42 Business View Magazine - October 2016
Foundation. Its focus is partly on policy, consum-
er, and industry research, but its main mission is to
shape retail’s future by building awareness of the in-
dustry through statistics and stories; developing tal-
ent through education, experiences, and scholarships;
and fostering career growth among people who work
in the industry. “They work with hundreds of universi-
ties in implementing retail curriculum and working with
students to bring them into the retail industry, com-
ing out of school,” Cantrell says. “Talent is an issue in
the retail industry. We’re making sure that students
and people entering the workforce understand what a
great career retail is and how much advancement you
can get in the retail industry.”
Cantrell believes that the NRF’s importance to its
members is magnified, today, by the seismic shift
that took place, recently, in the retail industry. “Over
the last decade, retail went from the retailer being in
control to the consumer being in control,” she states.
“Now that the consumer is in control, what retailers
are dealing with now, and will be dealing with over the
next decade, are the challenges of how to satisfy that
consumer in the new ways that they want to be, and
being flexible and agile enough in their businesses to
do that.”
“Consumers are becoming more interested in experi-
ences over product,” she continues. “As the younger
