Retail

LAS VEGAS — After nearly 35 years of developing and brokering commercial real estate, Scott McLain has no doubt about the deep connection between retail and human nature. McLain, principal and managing broker of Huntsville, Ala.-based Coldwell Banker Commercial McLain Real Estate, sees e-commerce and other new forms of delivering retail products and services as mechanisms that hit on the most basic wants and needs of consumers. For all the talk about how e-commerce is putting retailers out of business, McLain’s view is that retailers that don’t offer value, convenience or the ability to delight consumers are the most vulnerable and have been exposed by online competitors. That holds equally true for online-based and brick-and-mortar retailers. REBusinessOnline.com caught up with McLain at the RECon show in Las Vegas in late May for a quick lesson in human psychology and how it applies to Amazon, store closures and retail real estate in the 21st century. His edited responses are as follows: REBusinessOnline.com: In your opinion, have we seen the worst of the store closures yet? How do you see the closures playing out over the next 12 months? Scott McLain: What I’ve discerned recently about this industry is that there’s a …