Forum for the Future, working with Tesco and Unilever, reckon that by 2022 what we buy, how we buy it and who from will have changed radically. In their report, Retail Futures, they look ahead 15 years to see what lies in store for shoppers and the retail groups. They see not only new or bigger store chains, more sprawling retail parks, and more poultry products and pasta sauces. Their visions range from multi- storey car parks converted into city centre allotments or"vertical farms"with produce markets where the parking payment booths once were, to a nation of stay-at-home shoppers who let their fingers do the walking to order in almost everything they need or let their refrigerators do the talking, with automatic, direct-to-store reordering and home delivery every time yoghurt, salad or beer stocks run low. Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity founded by veteran environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt and which now advises more than 100 organizations in the public and private sector, says the reality of 2022 is probably somewhere between the two extremes. "It will be a mixture," said Tom Berry, the Forum’s main sustainability adviser. The high street is vital to the economy and the environment: nearly three million people work in retail which generates 6% of UK GDP-- and 2.5% of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Forum says stores and retail groups have a disproportionate influence over society as a result of marketing campaigns and daily dealings with consumers. The Forum’s researchers identified a range of factors which will affect what we buy, how we buy and who we will buy from in the next 15 years. They include: climate change, which is likely to affect agricultural production, higher- or lower- oil prices, new technology, advances in energy production, more globalization and demographic changes that will mean more immigrant labor and more elderly and single person households. They could prompt new shopping formats, says the Forum, like "Tesco Silver" outlets with customized products for retired baby boomers. They also reckon the bell could be tolling for endless aisles of utility products like toilet paper and bin liners, which might only be sold online, or from a utility section at the back of a store, alongside vast vats of liquids like fabric conditioner, where shoppers could fill reusable containers. The long queue at the checkout could also be history when bar codes are read for prices immediately an item is dropped into a trolley. The online revolution, says the Forum, has only just started: "We can anticipate innovations such as entering your postcode for hyper-local sourcing". Consumers, however, might also use the Internet to cut out the middleman and source direct from farms and manufacturers "so posing a threat to major retailers". The explosion in the number of TV channels and the rise of the Internet to download entertainment means store chains will have to work far harder to build, and keep consumers’ trust. One retailer told the researchers: "We won’t be able to rely on hitting millions of people at 7:45p.m. on a Wednesday night with a Coronation Street advertising slot." The Forum came up with four different visions of the future depending on high or low economic growth and changing consumer outlooks; whether shoppers want more convenience or to do more for themselves; perhaps buying more locally sourced products with more information about what their families are eating and wearing.
Forum for the Future, working with Tesco and Unilever, reckon that by 2022 what we buy, how we buy it and who from will have changed radically. In their report, Retail Futures, they look ahead 15 years to see what lies in store for shoppers and the retail groups. They see not only new or bigger store chains, more sprawling retail parks, and more poultry products and pasta sauces. Their visions range from multi- storey car parks converted into city centre allotments or"vertical farms"with produce markets where the parking payment booths once were, to a nation of stay-at-home shoppers who let their fingers do the walking to order in almost everything they need or let their refrigerators do the talking, with automatic, direct-to-store reordering and home delivery every time yoghurt, salad or beer stocks run low.
Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity founded by veteran environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt and which now advises more than 100 organizations in the public and private sector, says the reality of 2022 is probably somewhere between the two extremes. "It will be a mixture," said Tom Berry, the Forum’s main sustainability adviser.
The high street is vital to the economy and the environment: nearly three million people work in retail which generates 6% of UK GDP-- and 2.5% of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Forum says stores and retail groups have a disproportionate influence over society as a result of marketing campaigns and daily dealings with consumers.
The Forum’s researchers identified a range of factors which will affect what we buy, how we buy and who we will buy from in the next 15 years. They include: climate change, which is likely to affect agricultural production, higher- or lower- oil prices, new technology, advances in energy production, more globalization and demographic changes that will mean more immigrant labor and more elderly and single person households.
They could prompt new shopping formats, says the Forum, like "Tesco Silver" outlets with customized products for retired baby boomers. They also reckon the bell could be tolling for endless aisles of utility products like toilet paper and bin liners, which might only be sold online, or from a utility section at the back of a store, alongside vast vats of liquids like fabric conditioner, where shoppers could fill reusable containers. The long queue at the checkout could also be history when bar codes are read for prices immediately an item is dropped into a trolley.
The online revolution, says the Forum, has only just started: "We can anticipate innovations such as entering your postcode for hyper-local sourcing". Consumers, however, might also use the Internet to cut out the middleman and source direct from farms and manufacturers "so posing a threat to major retailers".
The explosion in the number of TV channels and the rise of the Internet to download entertainment means store chains will have to work far harder to build, and keep consumers’ trust. One retailer told the researchers: "We won’t be able to rely on hitting millions of people at 7:45p.m. on a Wednesday night with a Coronation Street advertising slot."
The Forum came up with four different visions of the future depending on high or low economic growth and changing consumer outlooks; whether shoppers want more convenience or to do more for themselves; perhaps buying more locally sourced products with more information about what their families are eating and wearing.
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