Editors Take: 2010 Recovery Requires New Thinking

If we’re fortunate enough to enjoy the recovery in 2010 that economists are promising (albeit with much hedging), then next year is going to be drastically different from 2009. This year has, in turn, been quite different from 2008.

About the only good thing one can say about last year is that all types of retailers had enough advance notice during the fourth quarter to plan ultraconservatively for 2009. With consumers balking at spending much of anything this year, about the only thing marketers could do was get themselves into good enough shape to avoid going bankrupt. So they slashed costs, laid off staff, trimmed inventories and have continued to wait out this deep freeze.