When Apple unveiled its iPad this January, the ailing media industry practically swooned at the notion that it could be the technological savior it had been waiting for. And now that the device is available at retail, that possibility is closer to reality. But ours is a time when technology reigns. In 1980, things were a little different. “If the Seventies wrought an electronic revolution in the retail industry, the Eighties will bring computerization into the customer’s home,” the cover of WWD said on Jan. 7, 1980.
It was a prediction from the retailers and electronics experts who watched computer terminals become a factor in every aspect of retailing, from the cash register to the buyer’s office. Frank L. Perry, then vice-president of Dillard’s Fort Worth division, had added the new computer systems to their operations, but warned they must be approached cautiously.
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Otto Becker of The May Co. said, “Despite the rosy opportunities offered by technology, operational advancement can be dangerous if the systems fail.” He added retailers also ran the risk of neglecting qualitative decisions best made by humans (i.e. good buying, store locations and store design) to maintain the new quantitative systems. But still, most retailers were gearing up for the business machines exposition at the National Retail Merchants Association show at the New York Hilton and were looking at how new computerization could be used. “One of the things we’ve found is retailers are cooperating in ways that will bring the benefits of computerization to everyone,” said Joseph Miller, a coordinator for the NRMA. According to WWD’s reporter, “The last decade [of computerization] emphasized the point of sale. The new decade will elaborate on the point of receipt.”