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Leavey School of Business Santa Clara University
Department ofMarketing

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Kirthi Kalyanam: Rethinking Retail Post COVID-19

Professor Kirthi Kalyanam speaks about retail post covid-19.
JCPenney Research Professor and Director of RMI Krithi Kalyanam Head Shot

Kirthi Kalyanam, L.J. Skaggs Distinguished Professor, director of the Retail Management Institute, and faculty director of the Executive MBA, was featured in an article discussing the impacts COVID-19 on retail. 

Our COVID-19 experience has proven as much, as Google vice president John McAteer confirmed this month during a presentation in Kalyanam’s Zoom class. First, consumers reached out online for essentials like food and toilet paper. After that came personal care and pharmacy goods. Now that most Americans are feeling calmer, says the SCU professor, the Google data indicates we’ve returned to shopping for discretionary items from camping gear to fashion.

For many brick-and-mortar stores lacking a robust online component, Kalyanam believes the mandated shut-down of their businesses has now accelerated a “survival of the fittest” scenario. We talked to him about the winners and the losers. 

Learn more about Professor Kirthi Kalyanam and read the article here. 

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