Quote:
Originally Posted by ernie
Thing is for a large percentage of people in the US where Amazon does the bulk of their business that savings (and not on things they don't need) is very meaningful.
The problem is a brick and mortar has to be able to offer something beyond the same products you can get at amazon or walmart. Those that do can be quite successful. But if you are just going to sell the same stuff that doesn't require any sort of face to face interaction for decision making purposes and do it for an elevated price, well then you aren't going to be successful.
Restaurants are one of the things that does this well and not just to stuff fat faces. Even smaller towns have a local restaurant or two that thrive. The reason is that they offer something...convenience of not having to cook at home while still getting a well cooked meal.
And really I don't see how online shopping is anymore soulless than flipping through the Sear Christmas Wish book like people did for decades....that was the online shopping of the time.
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I agree with this post. The big box stores definitely took the brunt of Amazon's force. And I don't care anything about them. The retail jobs were crappy jobs anyway. Lots of smaller, interesting, creative businesses are thriving these days around here. If you are going to buy mass produced, commodditized items, you might as well buy them efficiently as possible.