Category: Business/Technology

University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Steve Deller said the shortage continues to be a problem in Wisconsin. Deller pointed to a mismatch between the industries and positions that have seen large job losses during the pandemic, and those that are in need of workers.

Steven Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed the COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for rural Wisconsin.

“The in-store experience is going to be so much different,” said Hart Posen, a professor of management and human resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business.

Quoted: “The in-store experience is going to be so much different,” said Hart Posen, a professor of management and human resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business.

Quoted: “It will be unlike any other Thanksgiving week shopping that we’ve had, I imagine,” says retailing expert Jerry O’Brien.

Perhaps this year’s biggest Black Friday change is that retailers effectively started Black Friday weeks ago.

“They’re pretty much all coming out openly saying, ‘We’re going to spread Black Friday out through November,’” says O’Brien, who is executive director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison epidemiologist Dr. Ajay Sethi is hoping that foot traffic will be modest and safe.

“I anticipate there’ll be less Black Friday shopping this year compared to last year, because a sizable proportion of people are well aware of our pandemic,” says Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences and faculty director of the UW-Madison master of public health degree program. “It obviously needs to be minimal, because we want to have really no crowding anywhere, for at least the next several weeks or months, so we can stop the spread of COVID in the state.”

Hart Posen, a professor who specializes in retail strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business, said Kwik Trip’s expansion in the Midwest can be attributed in part to its unique model. The company owns many parts of its own supply chain, like dairy facilities and bakeries. Posen said while this model has been part of the chain’s success, it also means that when the company expands, it’s likely to happen locally.

Quoted: “I’m acknowledged for who I am, and I’m supported to do my best and to contribute at my best. That is the culture that we want to strive for,” Binnu Palta Hill, the associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the Wisconsin School of Business, said.

Palta Hill is also a consultant, workshopping with companies around the nation on different aspects of inclusion. She turns to research suggesting employees perform better when they feel like they belong and says the topic matters at every industry.

Earlier this month the department store JCPenney filed for bankruptcy. Department stores make up 30 percent of total mall square-footage. We examine the ripple effects large retailers’ bankruptcy can have on America’s shopping malls. Guest(s): Jerry O’Brien

Quoted: Kristen Krokowski, a commercial horticulture educator at the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Waukesha, wrote the guidelines and recommendations for farmers markets in Wisconsin during the coronavirus pandemic.

Farmers markets were never prohibited under Evers’ safer-at-home order because the sale of food is considered an essential business. Regardless, that order is no longer in place.

“It’s all guidance now because there are no rules,” Krokowski said.