Vanessa Ellis / Chief Executive Officer
Perspectives from a life in leadership.
The latest essay
When pharmacies leave small towns, discount chains are asked to fill the gap. I argue that most should host an independent pharmacist-owner on near-cost terms rather than run a counter themselves, and should judge the arrangement by the drive a customer no longer has to make.
Read the essayWhen pharmacies leave small towns, discount chains are asked to fill the gap. I argue that most should host an independent pharmacist-owner on near-cost terms rather than run a counter themselves, and should judge the arrangement by the drive a customer no longer has to make.
Locked cases and guards are often the first response to rising shrink. In a small-box store with two people on shift, I argue they should come last, after the loss has been broken into its causes and store safety has been decided as a question in its own right.
Sale-leasebacks are often presented to sponsor-owned retailers as cheap financing. For a chain serving towns that may shrink, I argue they turn the freedom to leave or move into a fixed obligation, and a board should put a price on that freedom before it votes for a dividend.