BraintTrust Query: How will a younger generation of headquarters executives and older store-level workers change the face of retailing?
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network
Most of our discussions on RetailWire about baby boomers address ways in which to sell to them. Meanwhile, many corporate executives are probably part of that demographic and starting to consider retirement. Younger people who may have different approaches to retailing will eventually replace them. How will that affect the business and consumers - or won't it?
Conversely, older workers (many retired from the full-time workforce) are increasingly finding work at store-level.
Recruitment instructions from organizations such as ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) here in the U.K. seem designed to encourage retailers to hire older workers for the shop floor. Which then leads to questions about what those people did before. Were they executives in a past professional life? Are they using their experience to go back to their roots? Think about that for a minute. There are decided advantages for customers and for willing and eager young retirees but what about the new bosses, now in charge of people who were once bosses themselves? Numerous interesting possibilities spring to mind.
As the faces at headquarters and in-store change, so too may the face of retailing.
Discussion Question: How will a younger generation of headquarters executives and older store-level workers change the face of retailing?