Government Convinced Retailers Will NOT Survive

The West Australian Government released a report on June 14th that shocked a lot of retailers. It was produced by the Productivity Commission who were asked to look at the future of retailing in the State. The commission mentioned that many retailers will not survive the next few years due to the changing shopping habits of consumers. The retailers at biggest risk were newsagents, departmental stores, book and music shops. The decline is put down to new technology and consumers changing shopping habits. The bargain hunter attitude of shoppers and the reaction by many retailers has meant that many retailers will be unable to survive in the new economy. It mentioned that some retailers had themselves to blame as they had ignored online retailing as an option to grow their business. This is not something unique to West Australia, I suspect that if this research was done in other countries the results would be the same.