Unprecedented consumer power, enabled by technology and globalization is driving a revolutionary transformation that will lead to the demise of retail as we know it. The authors provide a unique and essential view of the future of the industry, arguing that a new business model is necessary in these new times, one based on: Preemptive, precise and perpetual distribution; A neurological customer connection; and total control of the value chain. Some of the authors' key insights and predictions include: * The collapse of the traditional retail/wholesale business model: The more enlightened retailers and wholesalers understand they must own and control thecreation, distribution and presentation of their value, directly to the consumer. * Internet retailers such as Amazon, must ultimately open bricks and mortar stores: In an over-competedmarketplace, preemptive distribution of value to preciselywhere and how the consumer wants it is vital, meaningthat retailers and wholesalers must utilize all available distribution platforms, as well as create new distributionideas. * Successful control of the total value chain is the key driver of economic success: Control does not necessarilymean ownership, as in complete vertical integration. Rather, it means that one must gain dominant control overall its functions as companies like Wal-Mart and RalphLauren, who don't own, but certainly control, their totalvalue chains, demonstrate. * The imperative to control the value chain will favorthose who own production: An increasing number ofU.S. brands, wholesalers and retailers, will be acquired byChinese manufacturers and other emerging countries whocan produce consumer goods at a low cost.