How Well Do Retailers Absorb the Internet?

CHICAGO-In many respects the Chicagoland retail picture is still a bit darker than the overall national scene. But according to Patrick Owens, senior vice president in the local Transwestern office, there’s one way in which they’re on par: The Internet.

Asked to rate brick-and-mortar’s assimilation of the changes being wrought by online shopping, Owens gives a grade of four out of a possible 10. “Stores are still trying to decide how big they need to be,” he observes. “Obviously, the notes of doom we heard years ago about the Internet replacing brick-and-mortar were overblown, but throughout the country, the stores that will survive and thrive will make it possible for customers to use any of the channels they want and pick up or return merchandise as easy and seamlessly as possible. That’s what retailers are trying to figure out.”