Bids and deals won’t save the retailers – they’ll have to get radical

If traditional retailers are to stand any chance of surviving, they need to reach for the skies, says Matthew Lynn. Click and collect isn't going to cut it.

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Retailers need some blue-sky thinking

It's not just the stuff in the shops that seems to be permanently on sale right now. The shops are too. Every week there are fresh rumours of bids and deals among the big retailers. Sainsbury's is eyeing up Argos. Billionaire Mike Ashley has been building a stake in Debenhams. Even the once-mighty Tesco has been the subject of bid speculation.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.