5. COVID-19 means there will be more automation in retailing AND How we can return to our good habits in reducing single-use plastics

On this week's show Louise is joined by Professor Gary Mortimer from QUT and Research Fellow Kim Borg from Monash University.

COVID-19 has turbocharged the shift to online shopping.
Last week Louise published an article in The Conversation, co-authored with Professor Gary Mortimer, Associate Professor Jana Bowden, Dr Jason Pallant and Professor Martin Grimmer, about the impact of COVID-19 on accelerating moves towards automation in retailing. Read the article: COVID-19 has changed the future of retail: there’s plenty more automation in store

On this week's show Louise chats with the article's lead author Professor Gary Mortimer from QUT about online shopping, automation, smaller stores and re-purposing shopping centres, and, if you don't already know what a 'dark store' is, tune in this week to find out!

We were doing really well in avoiding single-use plastic, and then along came COVID-19. Find out how we can return to those good habits.
Louise chats with Research Fellow Kim Borg from Monash University about her latest research examining how COVID-19 has impacted on the good habits we were engaged in reducing single-use plastics. 

But then COVID-19 changed the game. Since the pandemic started, there has been a significant increase in plastic waste, such as medical waste from protective equipment such as masks, gloves and gowns, and increased purchases of sanitary products such as disposable wipes and liquid soap.

The good news is we can return to our plastic-avoiding habits. It just might look a little a different.

You can read Kim's latest article in The Conversation: Avoiding single-use plastic was becoming normal, until coronavirus. Here’s how we can return to good habits

All this, plus this week's retail news headlines.

*SHOPOLOGY originally airs as a radio show on Edge Radio www.edgeradio.org.au