Retailers v Looters
In major cities… stores have boarded up their windows. A lot of ‘em aren’t all that open because of the pandemic…. but luxury stores still have luxury goods inside. Protected by plywood. The Cartier store on 5th Avenue in New York caters to the 1 percent… thick 1/2 inch boards covers the opulent window displays. … so protestors don’t loot the place. What business owner wouldn’t be nervous? And cautious. After all some of these protests have devolved into violence and looting. But at the same time… it’s important for many retailers to express support for the people in the streets… who in many cases… are known by another name. Customers. So a lot of brands with boarded stores have decided it’s a bad look. So they’ve commissioning street artists to create murals about racial equality on the plywood boards that protect them from riots. The strategy is decorate... not deserate. So this summer of 2020 we have retail stores adorned with murals of Martin Luther King Jr… and George Floyd and I can’t breathe .. and raised fists lining the streets in shutdown retail districts. A cynical but smart business strategy for retailers struggling to make ends meet behind the plywood boards in a pandemic. But meantime… it’s a great summer for lumberyards. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.