Of course, some examples of social networks show how the crowd can provide that service transaction sometimes at zero cost. And the value, they will see it in sales as we know. If they don’t get this service concept, Amazon will just get bigger and better as more people are forced to spend online due to ever increasing travel, parking and congestion charges incurred when venturing into the shopping centres.

Currently the high-end specialty stores seem to do fine and the low-end Wal-Marts have captured the no frills market. It’s that middle ground that’s unloved and losing population all the time. Beer, cars, cell phones, clothes, coffee…you name it.

So-so, isn’t good enough anymore. The law of good/fast/cheap (we can only have two at any one time i.e. you can have it good and fast, but not cheap, etc.) is playing itself out in the way people spend their money. The days of companies getting away with you can have it of OK quality/somewhat quickly/reasonably priced motivates exactly nobody anymore.

I see a future for retail that mirrors the airline industry. Service and experience for those who want to pay for it and just the basics for those that don’t. The basic airlines (Westjet) are doing basic well. The middle-of-the-road airlines (Air Canada) are stuck trying to be everything to everyone and failing pretty badly.

The problem with customer service is it’s dependant on training which is heavily influenced by turn-over which is driven by pay levels. And at least for the mid-term wages cannot rise much because while price will be less of a promotional focus it will remain a competitive reality.

As customers get drawn into the experience stores can test price elasticity across the product line – and then become develop customer service programs that recognize the uniqueness of both people and situations.

I expect that we’ll see procedural and programmatic experiences first – because they’re relatively inexpensive to institute, scale easily and work within the staff constraints of the stores. Also expect the stores to lean on their suppliers to direct some of their general advertising budgets to in-store experiences that augment the stores brand transition.