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Young people in Europe are one of the hardest hit groups in this pandemic. They are overrepresented in sectors such as travel, retail and tourism. where loss of jobs is the highest, particularly now that a second wave of coronavirus is hitting Europe. The lockdowns in Europe shut down many of these same sectors again.

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Retail sales are down across the board for stores from Gap to Macy's and Target. And even Walmart is having a tough time in this environment. December sales were down 14% at Gap ,4% at Macy's, 4.1% at Target and up only 1.9% at Walmart.

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As the US and EU find other ways to act on cost of living action to reduce the impact of higher oil and gas prices, curb pharmacy and health costs, and grocery bills, tackle housing costs, the role that lower retail prices of goods from China play a diminished role. More important are jobs and wages in this economic structure and perceptions are being followed and shaped by policy of Biden, Scholz and other leaders of Democratic and Socialist parties. Biden and Yellen have raised the alarm over China's export based manufacturing strategies being revived one more time, there is also a new perception of the advantage of such lower retail goods from China coming at the expense of jobs and wages, loss of manufacturing technologies as in chips in the US, which is seen as clearly unacceptable. WSJ shows that recent data shows that this strategy in China is not delivering the growth China expected. The diversification of supply chain to India and Vietnam is also a response to earlier concentration of supply chain in China. ...

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Big retail supermarket style stores are taking off in urban areas of India. Indian and western companies Tata and Tesco, Godrej, Reliance, Bharti and Wal-Mart, are setting up these stores. A government backed study by ICRIER shows that even though the arrival of the big stores results in a drop in sales of 23% in the 1st year, thereafter sales recover and in 5 years these smaller stores are back to where they started. And gradually the protests like those seen in 2007 are fading from these smaller stores.

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Specialized websites such as Realtor.com,Trulia, Zillow in the US and Rightmove in the UK have customized features appropriate for the field. In this case real estate search. This vertical search is proving superior to the horizontal search of the world's 182 million websites that Google searches, when it comes to specialized tasks. Restaurant reservations has OpenTable, job-hunting has Simply Hired. These sites do more than simply search, they also complete transactional tasks which Google doesn't. In the retail Amazon is adding new features specialized to the retail field, and also has consolidated online retail. Right now Google has 69.4% of the search market to Bing's 24.4%. For Google 96% of revenues come from search, even with diversification efforts through Android (mobile devices), YouTube (video advertising), and Chrome (browser software). Google acquired ITA Software in 2010 to compete in the travel field. Rayport says the search business is changing with users geting more sophisticated and demanding, and he sees a shift to vertical search. This shift appears to be the next step as the capabilities of horizontal search are being exhausted....

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Retail and government hiring helped add 1.4 million jobs in the U.S. in August 2020. It has dropped from 15% in April. It was 3.5% in February before the pandemic. About 3.4 million individuals reported that their job loss was permanent an increase, while the number saying their job loss was temporary has declined to 6.2 million from 9.2 million in July.

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Inflation is down in industrialized countries of Europe and in the US. Inflation has dropped from about 10% to about 3% in the US and Europe. In the Netherlands prices are lower than a year earlier. In the eurozone inflation dropped to 2.9% in October from 4.3% in September. In 2024 further decline in inflation is expected as retail sales slow or decline.

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Other European nations and the U.S. will be watching Germany's opening of small shops and small retail business under 800 square metres of space on April 20, followed by other business on May 4, in a gradual partial reopening of the economic activity

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The effects of Tech in the economy dividing the workforce jobs into ones that pay extremely well at tech companies for advanced skills and a sea of other jobs in retail, hospitality, and logistics that may meagre wages. Wages even at tech companies like Amazon in logistics are for the most part low wage. Automation has depressed job creation in many industries putting pressure on wages for less skilled workers.

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After the resignations of Browett and Forstall, other executives Eddy Cue, head of Internet software and services, Craig Federighi and Jonathan Ive, hardware design chief, assume more important roles inside Apple. Browett was hired recently from Dixon Retail in the UK to run Apple retail stores. Some of his scheduling changes at Apple were received badly at the stores. Mr Forstall ran the iOS software operations and was highly regarded by Jobs except that he failed to get along with other executives. He and design chief for hardware Jonathan Ive could not stay in the same room together because of personality conflicts. Jobs was seen as a decider in these situations, a role new CEO Cook did not choose to play preferring a smooth running team with fewer people conflicts.

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Samsung's plan to open "Experience Shop," in 1400 Best Buy stores, which sent Best Buy's share up 16% in April 2013. Samsung gains much from this plan, as it allows Samsung to have a friendly retail presence in-store that it badly lacked upto now.

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Sears adjusted earnings before Ebitda are a negative $250-300 million for the period July 26-Oct 26, 2013. Management is reducing investment in the retail stores. As a result there is a deterioration in the conditions at stores making it less attractive for shoppers to go to Sears. There is severe price competition from Amazon and online stores for established retail companies such as Target and Best Buy making it even more difficult for Sears to compete. Analysts say Mr Lampert, CEO of Sears, is an asset manager and Sears liquidation is likely to continue with sale of pieces of the company as it is worth more this way. Lands End, Sears Canada, and the Sear Auto stores brand are expected to be sold to raise cash in this ongoing liquidation process.

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The radical restructuring under CEO Johnson in 2012-2013 at American retailer J.C. Penney that failed. Johnson made 19,000 job cuts and shut down the St John Bay women's brand which brought in significant sales volume for the retailer. In its place he tried to shift Penney to an upscale image and mailed out fancy looking brochures to customers. All the time neglecting the in-store morale problem created by the deep cuts. Johnson managed Apple's retail stores in his prevous position.

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The company Deliveroo, that offers retail food delivery, lost 30% of share value in the first day of trading. 

This report says that without Amazon investment of $500 million the company could have collapsed. It also faces legal questions and regulatory inquiries for its 100,000 riders who do the deliveries, about minimum wage, benefits, sick pay. 

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Penney's sales fell by 20% in its fiscal first quarter for 2012. Penney is going through a transformation from a promotional retailer to one that focuses on everyday value and presentation, under Ron Johnson, former Apple executive for retail stores. As part of the restructuring Penney will reduce staff by 15% at its Plano, Texas headquarters. Penney showed a loss of $163 million for the quarter, including restructuring costs.