Pat Connolly, executive vice president [Williams-Sonoma Inc., which also owns Pottery Barn]: "We are committed to restoring our retail channel profitability to historical levels ... We are working diligently to restructure our portfolio of stores and optimize our sales and costs per square foot. This will be accomplished by selective store closings and lease negotiations ... Over the next three fiscal years, 25 percent of our store leases will reach maturity ... E-commerce is 30 percent of our corporate revenue and it’s very profitable ... even in this environment. The Internet and e-commerce have become the focus on our capital investment."The restructuring of retail commerce has been in the works for ten years. We all knew the revolution was coming, except bankers who suffer from Financial Illusion.
The match between retail outlets, last mile shippers, and local congestion management planners has arrived. Retail outlets can manage nearby inventories with shippers covering the last mile. FedEx and UPS both know this is coming, and they will be fighting for automation on our roads with the full support of local traffic planners. Metropolitan governments will derive income from congestion fees and free themselves from central planning. Big concrete and iron based traffic projects will bite the dust as silicon intelligence is embedded in transportation.
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