Last week Brian and I attended SAP’s annual Retail Forum. This year, the event was in New York City, and it was like a breath of fresh retail air. Why? Because for the most part, the conversation was grounded in reality, not in click-bait fantasies of the end of retail days.

Thematic to the whole event was the importance of both the store and the in-store employee. Perhaps the most realistic sound bite explanation of what SAP is focused on was uttered by Achim Schneider, Global Head of the SAP Retail Business Unit: “Turn Inventory, Not People. ” In fact, he was repeating something that had already been said, but in the context of SAP’s goals and objectives. Read on!

Even the venerable Scott Galloway of L2, the current rock star of the analyst community has come round to the recognition (grudging?) that stores will represent a significant portion of retail sales for the foreseeable future. As an aside, if you get a chance to hear him speak, go for it. You may not agree with everything he says (I don’t), but it goes down really easy… like an ice cream soda.

Happily, there was very little doom and gloom in the presentations. Most everyone was focused on the positive aspects of digital transformation, even in physical stores. Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal has certainly walked the employee empowerment walk, and it was fun to hear him talk the talk as well. Retail watchers know that Costco is often punished by Wall Street for paying its people well, and generally working to keep turnover down. Mr. Sinegal remains unrepentant, and we’re glad he is.

He made the audience laugh when he was asked “How does it feel to be the father of an industry? ” and replied “I should have worn a condom. ” True, dat: it can be frustrating to birth an idea and then see it copied by others. It was Mr. Sinegal who first uttered the phrase, “We would much rather turn our inventory than our people. ” But it was still powerful to hear it echoed by Mr. Schneider in the context of SAP’s core retail values.

In fact, just about every consultant who came up on stage talked about the store and the importance of the empowered employee. We, at RSR have been pounding on that theme for years. Way back when (2010 or before), RSR partner Steve Rowen observed that without technology in hand, store managers were “bringing knives to a gun fight. ” He was right.

Vish Ganapathy, a Managing Director for Retail at Accenture, quoted RSR partner Nikki Baird, as describing the future of the store as the “Brand Experience Center, ” during his speech. (Side note: Mr. Ganapathy has a great article on LinkedIn titled “Are Retail Stores like COBOL? ” Hint: The answer is No. For us, honestly, this whole movement to empower the in-store associates is very gratifying. We’ve beat that drum for a long time.

Lori Mitchell-Keller, former head of retail, and now Global General Manager for Consumer Industries, engaged in a dialog with serial entrepreneur and member of various Boards of Directors, Betsy Atkins. Their message was clear. BODs must embrace change and find new ways to interact with their management teams differently. On the one hand, they need to be a bit more hands-on, but on the other hand, they really do need to empower those management teams to create technology and employee plans that may upset the financial apple cart for a short time. We cannot continue following the practices of 20^th century retailers. Budgets and relationships with employees really do have to change.

There’s no doubt we are moving into a channel-blind world. I can’t call it channel-less (as some speakers did). There are facts, and one fact is that it’s a very different experience to purchase via a digital vs. a physical channel. And those experiences are meant to be different. SAP recognizes that, and so did the retailers in the room.

SAP’s roadmap also reflects the realities of a channel-blind world. It’s moving its delivery vehicles from on-prem to the Cloud, and continues to leverage its own digital transformation.

Overall, I had a very refreshing couple of days – in which my own thoughts were validated and brought forth to the industry. Heaven knows, it’s much more productive than last spring’s conference season, when industry-wide blather about the “retail apocalypse ” took center stage. In particular, the U.S. is a consumer-driven economy. And consumers are really driving along. Retailers simply have to adapt or die. Tastes are changing. The thirst for experience is strong. Retailers must provide those experiences.