A NEW DECADE

I am old enough to remember days before computers, working at my desk with a fax machine and a phone. When I hit the road, I would stop at hotel lobbies to find a pay phone, until that was replaced by the car phone.

Things have changed.

Drones, self-driving cars, same day delivery, online orders, rental clothes, and BOPIS.

How do you keep up? How do you fit?

As for retail packaging, the direction will continue to be in recycled material as consumers express their concerns about the environment. They will want reusable bags or bags made with recycled content or both—a reusable bag made from recycled content.

As a buyer, you will need to take climate change into account along with your company’s branding. And tariffs and global sourcing, which will mean social compliance.

You will have enough to worry about, but at least you won’t have to be concerned when a drone takes an accidental nose-dive into a self-driving car. That will be someone else’s problem.

Gary Shippy, President