Mass retailing has long been a gregarious profession. In the main, the people engaged in the mass retailing community, on both sides of the desk, are genuinely fond of each other. With very few exceptions.

This truism holds not only for retailers who vigorously compete with each other. It equally effectively describes the relationship between retailers and suppliers. True, the suppliers’ job is to develop relationships with the retailers with whom they do business. That’s why they get paid. But no monetary reward replaces the obvious joy with which suppliers and retailers greet each other after an extended period of ­noninteraction.

All this points anew to the saddest retailing truth that has emerged during the current pandemic: Mass retailing has been grievously wounded by the absence of the interactions that have traditionally characterized this profession and set it apart from all the others. No only do we truly like and admire each other, we feed off these relationships, rely on them to furnish new ideas, new options, new ways of doing business. Meanwhile, interacting with our peers burnishes the old, often tired ways of doing things, replacing them with new twists, new wrinkles, new opportunities, new possibilities.

This long-winded introduction was necessary, we believe, in order to set the stage for revealing the very sad truth of the first half of 2021: We, as an industry, have lost something valuable, the missed opportunities to get together to revive, rekindle and renew the relationships which have been at the core of the success of the mass retailing community. Put another way, this summer of 2021 has been the summer of our discontent. It has been the long, hot summer made longer and hotter by our isolation from each other, from our competitors, from our supplier partners, from our friends.

In one sense, there’s more than enough blame to go around. We’ve been encouraged to revel less, to gather less frequently, to remain apart from crowded venues, necessary gatherings, too-long plane trips with uncertain endings at the other end. In that sense, we’ve done this to ourselves. Where we once never questioned the value of a trip, a meeting, an overnight visit to a hotel in a distant city, we’ve replaced that anticipation with a more questionable response: Is this trip necessary?

The answer is, was and always will be: Yes. Toward the end of June, Racher Press, publisher of MMR, having determined that we, as an industry, had been in isolation long enough, hosted a “back to reality” dinner in Manhattan. With caution determining the contours of the event, we invited some two dozen industry people, from both sides of the desk, mostly our friends, people we had gone without for far too long.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. Those who were invited showed up. Those who showed up were delighted at the opportunity to meet, greet, swap stories, embellish the same tried tales, reminisce about past encounters, share recent successes and, yes, failures as well.

In the dinner’s aftermath, letters and notes of appreciation flowed freely. The guests were pleased to have been invited, gratified to have accepted the invitation, overwhelmingly grateful to find the same old faces telling the same old stories yet again, to people who, having heard them before, still feigned surprise, delight and incredulity, both for the story and the storyteller.

This missive has gone on far too long, but the key point still needs to be made. The fault, dear retailer, for this period of prolonged absence, lies not in our stars but in ourselves. But the past is prologue here, and the time to return to action is now. The period of excessive caution, unwarranted fears and unnecessary reluctance to say hello again is over. We need, as an industry, to return to action.

“How?” you might ask. The question is more easily asked than answered. But the logical place to start is with our industry associations. For years we have rightly praised their involvement, their progressive positions on industry events, the professionalism that has marked their events, their meetings, their positions, their decisions.

Now, therefore, is the time to ask our industry organizations to once again step up, to gather the mass retailers and their suppliers together once again — for no particular reason other than to tell them they’ve been missed and that now is the time to let go of the past, return to the present, and once again show themselves, each other and the retailing community who and what we stand for.

There’s no time to waste. And no time like the present.