Unprecedented.
In my over three decades of covering and working in the retail industry, we have never seen anything like the impact of Coronavirus on the global retail scene. 9/11 temporarily ground business in the United States to a halt as fear and uncertainty gripped the country. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and the anecdote to terrorism was a resumption of daily life. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 hammered consumer savings, crushed the credit market and stopped future retail growth for several years. Consumer spending slowed, particularly for non-discretionary items, but the economy moved forward, albeit at a much slower pace. And, it was the consumer that led us out of recession as spending led to the economy’s recovery.
