If you read retail trade press regularly, it won’t be feeling like a happy new year. In just the first few weeks of 2020 we have seen at least nine established Australian retailers either closing stores, going bankrupt, issuing profit warnings or cutting staff. And these are not small local businesses, we are talking about large, experienced, established retailers like Ikea, Myer, EB Games and Bose. A lot of retailers will be spinning these cuts as ‘streamlining’, but I am not aware of any
