Compared to many nations, Australia has weathered the COVID-19 outbreak relatively well. While others still languish in lockdown, most of us have returned to something approaching normal life (snap restrictions to manage localized outbreaks excepted).
Of course, we’re not out of the woods yet, but our situation puts us in the rare position of being able to look back on the pandemic from farther down the track than most others. That, in turn, makes this a good time to assess what’s changed in the retail sector.
It’s clear that the months of lockdown beginning in March 2020 had an immediate effect, turning retail strips, high streets and central business districts into ghost towns. Understandably, this raised valid concerns. Would the need for social distancing – a consideration that could well extend into the foreseeable future – require dramatic changes to the way physical retail functioned? Would the way retail landlords allocate space need to change? And would
