Recently, we were asked "if wedding fayres actually make any money, & how resilient they're likely to be." The ask came from someone who had attended a wedding show as an interested observer, and hadn't noticed a great many customers in the time they were there. While the wedding industry is not our focus, challenges to all sectors, including retail, absolutely falls under our strategic leadership focus. The wedding industry, in particular, is very much feeling the impact of people buying formal wear through vintage, thrift, and low-cost online retailers, because it is more affordable. However, many of those people, particularly brides, still want an "experience" as part of their wedding preparations, which is something wedding retailers used to give as a loss-lead, knowing they'd sell high-mark-up dresses as a result of the "pamper day experience", and make a plentiful amount of income from even just one session. Online retail, and its ...
This morning, LinkedIn was being very Monday, very LinkedIn, not very demure, not very mindful. A woman, whose profile suggested she works in recruitment, responded, quite aggressively, to a disabled man asking why companies were still engaging in discrimination against disabled individuals with: "Because disability is a liability, it costs money, and businesses can't expect to run up their costs to an infinite degree whilst tiptoeing around every single need people could ever possibly have." This isn't an isolated thought. It's not often said out loud in the UK - but it always has been elsewhere in the world, and it very much is being shouted from the rooftops of the USA. And it's not just recruiters and executive leadership; it's ordinary people, meaning that, even with the most inclusive, welcoming, accommodating leadership, disabled people will still be encountering hostile environments courtesy of the able-bodied people they have to work with on th...