Twenty-four or so years ago, my wife took a part-time job at a local bookstore. It wasn’t long before she was coming home with ominous warnings about something called Amazon that was reimagining the way people purchased books. 

I said, “Who would ever buy a book from the computer?” This was years before the term “online” entered the lexicon, let alone the economy.

Today, of course, everyone buys everything online. So, it’s no surprise that the world’s biggest retailer is no longer Walmart, but Amazon, which has certainly gone far beyond its book borders over the ensuing years. For the record, Amazon said sales for the 12 months ended June 30 topped $610 billion, compared to $566 billion at Walmart.

At some point during the past 20 years or so, everyone realized that traditional retail would be eclipsed by online upstarts. But like so many other “experts,” we were frightened by the speed at which it took place. 
We should have known better.

As Benjamin Franklin (or Thomas Jefferson or Alexis de Toucqueville) noted more than 200 years ago, people don’t get the government they want, they get the government they deserve. Same goes with retail. Twenty years ago, Leonard Lauder lamented the sorry state of retail: no excitement, no quality, no assortment. A consumer could walk into Belk’s, Dillard’s or Macy’s and everything looked the same. If senses are dulled by a trip to the mall, why bother leaving the house in the first place?

The pandemic made the inevitable acceptable, and in some cases, critical.

And even while department store sales rebounded, things will never be the same in-store. News that Amazon plans to open its own brick-and-mortar centers will only further muddy the picture for traditional retailers.

Now the question becomes, what’s next? The guess here is that sustainability, like computing before it, will disrupt many industries for the foreseeable future. Electric will top oil in the automotive market. Plant-based will upend the food industry. Will bio-based win the day in the surfactant category? Yes, say, some industry observers. You can read about the latest advances in this most crucial ingredient category here. Also this month, researchers at Manhattan College provide insights on the role that smart materials and formulations play in differentiating beauty products.

If you want to play it smart in the skin care sector, it’s a good idea to incorporate an effective amount of some of the materials detailed in Christine Esposito’s article on Hot Skin Care Ingredients. Finally, the pandemic has consumers spending more time at home than they ever imagined. They may not have control about what goes on beyond the walls of their houses or apartments, but they do have control of the scent of their environment. Melissa Meisel reports on the fast-growing home fragrance category.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Happi. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.


Tom Branna
Editorial Director
[email protected]