Founder RETAIL SPEAK on LinkedIn
RETAIL SPEAK
Sandy’s retail roots were a biproduct of growing up in a mid-century Midwestern retail family. Besides being force fed “all things retailing” at dinner table he was drafting layouts of his family’s new stores while still in high school. That early indoctrination led to a forty-plus year career as a retail planner, designer, trend forecaster, speaker, writer, and published author.
Stein has become a regular retail industry contributor to both Forbes.com and The Robin Report. He is the founder and moderator of LinkedIn’s RETAIL SPEAK, a daily source for retail news and commentary as well as industry networking.
Sandy is the author of RETAIL SCHMETAIL™ One Hundred Years, Two Immigrants, Three Generations, Four Hundred Projects, which is an in-depth examination of retailing in America over the last century.
The 2014 publication examines the genesis of omnichannel (aka unified commerce) and its long-range industry implications. The book also elaborates on the tectonic shift from merchandising goods to staging experiences. Both topics had been the subject of Stein’s speeches to national and international audiences since the late 1990’s. The book was the recipient of the 2015 Independent Book Publishers Association’s (IBPA) coveted Benjamin Franklin Silver Award.
Sandy was tapped to be among RETHINK Retail’s inaugural advisory board and was named a “Top Retail Expert” by that prestigious industry-steering group four years running. He has also been a go-to source for retail journalists worldwide.