any time soon?Barnard: No, I do not. Not anytime soon. Not anytime inthe foreseeable future. And then there’s also something else,and that is, again, that as we get older we tend to place a lotless emphasis on wearing the latest up-to-date fashions. Wewant practical things, we want fashionable things, we wantgood quality things, well displayed good assortments in thestore, but we don’t want to go broke buying them. Work.com: Let me see if I get this straight. It’s acombination of the fact that the generation that onceonly shopped at department stores is now getting olderand changing its priorities, coupled with the fact thatyounger kids are leaning toward specialty stores.Barnard: And are developing the specialty-store habit.Work.com: How is multichannel retailing redefining theretail landscape? Will we witness eventualconsolidation to the point where, in order to compete, acompany has to have all channels covered?Barnard: Undoubtedly, we are already in the midst ofprecisely that. The only thing that we don’t know yet is towhat extent will online retailing become a major factor? At thepresent time, it isn’t. At the present time online retailingaccounts for a miniscule portion of the entire retailing pie.Work.com: Do you foresee it taking more market share?Barnard: Yes, it is likely to take up more market share. Butthen again, I say it with some hesitancy because there are alot of indicators that seem to show at least that, yes, morepeople are buying, but there is also a clear indication thatsome people seem to say, ‘No, let’s go right back to the storeand perhaps use online retailing to fill in.’ So we don’t know asof yet. It is too new, too young and going through too manychanges for us to be able to come to a reasonable conclusionas to what the future holds.FashionThe work environments today are evolving from the suits and tux to a more casual style. The word casual does not mean k...
