Good morning, there are two kinds of folks;
The first kind are the ever-positive souls, foreseeing the good in any situation, irrespective of its level of messiness.
The second kind believes we’re pulling a wheelie toward a recession. And this time, they’ve got Bill Gates on their side.
🎙 The billionaire recently told CNN that “I’m afraid the bears on this one have a pretty strong argument that concerns me a lot.”
Taking a cue from there, it's your health that should be your only concern in case your car needs to climb that big hill, aka economic slowdown.
The rest can be managed with vanity metrics.
🏃♀️🍎🥝
What The Stars Foretell For Physical Retail
Physical retail’s not going anywhere. But evolution is unavoidable. Here are key trends that could change the retail store landscape altogether.
1️⃣ Digital + Experiential = New Normal
Stores will have digital components galore. Customer experience focus will drive nifty technological adoption. Consider in-store user messages, notifications, pop-ups and other interactive activities for instance. (🔖 Don't even say the F word aloud in stores or you never know...)
2️⃣ Amping Up the Destination Angle
Stores will become desirable destinations for customers and thus naturally, zones for meetings. More stores will have people spending time eating, meeting, experiencing newer attractions, etc. Expect more of this wherever there’s space.
3️⃣ Newer Formats
Retailers are trying out smaller-box systems along with personalised on-site shopping styles. Flexibility is the keyword.
4️⃣ Collaborations Galore
More tie-ups are in the works. Like, a lot more. There will be ecosystems of various partners. Exclusivity will still exist, but only for productive collaborations with mutual benefits.
5️⃣ In-Store Fulfillment
Stores will widen their ambit in the coming days, doubling up as fulfillment centres, meaning your favourite retail store will start catering to delivery networks as well.
🛒 In a nutshell, these trends could make new-age stores more efficient, productive, and most importantly, attractive to customers.
If not, what you just heard is the sound of another outlet dying.
Some Sunshine In India's Coworking Space
Per this report, WeWork India achieved profitability for the first time in Q1 CY2022. The Indian subsidiary of global co-working behemoth WeWork ventured here in 2017, Fyi.
What the numbers say
📠 INR 250 crore in revenues and INR 25 crore in profit (EBITDA level).
📠 INR 1,000 crore and 33% growth target for CY2022. EBITDA level profit of INR 100 crore is a possibility.
📠 30% of growth in existing customers.
📠 1,000-1,500 average desk size for managed offices (was 600-700 in pre-COVID era).
📠 50,000 active customers in 6 cities and 36 areas.
Growth Triggers
Flexi-workspace demand, more floor space and up-selling of clientele. Occupier and social commerce unicorn Meesho, alone went from 4 WeWork desks (2020) to 700 this year.
The Big Dream
WeWork as a one-stop shop for workspaces in India.
And boy, with USD100 million pumped into the Indian subsidiary by its global parent in June, 2021, for achieving this objective, the WeWork blokes are sure walking the talk.
Tuesday Treat
We can't really wrap our heads around this one, tbh.
Erik Johansson is a Swedish photographer/artist and we've been followers of his productions for a while, but this piece, called ‘A Place Like Home’ challenged our perspectives and unanimously won the vote for today's treat.
🤨😍🤨
There's A Looming Rental Crisis Down Under
Yes, housing markets are booming across Australia but there’s an underbelly that’s threatening to tilt the scales.
What are we talking about?
Rental vacancies down under have plunged to less than 1% with thousands of Australians waiting for public housing. Consider this against the backdrop of soaring property rates and you get the picture.
50,000+ Queenslanders are waiting their turn, almost all markets are stressed, and the Northern Territory has the highest overcrowded housing rates.
Rampant homelessness
Remote zones like the Northern Territory depend only on public housing, since there are no private realty markets.
Consider 16 people sharing six rooms in government housing in remote Elcho Island. Or a woman considering shifting to her car in Queensland due to public housing applications being rejected.
There are thousands of such stories, compounded by heavy interstate migration. And let’s not even try to fathom the plight of those with tenancies expiring soon.
How things stand
🔼 Federal and local Governments have ramped up funding, non-profit social housing players are trying their best.
🔽 But the overwhelming backlog is tremendous and does not show signs of resolution, even over several years.
Yes, investors are making hay with rising property rates. However, deep beneath that layer of prosperity, lies an expanding underbelly. They are citizens with the same rights.
Where will they go next?
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Not everything about a boom is cool, you know. And let's forget about our Aussie friends and their rental crisis for once, because there's another big problem.
Mushrooming construction in pristine areas, deforestation and drying rivers are now threatening the bird population of Uttarakhand - often referred to as a bird watcher's front row seat.
We hope the steps being taken by the selfless folks at the forest department will stop and then reverse the damage done to our winged friends and their habitat.
Hope is all we have. See you on the morrow. 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai