Episode 304 – Business of the Holidays

On this episode of the Business and Society podcast, host Jeff Karoub sits down with Michigan Ross professors Scott Rick and Ari Shwayder to discuss the business of the holidays. The panel explores retail therapy as a response to the election, a return to pre-pandemic spending levels on the macroeconomic scale, the holiday shopping habits of “tightwads” vs. “spendthrifts,” and “Amazonification” in conjunction with the rise of online spending. 

One key topic of discussion was retailers’ ability to fill their workforce in the current labor market and the potential benefits and drawbacks of automation as a partial solution to staffing. They closed the discussion by addressing consumers’ desire for sustainability and the strategy of painting higher-quality luxury items as the sustainable choice. 

To learn more about the hosts, participants, resources, and research discussed in this episode, check out a full-length article for this episode at https://michiganross.umich.edu/news/podcasts/business-society. 

• Host: Jeff Karoub
• Guests: Professors Scott Rick and Ari Shwayder
• Executive Producers: JT Godfrey and Jeff Karoub
• Audio Engineer: Jonah Brockman
• Editorial Production: Mads Henke 

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