Helen Dickinson: ‘Don’t build back better – build forward’
With the third wave subsiding, over half the adult population receiving their first vaccination and the reopening of so called ‘non-essential’ retail, we all hope we might just be entering the recovery stage of this pandemic.
We shouldn’t speak too soon. The summer of 2020 saw far fewer cases, albeit without a vaccination programme, and hopes of recovery were soon dashed.
Nonetheless, this time I will dare to be optimistic. The rapid rollout of vaccinations, coupled with home and workplace testing and a more cautious approach to the reopening of the economy, offers hope that this time we will succeed.
The retail industry, and the wider economy, now have the much-touted opportunity to ‘build back better’. But the aim should not be a return to a ‘better’ retail industry of 2019, but rather to build forward to a retail industry of 2021 and beyond.
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