Why is micro-fulfillment moving forward at a slower pace than previously forecasted?

The headline in the weekend Wall Street Journal caught my eye. “More Online Shoppers Are Taking It Offline.” The gist of the article was that pretty much everyone, including the materials handling industry, assumed that in-person shopping was dead in the water. Instead, the Journal reported, “stores are mounting a comeback. … By the fourth quarter of 2021….consumer buying habits [were] roughly back to their prepandemic trend.”