As CEO of retail giant Crate & Barrel Holdings, Janet Hayes has a unique perspective on how the pandemic disrupted consumers’ behaviors and altered attitudes. Lifestyles changed drastically, and so did customers’ demands for their homes and, increasingly, home offices. Crate & Barrel had to nimbly react to—and, ideally, anticipate—these shifts. Hayes says the company weathered the market’s turbulence by staying focused on what remains consistent: customers’ core expectations of value, quality, inspiration, and purpose.
Crate & Barrel Holdings CEO Janet Hayes on Navigating Turbulent Times for Retail
Consumers’ tastes are changing fast, but one things remains: they value quality, value, and inspiration in their products.
December 15, 2022
Summary.
Janet Hayes took over as CEO of Crate & Barrel in August 2020, in the middle of the Covid lockdown. “I walked into an empty building,” she recalls of her challenging first day and the awkward first encounters to come. “The only thing harder than being a new CEO in the middle of a pandemic is getting a new CEO in the middle of a pandemic.” But she persevered, and so did her team. Over the past two and a half years, the privately run furniture retailer has experienced what Hayes calls “tremendous growth,” particularly in the home sector as people have fitted out residences that now double as offices. Retail is a good window into the health of the economy, and the headwinds are concerning. The pandemic has disrupted supply chains, inflation has driven up the cost of materials, and consumers are generally wary. All of that means the next phase may be harder, for Crate & Barrel and other retailers.