Adidas may now be regretting its ability to take quick decisions. Last week, the company took a hiding for announcing that despite its enormous profits in recent years and a war chest of billions in cash, it would take advantage of a program to defer rent payments for retailers in Germany. So loud was the outrage from consumers and online influencers that the company had to deploy crisis PR management resources and issue endless apologies. Meanwhile, Deichmann, H&M and C&A quietly stuck to their decision not to pay their landlords for the time being and braved threats of a boycott by smaller consumer groups. For the moment, the fidgety eye of social media has passed them over, focusing instead on Edeka, the food retailer whose letter to its landlords suggesting it would be deferring payments was leaked to the press. It’s unclear how stores whose shelf stockers whose fitness levels haven’t been good enough to keep up with the pace of panic buying could justify not paying rent. And so Edeka didn’t even try, claiming the letters had only been sent “preventively”, in case some official decree changed its ability to sell.
