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How Retail’s Bad Practices Weaken the West

Geopolitical events have disrupted retail, but retail has also contributed to geopolitical disruption, writes Doug Stephens.
While it’s easy to feel that geopolitical events have disrupted retail, the truth is that retail has been a chief contributor to current geopolitical disruption, writes Doug Stephens.
While it’s easy to feel that geopolitical events have disrupted retail, the truth is that retail has been a chief contributor to current geopolitical disruption, writes Doug Stephens. (Shutterstock)

The early days of the pandemic provided the retail industry with a brutal lesson in the dark side of free trade. As Asia reeled from Covid-19, retailers in the West wrestled with a tangled knot of supply chain disruptions and empty warehouses. In a matter of weeks, 40 years of offshoring production by Western companies came screaming back to bite them and the consumers who depend on them.

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