Savvy and subtle innovation — not robots, drones and flashy screens — are what’s needed most. Tens of thousands of retail and tech professionals descended on New York this week for the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, an annual industry confab where exhibitors show off new innovations and the crowd collectively scoffs at the idea of any kind of looming retail apocalypse. The great sport of the event is wandering the rows of booths and trying to separate the fanciful from the legitimately useful. Read more…