Consumers have more access to information \u2014 and other consumers \u2014 than ever before, according to author and retail expert Joel Bines \u201992. In his new book, The Metail Economy<\/em> (McGraw Hill, 2022), Bines puts a name to the phenomenon, changing how we think about shopping: me<\/em>tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the complete democratization of consumerism,\u201d says Bines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumers today have unprecedented, immediate access to information \u2014 about products, manufacturers, vendors, and what other consumers think. As Bines says in his book, \u201cpeople don’t care what the experts have to say anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumer choice has always been part of the retail landscape. As Bines notes, \u201cconsumers have always had agency. The difference now is that they also have power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long before online reviews were a thing \u2014 and long before the internet was a thing \u2014 Bines was working jobs that put him face-to-face with consumers: having a newspaper route, working in residential construction, as a baseball camp counselor, and even giving tours of the historic Revolutionary War battle green in his hometown of Lexington, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At each stop, Bines was figuring out what people wanted, even if it didn\u2019t fit the mold he was given. For example, as a tour guide wearing his tricorn hat on summer days in the \u201980s, he found that stretching the truth a bit to tell a more interesting story of the battle met the needs of tourists, resulting in bigger tips for Bines. \u201cI just gave them what they wanted,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point is, says the Bates philosophy major, \u201cI have been watching the consumer change over the last 40 years: I feel like I have this anthropologist’s observation of decades of consumer behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And especially in the recent decade, \u201cconsumers have started behaving completely differently than the way they had behaved for my whole life. That\u2019s what made me write this book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now a managing director and co-head of the global retail practice at management consultant AlixPartners in Dallas, Bines works with retailers around the globe on fine-tuning their approach to a changing consumer environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retail has moved on from the era of the \u201cmerchant prince,\u201d CEOs of retail giants who became media darlings, like Mickey Drexler of Gap and J. Crew, praised as geniuses with a \u201cboss knows best\u201d mentality, who were adept at creating and curating cookie-cutter retail stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe celebrated these people,\u201d says Bines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the reality of the situation is while they were brilliant and creative, they weren’t actually smarter than their consumers and they didn’t know better than their consumers. There just wasn’t the ability for their consumers to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now consumers can jump from one retailer to another more easily than ever. And the increased access consumers have to other consumers puts companies in a more precarious position than before: It\u2019s never been easier to abandon a brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that doesn\u2019t mean all is lost, says Bines. \u201cYou’re not like, \u2018Well, screw it. Consumers are in charge. There\u2019s nothing we can do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, what consumers now expect, and what Bines focuses on in The Metail Economy<\/em>, is for retailers to focus their attention on understanding who they are to their loyal consumers. And then be that thing to them, in every way, every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how can companies cater to these newly empowered consumers? Bines lays out the Six C\u2019s of the Metail Model: Cost, Convenience, Category Expertise, Customization, Curation, and Community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But these C\u2019s aren\u2019t a whole strategy: they\u2019re ingredients in a retail recipe, to be used in amounts and combinations specific to the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Reddit](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2022\/03\/CostcoGasPump_reddituser_ministerman.jpg\")
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