Good morning.
It comes with names like Retail Apocalypse. Death of Retail. The Demise of Shoppers. What is isn’t is any of these. FreightWaves published a story on Friday on retail freight and we learned some surprising things along the way – namely, that will all the announced store closings in recent years, the amount of retail freight is not declining. It’s just moving to different locations. You can read more about that here: How retail trends are reshaping freight movement.
Did you know?
The death of retail is grossly overstated. While there have been nearly 3600 retail store closings announced so far in 2017, there have also been nearly 2900 store openings announced?
Quotable:
“Whether it’s made in America or not, nobody ever goes to the train station to buy things. It’s got to get to where it needs to go and it’s got to get there on a truck.”
-David Heller, vice president of governmental affairs for the Truckload Carriers Association, on the role trucks play in a growing ecommerce society.
In other news:
Sorry Mom, your gift was hacked
FedEx’s U.S. operations got caught up in the massive cyber attack that happened on Friday. The company said it was “experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware.” There was no word on any package delays, but now you have something to blame for forgetting to get your mother a gift for Mother’s Day. (Transport Topics)