By David Pinto
To unnecessarily repeat the obvious: These are, at best, uncertain, confusing and unprecedented times. To add to the difficulties, we might unnecessarily restate the obvious: These are times that the American retailing community can just as easily live without.
The latest evidence designed to further confuse an already mind-boggling mass retailing community was the sudden and inexplicable departure of Musab Balbale as chief merchant at CVS, a position he has, by all accounts, filled admirably for the past several years.
In the immediate wake of his departure, numerous questions have already been asked — and few satisfactory answers have thus far been offered as explanations. But this much is already certain: Balbale has proven to be an exemplary merchant with a proven record of success. As well, he had become, in short order, the public face of a retailing organization that desperately needs a public face. More specifically, he had emerged at CVS as an executive to be trusted, to be admired, to be sourced when questions have been raised.
But let’s leave these questions alone for a time. At some point, some reasonable explanations will emerge for the departure. Meantime, larger issues must be addressed if mass market retailing in the United States is to enjoy a future as successful as its past.
For openers, here’s a simple but undeniable fact: Never in the history of this enterprise have so many significant disruptions muddied mass retailing’s always turbulent waters. Name the retailer, whether it’s Target, Kroger, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Albertsons or, most recently, CVS, and nothing is as it was as recently as 12 months ago. And none of these developments have, at least initially, improved the fortunes of the retailers involved. On the contrary, in several cases, these executive changes have confused and confounded top management suites that were already confused enough.
Why is the one-word question that immediately comes to mind. Unfortunately, there is no one-word answer — or indeed any answer at all. The jobs that are being vacated at a record pace are good jobs, industry-leading jobs, presidential-level jobs in several cases, and, most critically, jobs that resist early or adequate replacement.
Therefore … for the moment at least, we must resist the temptation to speculate as to why CVS has chosen or instigated the departure of so many seasoned and talented merchants, and ask this one instead: What ill wind has descended on America’s mass retailing community to explain the influx of new faces at executive levels until recently correctly viewed as fair rewards for a retailing career jammed with achievements, accomplishments, recognition and promotion?
These are not idle questions or parlor room games. On the contrary, no less than the future of mass retailing as we have known and appreciated it for these many decades is at stake.
