A Home Depot exec explains the key reason why pushing for `the store of the future` could backfire

NEW YORK CITY — Quick, picture the store of the future. What do you see?

Holographs, AI booths, and touch screens? Omnichannel spaces that maximize both the shopping experience and digital-order fulfillment? Flying, robotic salespeople?

Well, Albert Vita, Home Depot`s in-store experience and visual merchandising director, thinks we should all take a deep breath.

• Don`t get carried away imagining the high-tech, consumer-centric innovation that stores of the future will bring.
  
  
• That`s the message that Home Depot`s in-store experience and visual-merchandising director, Albert Vita, had for the audience at the National Retail Federation`s 2019 Big Show last week.
  
  
• The Home Depot exec said that it`s more productive to have a holistic view of the business.

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RSK: I think Vita has hit this subject on the nose. Things run their course and the minute you set something up it starts becoming obsolete. Adaptability is a key factor rather than rushing in. Thinking this might be WeWork`s future problem.

Ken Notes: Of course HD and Menards are in the group of retailers least affected by online retail. When Amazon figures out how to sell and deliver Washer and Dryers it will be a different story. I love this analogy because Sears was the very first to figure this out, then they forgot what their advantage was...