Protests over mass shootings, attacks on Asian and Black Americans, and lack of diversity have roiled the retail landscape. In response, retailers are pledging action. Will shoppers buy it?
No doubt, retailers may feel like they are getting burned by a fire they did not start, however the retail industry has always been in the epicenter of social turmoil because it directly touches people’s lives, shopper's lives.
Recently, this point was tragically reinforced by the mass shooting in a King Soopers’ store in Boulder, Colorado. Of the 10 people killed, three were King Soopers’ employees and one was an Instacart employee. The rest were shoppers except for a dedicated policeman who arrived on the scene to confront the shooter.
A week after the tragedy, King Soopers’ parent company donated $1 million to the Colorado Healing Fund and offered other ways to support the victims’ families and local...