Sometimes, as we strive to do the best job we can for those people, we find that our words, analysis and opinions are simply not enough. In these unprecedented, challenging and uncertain times, that is often proving to be the case.

I took a call this week from a shopfloor worker who is facing redundancy in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. He implored Retail Week to help him and his colleagues, who are soon to be unemployed.

Job prospects elsewhere were “bleak”, he told me. “We don’t know what we’re going to do. A lot of us have young families to look after and bills to pay. We’re scared.”

Nothing I said could provide any real solace or properly reassure him. Nothing I said could make the worry and stress he was experiencing disappear.

But actions speak louder than words. Now is the time for action.