Labor Challenges and Retail Growth in Uncertain Times

-Steve Liguori, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at JUXTA

Labor Challenges and Retail Growth in Uncertain Times

Steve Liguori , Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at JUXTA

Humans have always had a love-hate relationship with new tech. We're fascinated by how it can make life a breeze and lighten our workload, but deep down, there's this nagging fear it might take over completely and replace our jobs.

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Naturally, there is now an acronym for the latter:?FOBO, or Fear of Becoming Obsolete. According to a recent Gallup poll, FOBO is something 22% of workers suffer from, with serious concerns that technological advancements will make their jobs obsolete.

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And it's not just the people on the assembly line feeling this way. Even those with a college education are losing sleep over it. Around 20% of them are grappling with FOBO.

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It seems paradoxical that while many people are concerned about losing their jobs, the world is also experiencing one of the worst labor shortages it has ever seen. As you may have seen, we explored the global labor permacrisis in a recent JUXTA media brief.

The report dropped some worrying statistics, citing forecasts of a labor shortage of 85 million people by 2030, equating to $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenue, and the fact that almost two-thirds of small business owners report that their ability to operate effectively is adversely impacted by staff hiring challenges.

There is no shortage of evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, to illustrate how the convenience retail sector is especially affected by the global labor shortfall. At JUXTA, we certainly came across lots of it when talking to more than 150 retail operators while researching the market and developing JUXTA’s ?Nomad, an unstaffed micro convenience store.

We learned that organic growth in the convenience retail model has been stymied by labor constraints, and that new solutions were required if growth were to continue-Solutions based on technologies that require minimal labor to continue expansion, allowing growth with retailers’ existing teams. For the US, it’s a new convenience retail model based on the micro market but operating on strong margins that are unachievable today. The answer for us was to develop the Nomad, an autonomous micro convenience store, which, with its AI-powered sensor fusion technology and consumer-centric design, means no full-time staff operating at new locations you couldn’t go with brick-and-mortar locations. This is organic growth without straining strong existing teams or adding to the 85 million-person labor shortage.

But does that mean we believe in a world where technology makes humans redundant on a vast scale? Absolutely not. The Nomad was designed to expand what our retail partners can offer their customers. This expands the reach of retail into places where previously retailers weren’t employing anybody to begin with.

The JUXTA Nomad was born to enable operators to thrive in specific circumstances where the traditional retail model just won’t cut it. Areas where there is consistent consumer throughput, but too low to support the traditional convenience retail model. EV charging stations, remote unattended gas stations, office parks, apartment complexes, music venues. ?These are circumstances where it is just not possible to operate profitably when paying staff on a 24-hour basis – the JUXTA Nomad was designed to offer a solution for all these scenarios where no one is serving the consumer today.

Undoubtedly, technology will continue to change the world like it has throughout human history. Now more than ever the retail landscape needs a solution like JUXTA’s Nomad. And at JUXTA, we are very proud to be helping deliver a solution that profitably brings retail closer to consumers than ever before.