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C+CT

Fast-changing retail is a dream assignment for CNBC’s Lauren Thomas

July 26, 2018

Lauren Thomas graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill less than two years ago. Today she is practically a household name in the world of business journalism. As a reporter for CNBC’s website, Thomas has for the past year and a half been chronicling the rapid changes under way in the retail sector. Among other stories, she has covered the struggles of some of the iconic U.S. department store companies and their efforts to reinvent themselves; the bankruptcy of Toys ‘R’ Us and similar formerly leading chains; Amazon.com’s groundbreaking acquisition of Whole Foods; and the emergence of digitally native brands.

How did a recent college graduate land such a high-profile position in a field where reporters often spend years paying their dues? The answer, it seems, is personal drive, talent and a bit of luck. As a journalism student at the University of North Carolina, Thomas spent her summers in the high-pressure, New York City media market. Over the course of several summers, she interned at Bloomberg, CNBC and TheStreet.com. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in December 2016 — finishing in only three and a half years — with a bachelor’s in journalism (and a specialty in business journalism), and then she hit the ground running.

In early 2017 she parlayed the CNBC internship into an entry-level job as a news associate. Not long after starting there, she jumped at the chance to do some retail reporting when a change in staff left that beat without full-time coverage. The experience whet her appetite, and in February of that year she became a full-time retail reporter for CNBC Digital. “It’s humbling in a way,” said Thomas. “You’re given so much responsibility and, obviously, you’re writing alongside a lot of [experienced] journalists at other places.”

From a journalist’s perspective, there has never been a more exciting — and challenging — time to cover the retail sector, says Thomas, whose enthusiasm, intense curiosity and commitment to fairness and accuracy have served her well as a fledgling journalist and relative newcomer to her beat. “Now is a more exciting time than ever to be covering this, because there is so much evolution in the industry,” she said. “Everyone is waking up and realizing they can’t continue to do things like they did for the past few decades.”

Lauren Thomas at CNBC headquarters, in New York City

This year alone the amount of retail space going dark is on pace to set a record, as many big-box retailers either trim their store counts or liquidate entirely, says Thomas, citing CoStar data. Is this a sign of the so-called retail apocalypse? Not according to Thomas, who argues that the oft-repeated narrative is too simplistic. Instead, she describes what is happening as “an evolution” in retailing, one that is perhaps long overdue. “I prefer to say it’s like an evolution and it’s time for change,” she said. “We’ve gone on long enough without mixing things up.”

The rise of Amazon has certainly sped up the pace of change, but there are other forces at work too, she says. “It’s very easy, I think, as a journalist to paint broad brush strokes over certain things or to just say that this is happening because of Amazon. But I think the beat deserves more due diligence, and you have to dig deeper and find out what’s actually going on.”

Thomas has certainly covered her fair share of dismal news on the retail front, but she also sees some bright spots in the sector. For one, she says some retail-industry sources indicate that the pace of store closings may soon subside. Also, there are new retail brands emerging — including Bonobos, Untuckit and Warby Parker, along with several others that got started online and are now rolling out brick-and-mortar stores, albeit relatively small ones, she notes.

“The digitally native brands are really starting to grow,” Thomas said. “They would tell you it’s a really exciting time.”

“I feel like I’ve scratched the surface of a lot of these stories and a lot of these [retail] companies, but I want to dig in so much deeper”

Thomas says that she is only now getting warmed up, having just skimmed the surface of many of the big stories, and that she plans to dig even deeper going forward. Though retail remains her primary focus, she says she hopes to do more real-estate-related stories as well. She will be keeping a close eye, for instance, on how shopping center landlords re-lease and/or repurpose space once occupied by department stores, and what their collective efforts could mean for the traditional mall model. “What is that model going to become?” she posits.

Thomas also intends to do further reporting on the implications of the Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods. How will that deal affect the price of groceries or what is sold in supermarkets, say, and does it pose a threat for grocery-anchored centers?

“I would admit there is still a lot to learn,” she said. “I feel like I’ve scratched the surface of a lot of these stories and a lot of these [retail] companies, but I want to dig in so much deeper.”

By Anna Robaton

Contributor, Commerce + Communities Today