The law of unintended consequences is writ large over the thousands of retail job cuts unveiled in the last few weeks.

Over the course of a fortnight big names such as Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all revealed restructures that will impact people in the businesses.

The reasons for the jobs pressure are as much analogue as digital.

While retailers remodel their operations to take account of the digital shift, they continue to bear costs associated with traditional businesses – the national living wage, the apprenticeship levy, business rates.

And from speaking to people in the industry, I get the impression that the jobs earthquake is only just beginning.

It’s two years since the BRC raised the prospect of almost a million job losses in retail by 2025. ‘Fewer jobs but better jobs’ was the message.

“Not so long ago the talk was that new technology would transform retailers’ back offices, allowing frontline staff to focus on customers. However many of the jobs disappearing in the current cull are in-store roles”

After a slow start, the latest jobs news seems to bear out the likelihood of that forecast being realised.

Fewer jobs? That’s certainly the direction of travel. Better jobs? We’re not there yet, although all sorts of new roles are being created in response to consumers’ digital habits.

Not so long ago the talk was that new technology would transform retailers’ back offices, allowing frontline staff to focus on customers.

However many of the jobs disappearing in the current cull are in-store roles and some even have the word customer in the title.

Unsurprisingly, the job changes are not going down well. At some of the retailers affected there’s a feeling that traditional company values are being betrayed.

The danger is that the mood of uncertainty and fear about the future may undermine retailers’ relationships with shoppers. It may be evident in poor in-store standards or indifferent service.

Look across the Atlantic and you’ll see one vision of retail’s future – Amazon Go, with its cashierless checkouts and powered by technology that minimises the need for human staff.

Amazon-Go-shutterstock 549171

You could see that model taking off elsewhere. However, it is suited to markets such as convenience, where a good customer experience amounts to ‘fast in, fast out’.

In bigger stores, whether supermarkets or department stores, shopfloor staff and the competitive advantage that the best employees can bring will remain a fixture for the foreseeable future.

With each year that passes, the BRC is doing a better job of telling retail’s story in Westminster and Whitehall’s corridors of power.

But it’s still the case that retail jobs are undervalued by many of the politicians who support well-intentioned policies without perhaps realising what the impact will be on employment – including, of course, for their own constituents.

And, as retailers adapt digitally, they can do their bit for those that they part company with.

As part of their exit programmes, surely affected employees should be offered help to gain the transferable digital skills that will better set them up for employment in future.

No sizzle in Bunnings’ sausage

There will be jobs implications from the travails of Bunnings as the Aussie giant ponders store closures or even a complete retreat from the UK.

In Bunnings’ case though, they will result not from the need to adapt to a new landscape but from sheer recklessness.

Retail history is littered with instances of ill-considered overseas forays, and Bunnings’ UK venture looks destined to join that list.

“Homebase was by no means perfect, but Bunnings’ displayed arrogance in parachuting in its own team from Down Under”

The retailer’s overconfidence was epitomised by the axing of the entire Homebase management team when the deal completed.

Homebase was by no means perfect, but Bunnings’ displayed arrogance in parachuting in its own team from Down Under in the conviction that it ‘knew better’ how to run a DIY chain and what would appeal to British shoppers.

However, the customers didn’t share that view and now Bunnings is nursing the headache of a £584m writedown.

As Harry Selfridge famously said: “People will sit up and take notice of you if you will sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice.”

Bunnings didn’t. And consequently, there was no sizzle in its retail sausage.

Ex-B&Q man Damian McGloughlin, highly regarded as he is, will have his work cut out if the business is to survive in the UK.