader left traditional bookstores struggling to turn the page.

James Daunt’s arrival in New York was greeted with cautious optimism. A former banker, he had his own successful, eponymous bookstore group in the U.K, which he continues to own. Daunt brought a philosophy radically different from the corporate uniformity that had defined Barnes & Noble’s operations for years as a mall and main street staple. Drawing on his experience at Waterstones, where he had been at the helm since 2011, he insisted local stores be run more like independent shops than cookie-cutter chains. Daunt undertook a sweeping cultural overhaul. Local store managers were empowered to curate selections tailored to their communities, shelving displays were reimagined, and the emphasis shifted from broad and deep inventory to curated discovery.

“Everybody thinks that we must be doing one thing; either we must be going small, or we must be going large. The fact is, we’re doing everything,” Daunt told me about the range of store formats Barnes & Noble is now operating. He stressed his long-held belief that physical retail can compete with the utility of online bookstores as long as it offers variety and relevance to its local customers.

Barnes & Noble Expansion

The transformation has been dramatic. Barnes & Noble opened over 60 new stores across the U.S. in 2025 and pushed its holdings above 700 locations, with plans for 60 more in 2026. Waterstones in the UK is approaching 400 stores, with more expansion planned.

The company remains determined that the store portfolio will be just as eclectic as the site selection, although the new stores are generally smaller than its traditional larger-footprint outlets. This reflects the change of emphasis to a curated rather than all-encompassing offer and the more cost-effective nature of smaller units.

Daunt said that when expanding locations, he was less interested in the plethora of analytical location data and more focused on gut feel. New locations are driven by “self-observation” from the company’s field team, who identify possible sites and store managers ready for the next step to run their own stores. While he is reticent to admit his personal satisfaction, Barnes & Noble took over some former, shuttered Amazon Books stores. It’s hard not to conjure up the image of Daunt’s victory stroll through a repurposed and more relevant bookstore.

Building Loyalty

“The model that we now have, which devotes considerable responsibility and accountability to the store teams, means you can set up a store appropriate to the place in which you find yourself. We’re not trying to have the same store on the Upper East Side as we would if we’re opening in, say, Montana or indeed the Bronx, just a few miles away,” Daunt added.

In recent years, Barnes & Noble has also reconsidered what it sells, reducing reliance on technical or specialist volumes in favor of broader lifestyle offerings, including stationery, greeting cards, gift items, the prerequisite Starbucks café, and other categories that drive both discovery and sales. There are special events including readings and signings, a children’s area where they can sit and read (and be read to), and plenty of adult seating to settle in with a new book.

The company has “evolved the Amazon out of our bookstores,” as Daunt puts it and has firmly prioritized the human experience, including collaborations with, for example, children’s favorite Moomin to promote and create special areas within stores. B&N is reclaiming the role of a community hub, returning on experience.

Site Selection Based on Local Lore

Daunt’s highly unconventional approach to B&N’s expansion reflects his own history as a bookseller rather than as a retailer. “We’re not that traditional big-box retailer where it’s all driven by the real estate dynamic,” he said. “Of course, you need the landlord with properties who wishes to lease them to you. But we’re in places where we think we will do well and where people want to buy books.”

These changes have paid off. The combined Barnes & Noble and Waterstones business now generates more than $3 billion in sales and over $400 million in profits. Perhaps the boldest sign of confidence is the advanced talks over a public offering. The IPO isn’t just a financial event; it is a validation of a belief that brick-and-mortar bookselling can thrive in a world dominated by ecommerce.

The strategy of deferring to local taste over stock-wide uniformity and treating stores as community hubs rather than depots of inventory stands in stark contrast to Amazon’s homogenized and algorithmically curated marketplace. And while Amazon’s sophisticated recommendation engines and global logistics continue to dominate online book sales, they cannot replicate the serendipity of browsing a thoughtfully merchandised bookstore. It’s that gap that gives Barnes & Noble a competitive edge.

Postcards From the Edge

Daunt’s intuitive leadership and the company’s resurgence come at a time when broader consumer trends have shown renewed interest in physical books and demand for in-person experiences. Viral social media movements around reading, such as the #BookTok phenomenon, have highlighted how discovery can flourish in community settings far beyond algorithms.

That said, bookstore sales in the U.S. declined 8 percent over the five-year period from $8.6 billion in 2019 to $7.9 billion in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Retail Trade Survey. Barnes & Noble is bucking the trends, appealing to core book buyers and providing meaningful experiences. The brand’s comeback under James Daunt is not just about surviving Amazon’s endless domination; it’s about reminding the market that respect for people’s desire for discovery, curation, and local engagement matter more than ever.

Retailing During Wartime

Mark Cohen — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The publicly stated explanation for this war, which is taking place between the U.S. and Israel in Iran, is the explicit intent to foment regime change. It’s anyone’s guess how this conflict will proceed or eventually end. Since World War II, regime changes have almost never succeeded as planned or anticipated. Not in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia, the USSR, Afghanistan, or Syria, to name just a few conflicts.

How will the war in Iran affect the retail industry? And the answer is: Disruptions in trade and travel will force retail to take a conservative path in 2026.

Retail Predictions on the War with Iran

Like it or not, a lot of economic—and therefore retail effects—of this brand-new conflict will hinge upon the conditions surrounding the safe passage of tankers through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. This is where 15 percent of the world’s oil and 20 percent of the world’s liquified natural gas originates and transits. Analysts estimate that even using alternate routing, a serious constraint in the Persian Gulf and at Hormuz could remove 8 to 10 million barrels per day from the market, enough to add perhaps $20 a barrel to crude oil prices if conditions worsen. Oil prices, currently at $72 a barrel, have already begun to climb and could easily hit, if not well exceed, $100 a barrel if this conflict isn’t quickly resolved, according to many economists who follow this lifeblood of the world’s economy. In trying to make sense of this new war, the prediction of a four-to-five-week engagement doesn’t sound credible. What is now happening in Iran is not in any way analogous to what just happened in Venezuela.

Is This Gas Shortage Déjà Vu?

So far, this war does not foretell the disastrous, albeit short-term, gasoline shortages that occurred in late 1973 and early 1974 when OPEC created an oil embargo on U.S.-bound petroleum shipments. Then, gasoline supply became extremely scarce; strict rationing took place in most major market centers. The retail business, broadly writ, was decimated for months on end. I was a Department Manager at A&S’s largest branch store in Hempstead, Long Island. Business dropped like a rock everywhere except in downtown Brooklyn, where gasoline was rationed throughout Metro NYC. If you couldn’t fill your car’s tank with a limited, every other day allotment of gasoline to get to work, you certainly weren’t predisposed to go shopping if you didn’t have to.

Since then, thanks largely to the onset of oil shale extraction techniques, the U.S. has developed significant oil independence. But this war does foretell a highly likely increase in already inflated energy prices. Historically, a $1 increase in crude can translate into roughly a 2 to 3 cent per gallon move at the pump; one analyst recently pegged the near-term pass-through at about 13 cents per gallon from the latest run-up. Higher fuel prices hit shoppers twice: directly at the gas station pump and through transportation surcharges embedded in the supply chain of the products on shelves.

More Economic Uncertainty

This new pressure on our economy will pile up on top of whatever replaces Trump’s illegal tariff strategy along with already rising retail prices of just about everything that is widely consumed by us all, and unprecedented increases in healthcare expenses. None of this bodes well for an already inconsistent retail environment with an industry struggling with uneven performances at the bottom of the retail food chain at stores like Target, instability in the middle at stores like Kohl’s and Macys, and chaos at the very top as Saks Global attempts to unwind its completely self-induced train wreck.

How will this affect Wall Street and all those consumers whose disposable incomes are directly or indirectly affected by the performance of the Street? Will a handful of tech companies, which have propped up the stock market throughout 2025, continue to provide air cover for an already stressed U.S. economy? Will the increased use of AI tech products continue to curtail new employment and fuel the increasingly evident presence of aggressive layoffs? I can’t predict the behavior of the stock market, but I think it’s clear that unemployment is going to become an increasingly problematic issue here. Reshoring remains a pipe dream as a near-term economic driver. The metal bending and needle trades are not, and maybe never will resurge in any meaningful way, certainly not this year.

Early Warning System

Retail, which has always been a canary in the coal mine with regard to the behavior of our overall economy, will now be under even more significant pressure this year. Retail does, after all, make up some 70 percent of the U.S. economy. The guarded prognosis, widely held by many, if not most, industry leaders, becomes even more problematic with a war underway in Iran. If this conflict becomes a “forever war,” which Trump promised would never occur on his watch, inflation could become explosive.

Reportedly, the American consumer, without regard to income level, currently lives paycheck to paycheck and is going to get hammered. They will support necessities as they have always done during difficult times, such as during Covid-19. But that’s it; discretionary purchases, otherwise known as general merchandise products, will get hammered as well.

Price will continue to be the primary driver of retail success and, as we’ve seen, not all retailers have the financial wherewithal and the assortment and merchandising disciplines to prevail. Is it possible that new fashion ideas will captivate the American consumer? Yes, but the consumers’ enthusiasm is invariably going to be muted. Add to all of this the upcoming November midterm elections will add fuel to the angst that seems to be increasingly blanketing consumer confidence.

A Forever War?

In my opinion, Trump will want to end this conflict as quickly as possible, but the Israelis are “in it to win it” and not predisposed to back off. Now, with the entire Middle East theater under fire, the likelihood that this conflict spills over into further disruptions in trade and travel is very real. In the face of all of this, conservatism in plans and outlook is vital for all retailers to navigate successfully, at least through the balance of this new year.

Why Chanel and A$AP Rocky Reignite Luxury

Jasmine Glasheen — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Luxury brands need to attract next gen shoppers to survive. Gen Z and their younger cohort, Generation Alpha, are set to drive 40 percent of all fashion spend by 2035; heritage luxury brands that aren’t relatable to young consumers won’t make it into the 2030s. The issue is that younger consumers often have very different priorities than the luxury brands’ customer base. Stalwarts like Tiffany and Chanel aren’t packing the same punch; they didn’t even make the Lyst index of hottest luxury brands in Q4 of 2025.

Traditional luxury status symbols like Birkin bags don’t resonate with younger consumer demographics that are hyper-focused on individuation, forcing heritage luxury brands to rethink their marketing. For next gens, ubiquity reads as uniformity. So, brands are moving away from relying on legacy as their sole selling point and tapping into unexpected strategies to target Gen Z and millennial consumers. And they’re doing this in some interesting, dare we say, inspiring ways.

How can traditional luxury brands groom next gens as their future customers? Follow the lead of Chanel and Louis Vuitton in appealing to Gen Z’s sense of humor, personalized style, and desire for individuation.

Combatting Uniformity

Ubiquity and devaluation kill the perception of coveted luxury. Two years ago, The New York Times reported, “Luxury brands have triggered their own death spiral by selling overpriced, overexposed and lower-quality products,” calling out Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci for price hikes, for some popular of their items those hikes were as high as 111 percent. Chanel and Marc Jacobs were lambasted for hiking prices while also cutting quality. Two years later, the price hikes continue, but luxury brands are justifying them by refocusing on artistry and quality.

Next gens grew up being exposed to brands like Balenciaga and Burberry through their diffusion lines at T.J. Maxx, so they don’t associate those name brands with a luxury experience. Craftsmanship is no longer assumed as exclusive to luxury brands, so they are highlighting their exceptional craftsmanship on digital platforms to reinforce brand prestige. When it comes to the artistry and quality of luxury brands, next gens need to see it firsthand (on social media or in store) to believe it.

Above all, next gens don’t want to blend in. Brands built around personalization, like the embroidery brand Abbode, are entering the marketplace. And brands including Louis Vuitton, Loewe (next gen favorite on the Lyst index), and Dior offer customization services as part of their value proposition.

Next Gens Say “Prove It”

BCG predicts Gen Z’s luxury spending will rise from 4 percent to 25 percent by 2030. So, how can luxury brands make themselves relatable to next gens without losing their quintessential style? And how can they get them to pay full price for a luxury item, rather than wait to find it at a consignment shop or thrift store? Chanel and Louis Vuitton’s recent artistic collaborations serve as inspiration.

Louis Vuitton and Murakami

Louis Vuitton harnessed Zendaya’s star power for the 130^th anniversary of the Monogram and the Speedy bag, and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami created delightful moments on the Monogram’s offerings and website. Murakami’s iconic re-edition pays playful homage to the LV Monogram. Vivid, color-saturated design livens up the luxury stalwart’s signature pieces. The Murakami experience is inspiring: His art creates an unexpected, immersive twist on an icon that immediately delights and rejuvenates an 1896 luxury staple.

Chanel Taps Gondry

Chanel’s teaser for its Métiers d’Art 2026 show is signature Michel Gondry—fanciful and completely devoid of dialogue film. The brand tapped Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Gondry and brand ambassadors A$AP Rocky, and Margaret Qualley for the charming mini film. Gondry is a master of technique including varied film speeds and surrealism juxtaposed with imagination to entertain and intrigue. The show’s title, translated from French, means “the art of doing it well,” and the film lives up to its name. Chanel (and the New York subway) stars as a perfectly normal wardrobe staple for next gens in a perfectly normal, relatable style in a joyful cinematic moment.

Signaling Safety and Shared Interests

The personalization trend isn’t just about overstimulated next gens trying to differentiate themselves from the herd. While some have called Gen Z’s hyper-personal style “virtue signalling,” it’s more about signalling belonging within their respective communities, on all sides of the political spectrum. In this contentious era, it’s become more important for people with similar leanings to identify one another, safely from afar. Many next gens care more about proclaiming who they are, whom they love, and what they believe in more than conforming to a gendered attractiveness standard. That’s why we’re seeing baggy, sometimes comedic silhouettes like the Alladinesque “balloon pant” and the camo pant of the early 90s come back into the cultural zeitgeist.

Don’t hate us, but the millennial statement tee is also back, buoyed by nostalgia for the early aughts and a bifurcated political climate. Consumers are walking billboards for their causes, interests, and senses of humor. But next gens are taking statement apparel to the next level, wearing statement bags, hats, jewelry, heck even nail art.

Affordable Luxury

Luxury brands ignore Gen Z’s financial reality at their own peril. Bank of America reports that Gen Z and millennial’s spend only rose by .05 percent YoY in August of 2025, compared to 2.4 percent for boomers. Even well-off Gen Zs don’t have the once-promising career prospects as their millennial predecessors, and let’s be real, it’s hard to justify buying a $4,500 Murikami bag with Afterpay if you have no prospect of enough money coming in. The result is a return to affordable, aspirational luxury brands, particularly those like Ralph Lauren and Coach, for staples.

Coach and Ralph Lauren received the top 10 placements on the Lyst index. Coach’s saw its total revenue rise 9.9 percent to about $5.6 billion for the 12 months ended in June. Ralph Lauren saw revenue rise 6.8 percent in the 12 months ended in March. Ralph Lauren’s cable-knit quarter zip sweater was actually the hottest luxury item last quarter. Next gen luxury consumers are also more interested in little-known luxury brands, investing in burgeoning brands like five-year-old Tokyo menswear brand A.PRESSE that focus on craftsmanship over peacocking wealth in recognizable ways that recognizable products aren’t.

In selling luxury to next gens, a recognizable product isn’t enough. For highly individuated Gen Z consumers, overhyped brand awareness can read as ubiquity and work against you. Quality craftsmanship isn’t a given for luxury brands anymore; customers need to see evidence that they’re getting genuine quality for their investment. And artistic inspiration, as we see from Louis Vuitton and Chanel, might just be the key to push prospective luxury customers into making their first purchase.

Is Saudi Arabia the New Luxury Hotspot?

Glyn Atwal — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Entertainment Hub

Every retail trade show now has a Saudi presence. It is on a mission to prove its relevancy and profitability for brands outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Customers of these brands? Local, regional and international. Growth in regional tourism has benefited the Kingdom, which has not traditionally been considered a bucket-list destination. In 2025, Saudi Arabia welcomed a record 122 million domestic and inbound visitors, an increase of 5 percent versus 2024. But the Kingdom has bigger dreams.

The ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030 are gaining traction as the country works to diversify its economy. Saudi Arabia has positioned itself as both a regional and global entertainment hub, hosting mega-events ranging from Formula 1 and MDLBEAST Soundstorm to the FIFA World Cup in 2034. According to Taqua Malik, Founder & CEO at Freedomvisory Ltd, “Saudi Arabia is no longer an emerging market story, it is a scale-and-influence market where consumer sophistication, cultural confidence, and national transformation are converging at pace.”

Why should luxury brands expand their footprint into Saudi Arabia? It’s no longer an “emerging market” story; it is a scale-and-influence market where consumer sophistication, cultural confidence, and national transformation are converging at pace. For luxury, this is a chance to build enduring relevance with a young, discerning audience in a country shaping the region’s next chapter in culture, entertainment, tourism, and retail.

Tourism Retail

Anyone with a sweet tooth knows that Dubai chocolate has an unmistakable taste. This global culinary phenomenon is yet another reason to visit the Middle East. Dubai is already one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations and is reportedly the most popular city on TikTok. In other words, Dubai is a hotspot.

The success of Dubai Mall is a blueprint for why luxury retailers are chasing tourist spending. According to Chalhoub Group, personal luxury sales across the Gulf rose 6 percent to $12.8 billion in 2024 and are projected to reach $15 billion by 2027. This is arguably a much-needed boost to the bottom line of both waxing and waning luxury brands. Prada, for example, reported a 21 percent increase in revenue in the Middle East for Q3 2025.

Malls in the region remain powerful tourist magnets. The recent opening of Solitaire Mall in Riyadh has attracted a mix of lifestyle and luxury brands, from AAPE to Zegna. Retail investment is set to accelerate further. Knight Frank estimates that Riyadh will add 2.3 million square meters of retail space by 2030, including flagship developments such as the Mall of Saudi.

While tourist spending is estimated to account for approximately 50 to 60 percent of luxury sales in the Middle East, domestic demand will be pivotal to future growth. An expanding base of ultra-affluent consumers will have even greater spending power. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, Saudi Arabia leads the region with nearly 340,000 millionaires and is forecast to rise to 480,000 by 2029. This trend is cascading down the income pyramid. McKinsey & Co. projects that the number of households earning more than $250,000 annually will double between 2025 and 2050.

Next Gen Dominance

Saudi Arabia stands out as a youth-driven consumption market, with 63 percent of its population under the age of 30. It is a demographic dynamic that luxury brands can no longer afford to ignore. Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship store in Diriyah, which includes the DG Caffè, is now one of the brand’s largest locations globally.

The true game changer, however, is the rapid transformation of the economy. Women now account for more than one-third of Saudi Arabia’s workforce and over 45 percent of new entrepreneurs. This shift has empowered women to express personal identity and style in increasingly visible ways. According to Chalhoub Group research, Saudi women are the most engaged consumers of makeup and fragrance in the region. As Taqua Malik notes, “For luxury, this is a chance to build enduring relevance with a young, discerning audience in a country shaping the region’s next chapter in culture, entertainment, tourism, and retail.”

Cultural Relevance

Success in Saudi Arabia will be determined not only by a brand’s retail footprint, but also by its ability to embrace cultural relevance. According to The Future Laboratory, more than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents believe luxury brands should offer localized collections or seasonal exclusives. For example, Brunello Cucinelli’s abaya capsule and Loro Piana’s Ramadan collection celebrate and respect local cultural identity.

Cultural relevance also extends beyond product into service and engagement. Discretion and intimacy are central to the luxury experience. Loro Piana’s Riyadh boutique, for example, features a VIC room, a private, appointment-only space. Malik observes, “The Saudi luxury consumer is values-led and socially attuned: they invest in quality, heritage, and prestige, but they also look for meaning, local resonance, and a brand’s ability to show respect through detail.”

For retailers, digital strategy must be equally culturally fluent. More than 90 percent of young Saudis actively use Snapchat, and high engagement combined with strong trust in peer networks makes the platform a vital touchpoint for luxury brands. Brands such as Givenchy were part of Snapchat’s 2025 AR Ramadan Mall. Malik adds that Saudis are “digitally fluent and globally aware, yet deeply proud of identity, rewarding brands that understand the nuance of Saudi social codes, family dynamics, and occasion-driven dressing.”

Saudi Arabia is still widely perceived as culturally conservative, but it is undergoing a shift not only in what consumers buy, but also in where they buy it. According to PwC, Saudi consumers make approximately 40 to 50 percent of their luxury purchases abroad. As luxury brands expand their physical presence within the Kingdom, spending will move closer to home.

Luxury brands can enter the Saudi market through multiple avenues. An investment license is primarily required when a brand intends to operate through its own Saudi entity, but it’s not the only route to market. Many luxury houses partner with regional operators such as the Chalhoub Group to navigate market entry, from securing prime retail locations to regulatory compliance and logistics. As Malik notes, “Partnering early can be an effective way to move quickly and de-risk rollout.” For example, Missoni recently opened its first store in Riyadh in partnership with Al Tayer Insignia.

The opportunity is significant. Riyadh offers luxury brand coverage of 65 percent, compared with 90 percent in Dubai. The viral success of Dubai chocolate is a reminder that the region’s vitality is deeply rooted in sensory pleasure and experience. Luxury has a natural resonance in Saudi Arabia, and according to Malik, the Kingdom “is building its own gravitational center, and luxury brands that approach it on its own terms will be best positioned to earn both trust and longevity.” There has never been a better moment for luxury brands to expand their horizons.

Richard Baker: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 2.27.26

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

OK, play it again one more time. At first, I thought I was reading the satirical Onion when I saw an interview with former Saks/Neiman’s/HBC/Lord & Taylor/etc., self-styled entrepreneur. He said he “saved” luxury department store retailing in the country. Really? We know he owes Chanel, Zegna and Akris more than $700 million. We’ve lambasted Baker more than once and after his exit from the Saks Global business earlier this year when they filed for bankruptcy, we figured we might not have a chance to kick him around anymore. So, this interview in The New York Times was a bonus treat. How else would we have had the chance to hear him say he was the only person “on Earth” who could have kept those businesses and going for as long they did. He also said, “I’m happy to be out of the department store business.” So are we. He may be the only person “on Earth” to consistently leave scorched retail earth behind him. Maybe, just maybe the Richard Baker Misses are coming to an end. But let’s not forget his family owns a real estate company with over 10 million square feet of shopping centers.

A Leading Economist Weighs In on the SCOTUS Tariff Reversal

Retail Unwrapped — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The recent Supreme Court decision outlawing the “Liberation Day” tariffs has added another level of uncertainty to the financial outlook of American retailers. Join Shelley and Dan Altman, chief economist and bestselling author of the High Yield Economics newsletter, as they zero in on what the ruling will trigger for retailers and consumers. They discuss whether companies will claw back the tariffs they have paid. Dan says that although companies and the government have records of the money that was paid, it could be sorted out but would be extremely messy. He adds it would be nearly impossible to refund consumers by tracing those purchases to specific people. Ultimately, with the change in tariffs retailers will have higher margins, so, will prices come down? Dan cautions, “We have seen the economy in a sort of paralysis, both in the job market and in investment plans, because people didn’t know where these economic policies were going to land. But now we’ve opened up all this uncertainty again.” This candid conversation puts the challenges facing retailers squarely on the table predicting that small businesses will take the brunt of economic uncertainty over the next 12 months. Listen and learn how an economist clears the air on tariff chaos.

Special Guests

Dan Altman, Chief Economist and Bestselling Author, High Yield Economics

Transcript

Southdale Center Turns 70; Then What?

Sanford Stein — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

America’s first indoor mall, Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. This birthday could be a litmus test of the viability of the traditional shopping mall. To ensure its relevance, owner Simon Properties just completed a $400 million renovation and new luxury wing, bringing together Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Watches of Switzerland/Rolex, MaxMara, and David Yurman. Southdale now has the highest concentration of luxury retail in the upper Midwest and elevates the “luxe listings” above its mega-competitor Mall of America, just a few miles away. But the question remains: Will this capital infusion guarantee Southdale’s future as a 20^th-century architectural aberration in a digital/agentic age? And will chasing the top 10 percent of spenders buy Southdale and Simon time? It is by no means a guarantee of its longevity.

Can the 70-year-old Southdale Center live up to consumers’ expectations? And the answer is: Adding a new luxury wing is not a panacea for cultural relevance; today’s malls need to deliver experience and brands that are meaningful to consumers.

In the Beginning

Southdale’s origin story is a retail case study. Funded by the Dayton Development Company, it’s widely considered to be the nation’s first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall. Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen had a different vision from Dayton’s. Gruen planned for the center to be surrounded by housing, apartment buildings, schools, and medical facilities, as well as natural amenities including a lake and a park, modeled after the commerce centers of many European cities. In 1956, he was ahead of his time; the mall became…a mall.

Gruen’s original vision, now known as mixed-use development, has become the formula for the reinvention and salvation of malls like Southdale. Repositioning malls from single-purpose points of transaction into dynamic community forums promoting human interaction is the sustainable reinvention of irrelevant malls. But, given the ginormous price tag involved, there are only a finite number of malls destined for such rejuvenation. The vast majority will perish.

Class Distinctions

Between 1970 and 2002, over 800 shopping malls were built in America. Money was cheap, second-string suburbs were flourishing, and young consumers—baby boomers—were entering their prime earning years. By the mid-1990s, mall numbers peaked at over 1,500 enclosed malls. Then the tide changed. Today, approximately 700 fully enclosed malls still exist, and projections suggest that another 25 percent of these remaining centers will shutter within the next five years. Analysts predict as few as 200 survivors by the mid-2030’s.

What’s the formula for mall survival? Malls are bluntly, real estate assets. And for real estate, the age-old adage “location, location, location” is the playbook. In terms of sustainability, a mall’s age, tenant mix, occupancy rates, and institutional ownership play decisive roles in defining the ABCs of property class ranking.

The highest performing A-class malls boast premium tenants, affluent customers, and high occupancy rates (mid-high 90 percent range). Their tenants are made up of stable, national luxury and premium brands. These properties are newer or heavily renovated, located in affluent markets, typically home to Apple stores, and many are mixed-use village spaces like The Grove.
B-class malls are moderate performers, plagued by failing mid-market specialty chains. With occupancy rates of 80-90 percent, they are often found in secondary suburbs and cater to value-oriented families. They are generally older centers devoid of improvements, and many are still anchored by JCPenney.
C-class malls are the most endangered species, with 500-600 already shuttered since the mid-1990s. Occupancies are often at or below 70 percent and are considered distressed properties. They cater to highly price-sensitive shoppers with local retailers, discounters, and non-retail services.

Gruen’s Gospel

I believe the Gruen gospel of “placemaking” will ultimately determine the fate of Southdale and the rest of the remaining A-class malls. Their ownership is concentrated among a small number of deep-pocketed development and management companies, including Simon Property Group, Brookfield Properties, Macerich, (and to a lesser extent) SITE Centers, Taubman, and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

It’s Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties, who together own and control nearly half of A-class malls in the U.S. and they must concentrate on bringing their aging mall properties into the 21st century through additions, renovations, and tenant upgrades.

Southdale was completed in 1956, and the mall was just over 800,000 square feet. Today it is 60 percent larger at 1.3 million square feet. The mall’s haphazard expansion in 1963 and 1971, along with multiple renovations through the 2000s and 2010s, has resulted in a rather schizophrenic visitor experience. The current luxury wing is at odds with the rest of the mall. While the new single-level wing is upscale and polished, it feels like an island (or peninsula) unto itself. Visitors arriving through any of the mall’s other primary entrances will, no doubt, be wowed by the newly renovated center court. However, finding the new luxury wing presents a quandary, accessible exclusively via a second-level corridor.

Futureproofing an Aging Mall

All the money in the world can’t save an irrelevant mall. Some centers are destined to fail in the brutal survival of the fittest. There are core fundamentals that are prerequisites in the reimagining and futureproofing of aging malls. Will Southdale measure up?

Anchor Replacement: A mall’s once dominant department stores literally served as anchors and traffic generators, as well as magnets to attract desirable specialty stores. With their departure, similarly compelling anchor-like players must fill that role. A plethora of unlikely candidates are filling the bill today. They include high-end grocery stores, fitness and co-working centers, hotels, medical centers, “high experience” retailers, and even private clubs. Dick’s House of Sport, which has effectively replaced former Sears stores in several top-tier malls is an excellent example.

To Southdale’s credit, it has flexed its “anchor’s away” muscle. In 2019, on the site of a JCPenney store, a massive $43 million, 204,000-square-foot Life Time Fitness flagship dropped anchor. Billed as a three-story athletic resort, it included a rooftop beach club, pool, and even pickleball courts. Immediately adjacent is a 75,000 square foot Life Time luxury coworking development and indoor soccer field. Both are knockout examples of anchor replacement.

In 2024, on the site of a former Herberger’s department store, Southdale introduced a 25,000 square foot, two-level Puttshack, that bills itself as an “upscale, tech-infused” mini-golf experience. Immediately adjacent is Kowalski’s Market, a premier specialty grocer which should also generate repeat traffic. Southdale’s score: 9 out of 10.

Retail Theater and Experience Engines: The success of the reimagined mall becomes a shared proposition between landlord and tenants. In the face of unified commerce, the continued growth of online retail, augmented reality, and generative AI, brands are being forced to up their game to get folks off the couch. Becoming fully immersed in a brand’s storytelling has become the new norm. Brands like Lego, Crayola, Build-A-Bear, and Camp have become the new “play stations,” undergoing constant reinvention aimed at lengthening the customer’s visit and creating memorable moments.

With the massive popularity of the collectables market that grew by 32 percent in 2025, select specialty retailers are cashing in. Among them, CardVault, Pokémon Center, Kura Sushi gashapon, and Pop Mart. They sit at the intersection of collecting, surprise, and social sharing. They are selling sets, series, rarities, even blind boxes that foster “the chase.”

And beyond the store purchase, often viral “unboxing” follows, driving social media sharing. These brands, and others like, them populate the halls of the Mall of America, while Southdale hasn’t hopped on that brand wagon yet. Southdale’s score: 2 out of 10.

Social Interaction and Brand Activation: More than ever, brands depend on popular performers and sports figures to co-promote product drops. To that end, top malls have beefed-up marketing and event teams to facilitate high-energy, revolving events to drive traffic. Southdale currently has a considerable amount of underutilized space which could be captured for such events that bring “like-minded” groups together around a shared passion. Southdale’s score: 5 out of 10.
Food-Forward Destinations: National restaurant chains like Applebee’s will no longer cut it with new generations, proud of their food-fixated tastes. The winning ticket includes chef-driven restaurants, multicultural food halls, and experiential dining. Chef-staged, fixed-price dinners are selling out months in advance. Even ghost kitchens are being created to facilitate the preparation of Michelin Chef-quality meals for takeout or near-instant delivery to area foodies.

Southdale’s Dining Pavilion is the ghost of its former massive food court; there are plenty of tables and chairs, but light on eats. Southdale is lacking in the fine dining experience that will lure in customers. Southdale’s score: 7 out of 10.

Social Infrastructure and Walkability: Too many major malls resemble fortresses, surrounded by seas of asphalt, as vehicular access and parking overrode pedestrian friendliness during the planning process. The new mall’s viability focuses on socialization, visit duration, relaxation, and immersion. Reimagined, multi-use developments are selling off excess parking to accommodate multi-family housing. Other pedestrian-centric amenities include green spaces, walking paths, water features, community gardens, and well-equipped play areas, for folks to gather, linger, meet, and work. Southdale hasn’t begun turning parking lots into parks. With an influx of multi-family residential properties and luxury services, “greening” initiatives are a must. Southdale’s score: 5 out of 10.

Prescription

While Southdale doesn’t publish its annual visits, The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported an 11 percent increase in foot traffic following the opening of the new luxury wing, which isn’t too surprising. Applying my “mall-metamorphosis metrics,” Southdale is an overachiever with its recent retail and lifestyle additions; however, it is clearly an underachiever in the rest of the crucial placemaking attributes. New retail is moving much faster than center owners, including Southdale, can anticipate and act on. Its relevance will depend on staying ahead of what customers want, not catching up to them.

Korean Brands Are Moving into a Mall Near You

Mark Faithfull — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

For much of the past decade, the dominant narrative for global retail has been framed around China and its manufacturing scale, digital platforms, ultra-fast and cheap fashion platforms, plus its ability to flood global markets with low-cost goods. Yet as regulatory pressure on Chinese exports intensifies in both the U.S. and Europe and geopolitical friction disrupts supply chains, South Korea, fuelled by the global phenomenon of K-pop culture, is emerging as a dynamic Asian force across beauty, fashion, lifestyle and specialty retail.

Korean Cultural Influence

The rise of Korean brands reflects a structural shift in how global consumers discover, trust and buy products. The visibility of K-Beauty has reached a tipping point, most notably next to London’s Chinatown, where tourists literally trip over one K-brand after another. There is no doubt that South Korea has arrived as a world influence.

What began years earlier as niche experimentation with off-the-wall beauty treatments from sheet masks and snail mucin has matured into mainstream adoption across the major retail chains. Brands such as premium skincare brand Laneige, nature-inspired Innisfree, derm-focused COSRX and skincare specialist Beauty of Joseon have moved from Asian beauty stores into Europe’s biggest chains, including Boots, Sephora and Douglas.

Sephora’s European rollout of Korean skincare lines accelerated last year, with COSRX’s Advanced Snail 96 Essence consistently ranking among its top-selling serums in France and Germany, while Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask became a viral bestseller thanks to TikTok-driven campaigns in the U.K. and Italy. Consumer appeal was not just about novelty but about perceived efficacy, transparency of ingredients and a narrative of innovation.

What’s the latest trend in Asian imports? And the answer is: Watch Korean brands that resonate with consumers with storytelling, propelled by evergreen K-pop culture.

Korean Brands Invest in Europe

At the same time, Korean beauty conglomerates have been laying the groundwork in Europe. Amorepacific—Korea’s answer to Estee Lauder—expanded its European logistics hubs in the Netherlands and Poland in 2025, reducing delivery times and opening direct-to-consumer channels. LG Household & Health Care, an equivalent to Procter & Gamble beauty or Unilever, strengthened its partnerships with European retailers and invested in localized product development, launching SPF formulations adapted to EU regulatory standards and European skin-tone ranges.

CJ Olive Young, South Korea’s dominant beauty retailer. broadly in the mode of Sephora or Ulta Beauty, also accelerated its international ecommerce push, recording double-digit growth in European orders last year. And in January, it forged a strategic partnership with Sephora in a move that marks the Korean firm’s entry into the fast-growing ‘middle vendor’ market connecting K-beauty brands with global distributors.

Korean Brands Beyond Beauty

Beyond beauty, Korean retail brands began to appear in categories previously dominated by Chinese players. XimiVogue, originally founded in China but increasingly repositioned with Korean-inspired branding and partnerships, expanded aggressively across Europe in 2025, with stores in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe, with an offer that has often seen it dubbed the Korean Miniso. By 2025, Korean streetwear brands such as Ader Error, luxury menswear Wooyoungmi and eyewear specialist Gentle Monster had established flagship stores in European capitals and cultivated loyal followings among Gen Z consumers. Gentle Monster’s experiential retail spaces in London and Paris blurred the boundary between art installation and eyewear retail.

XimiVogue’s strategic pivot toward Korean cultural references proved timely. As European regulators tightened scrutiny on Chinese imports, particularly around product safety, sustainability claims and product dumping concerns as a fallout from U.S. tariffs, retailers with Korean branding have faced far fewer political and reputational barriers.

Indeed, this regulatory context is crucial. The European Union has introduced stricter enforcement of the Digital Services Act and tightened customs controls on low-value parcels, notably hitting Chinese ultra-fast fashion and marketplace platforms. And the mood music suggests that trade barriers for China will only become more challenging. Korean brands, by contrast, have benefited from South Korea’s status as a trusted trade partner with strong intellectual property protections and a reputation for quality manufacturing.

Korean Fashions Expand in the U.S.

Musinsa, Korea’s biggest curated fashion ecommerce platform, launched cross-border services targeting European consumers, leveraging curated Korean brands rather than mass-market imports. The same dynamic has played out even more dramatically in the U.S., where Korean brands have moved from cult status to mainstream retail. By the third quarter of 2025, the U.S. accounted for more than 51 percent of K-beauty’s global online sales, overtaking China for the first time as the world’s largest e-commerce market for Korean beauty products, with sales jumping 37 percent year-on-year.

NielsenIQ reported that K-beauty sales in the U.S. reached roughly $2 billion in 2025, far outpacing the growth of the overall beauty market and driven by facial skincare and rapidly expanding haircare categories. Major American retailers have responded by racing to integrate Korean brands into their assortments, with Sephora, Ulta, Target, Walmart and Costco having all expanded Korean product lines, while some retailers have created dedicated K-beauty zones.

Torriden officially entered Sephora’s U.S. network in 2025, rolling out hydration and derma products its products across more than 400 stores and online after viral TikTok exposure and a successful pop-up campaign. Amorepacific’s Aestura launched at Sephora early last year, positioning dermatology-led Korean skincare as a credible alternative to legacy brands. Herbal skincare specialist Hanyul debuted in over 300 Sephora stores in the same year, while independent Korean companies such as make-up and skincare brand Tirtir, premium d’Alba and Beauty of Joseon have started showing up within U.S. chains including Ulta, Target and Costco, reflecting a broader push into physical retail presence.

In grocery, Korean-origin supermarket chain H Mart has announced plans to open its largest-ever U.S. location in California, transforming a former Kohl’s site in Pacific Commons Shopping Center into a 100,000-square-foot experiential retail hub combining groceries, a food hall and dine-in restaurants. Construction is expected to start late this year.

Korean Big Picture

Amid it all, the role of entertainment is key. K-pop and K-drama continued to act as global marketing engines for Korean products and the international success of series such as drama Queen of Tears, global hit Squid Game and the sustained global tours of a myriad of groups, most notably BTS, have provided constant exposure for Korean fashion and beauty.

But what distinguishes Korea’s retail expansion from China’s is not just aesthetics but strategy. Chinese platforms have often relied on price leadership and logistical scale, pushing vast volumes of low-cost goods through digital channels. Korean brands, by contrast, have emphasized brand equity, storytelling and innovation. The Korean approach aligns more closely with premiumization trends in Western markets and the Gen Z era of little treats in a world that is offering them little comfort.

Regulation at the Heart of the Korean Approach

Another critical factor is agility when it comes to regulation and compliance. Korean companies have historically operated within stringent domestic regulatory frameworks, particularly in cosmetics and electronics. This has translated into smooth adaptation to European standards and, as a result, when the EU introduced updated cosmetic ingredient regulations in 2025, Korean brands were able to reformulate and relabel products faster than many of their Chinese competitors. Similarly, Korean electronics and lifestyle brands have leveraged their existing compliance culture to expand into smart home accessories, wearable devices and design-led consumer electronics.

Yet as more Korean brands enter European and U.S. markets, competition is intensifying. The risk of overexposure, brand dilution and the loss of their first mover advantage is real, particularly in beauty, where dozens of Korean brands now compete for shelf space and digital attention amid a fickle and short-memory customer base.

Korean retail has also been caught up in the ever-fluctuating U.S. tariff battles, and although most beauty, fashion and general merchandise goods face a 15 percent tariff, some categories, such as automobiles, are currently facing 25 percent tariffs. Balancing global expansion with authentic identity will be the defining test of 2026.

Tariff Chaos and the Widening Gyre

Mark Cohen — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against Donald Trump’s unilateral imposition of worldwide tariffs should have been a slam dunk. The peculiar delay in the Court’s ruling was allegedly caused by a struggle between ideology and the integrity of the Constitution itself among the justices. Nevertheless, Trump’s “America First” April 2025 “Liberation Day” strategy, emboldened by repeated escalations, changes, and curiously granted exemptions, has now been deemed to be illegal by our highest court.

What does this ruling now mean for the myriads of trade deals this government has allegedly struck with countries around the world? I say “allegedly” because few if any of these agreements have actually been codified. Many, in fact, are based upon future promises of purchases of U.S.-made products and investment in U.S. enterprises that may be specious at best. After the ruling, Trump immediately engaged in a characteristic tirade, accusing the Court of all manner of impropriety and then immediately decreed, despite the Court’s ruling, that he would impose a 10 percent tariff on all U.S. imports across the board. Less than 24 hours later, he amended that decree to 15 percent.

How will retail be affected by the new tariff ruling? And the answer is: The industry will continue to experience more chaos and uncertainty resulting from the recent Supreme Court ruling. A retail CEO walks into their boardroom this week and, without a doubt, asks of his or her executive team, “What now?”

Based on his reaction to the Court’s ruling and his continuing bombastic criticism, it appears that Trump and his advisors presumed that the Supreme Court wouldn’t rein him in nor would the current majority party in Congress, which, by virtue of the U.S. Constitution, holds the only legal authority to impose tariffs. Despite the Court’s decision, he continues to falsely claim that tariffs have not been paid by U.S. consumers, the U.S. economy is booming, inflation is under control, and U.S. manufacturing activity is rising as a result of his tariff-driven actions. Unfortunately, his administration’s own recent statistics refute these claims – something he and his team are unwilling to accept. Underlying all of this, it’s also clear that Trump assumed that the world would bend a knee to his trade demands, something that has not occurred, given evidence of all manner of retaliatory actions taken by a host of trading partners.

So, how does a business leader who may have just breathed a sigh of post-Covid-19 relief in early 2026, now confronted by more confusion from the newly-illegal “Liberation Day” program, proceed? Business executives, both CEO’s and owners of small, medium, large and overlarge enterprises have always faced the vagaries of uncertain futures driven by rising inflation, rising interest rates, ever-changing consumer preferences, competitive challenges, etc. But these issues now all pale in the face of Trump’s ongoing incomprehensible and now illegal trade behavior. Unfortunately, this Supreme Court ruling does nothing to ameliorate the uncertainties that arise from Trump’s ongoing tariff program.

Next Steps

New questions to be resolved:

Will the U.S. Treasury refund the billions of dollars of tariffs that have been collected?
Will consumers and other stakeholders, who have borne an estimated 90 percent of these tariffs, demand and receive some form of recompense?
Will the “deals” Trump struck over the past 10 months remain in place?
Will his declaration of new replacement tariffs even hold?

What a Leader Can Do: A Practical Playbook

The legal authority for these new tariffs is written to allow for a duration of 150 days pending further legislative action. What should retailers do before these five-month actions expire?

Conservatize your sales forecasts and plans.

For businesses currently doing well, be very careful about line-extending current success. Similarly, for businesses currently struggling, be very careful about depending on turnaround assumptions currently in hand. Wherever prices must be increased, be very realistic about the possible negative effects on demand.

Conservatize your gross margin and expense plans as well as your profitability forecasts.

Where you cannot or choose not to raise consumer prices, be very realistic as to what effect that will have on gross margins and then on profitability. The tariff effect has to come from somewhere. If not the supplier or the customer, then where? Operating expenses will be more challenging than they normally are. Everything from service, supply and logistics costs, materials costs, labor and benefits expenses and energy costs will be subject to ongoing and unpredictable price inflation. Yes, the Big Beautiful Tax Bill will provide some offsets, but not nearly enough to cover the uncertainty that I believe businesses will face.

Solidify your relationships with all your stakeholders.

Suppliers: The integrity of your assortments relies upon the relationships you have with your suppliers, all of whom will face the same planning conundrum as you. Focus on your most important vendor partners and manage your relationships with them to a fault.

Customers: Your customers will inevitably continue to exhibit crises of personal liquidity driven by the ongoing inflated prices of goods and services, inflated housing costs and the burden of increasingly expensive child and healthcare. It is really important, now more than ever, to reach out to your most loyal and reliable customers to reassure them that you take their life challenges and continued patronage very seriously. Where you can, advise them in advance of upcoming price increases and changes in customer-facing policies such as shipping costs, returns restrictions and/or changes in hours of operations.

Associates: The viability of a company is always integrally linked to the relationship the company has with its workforce. This is especially true during stressful times, and now certainly fits that bill. Protect the employment of your most valuable team members from the shop floor up to those in corner suites. Unfortunately, this calls for limited hiring if not outright hiring freezes. The best way to avoid necessary reductions in force is to avoid inflating your labor force in the first place. Note, for many businesses, their Covid-19 hiring hangover is just now reconciling itself.

Shareholders: How to manage shareholder expectations is a constant “rock and hard place” issue. If you engage in inappropriate short-term actions to prop up your company’s performance, there will inevitably be a longer-term price paid. This is almost as irrefutable as Isaac Newton’s law of gravity. Having said that, you must protect the performance, if not the solvency, of your enterprise. My advice, admittedly now, from the sidelines, is to level with your shareholders as to the nature and details of the uncertainties you face.

Competition: Business performance, particularly during periods of adversity, is often characterized as a zero-sum game. Winners win by virtue of their ability to take business away from the competition. If ever there was a good time to size up a competitor’s weaknesses and capitalize on them, that time would be now.

Be wary of technology.

Do not view AI-based technology as a panacea during what I believe might be an unprecedented period of turmoil. Yes, increased use of new technology is vital and necessary, but only hand in glove with the use of common sense and good judgment in decision-making. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is something to be examined and managed carefully.

Use the lessons of the recent past.

The 2020-2024 Covid pandemic experience created a textbook of lessons learned for business. In the face of the adversities largely driven by uncertainties that we may be confronted with again, use your company’s past successes and failures as guideposts for the next several years while, hopefully, America regains its footing on the world’s stage.

Anticipate the November 2026 mid-term election

This consequential election may represent an inflection point, as will the 2028 presidential election. But, as it is impossible to foretell conditions and outcomes between now and then, as always, hope for the best but prepare for the worst.