Author: Nick Lavecchia

Retail isn’t disappearing. It isn’t even necessarily declining. What’s actually happening is more nuanced and more important. Retail is rediscovering its voice. And in doing so, is it separating into three very different narratives. For decades, the industry operated in a relatively predictable middle. There was a broad, comfortable space where most retailers lived: not…

The retail experiences weren’t unique. They were normal. I’ve been to Italy many times. Once as a child, again as a teenager, and several times since the pandemic. One of those visits during the pandemic itself, in Bologna, not very far from where things were at their worst. What made those trips, especially the last…

Crafting Retail Experiences There’s something quietly profound about a perfectly crafted espresso. Or a pizza so memorable you can’t stop thinking about it long after the last bite. Both are deceptively simple, yet remarkably precise. Both are crafted with care, attention, and expertise. Both create moments that linger and make people come back for more….

On a chilly Saturday morning in the late 1980s, a young retail researcher might have been found doing something that looked unusual. Clipboard in hand, he would stand at the edge of a suburban mall parking lot counting cars. To most people passing by, the activity would have seemed pointless. But to those trying to…

There was a time when shopping was not an errand. It was an outing. In cities across North America and Europe, department stores were not simply retail spaces. They were landmarks and stages. Department stores did not just sell goods. They curated aspiration. A department store did not merely house merchandise. Window displays were not…