http://imgur.com/gallery/Th0nSiV
I want to go back to the good ole days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRviuL6vMY&t=0m56s
Posted on 03/23/2017 12:49:20 PM PDT by publius911
The U.S. economy never did recover from the great buggy whip industry slaughter.
Retail that’s getting hurt is/was likely gouging or being negligent.
A popular retail store will charge $150 for the same HDMI cable available online for half the cost. That’s an insane margin over the wholesale/dist cost.
Guitar Center on the other hand offers competitive prices in their stores. And I’d much rather visit and patronize the stores.
Local hardware stores are doing great while competing with both the box and online stores.
Amazon doesn’t need to be the only disruptive force in town. It practically stands alone as many of the traditional retailers squandered their final years. The potential for the paradigm Amazon adopted has been available for decades. Mainstream (not Main St) retail screwed itself.
It doesn’t surprise me that brick and mortars are flailing, they have completely abandoned the concept of what courteous service means. Tha retailers are swamped with a staff of gimmedats who seem to make it their goal to be rude, uninterested, and find the highest honor in the store, that is, running the cash register.
That’s what makes me prefer on-line shopping, not saving a few bucks.
I don’t go to mcdonalds anymore, because of the eyes-half-closed, mouth breathers who man the front counter. Without the cash register these morons can’t make change for a dollar without having a three-way conference with the manager. Couple that with ever-decreasing quality of the food, and an unclean store, there’s no reason to go there. Whereas Chick-Fil-A people are always neat, clean, courteous, and well-spoken. I guess it’s the difference in management.
Amazon now uses FedEx or UPS to ship from city to city but when the product arrives in the target city then Amazon has hired local individuals to deliver from the terminal to the client.
Also, there are many drop-off sites in most “Stripes” gas stations to send back faulty or unworthy items.
Both of those ideas seem pretty good to me. In addition, I cannot find cheaper prices than Amazon.
My mom bought her Cocker Spaniel, Sandy, from Sears in the 60s. He was shipped from Chicago to Alabama. :)
*images...
Walmart’s pushing web shopping, likely changing many stores to be more order pickup than merchandise on the shelf, especially high theft stores. Maybe it’ll be grocery, clothing (need to try stuff on), eatery and web order pickup.
But, yeah, a cloddy website is a major turn-off. Amazon’s is fine. Like with airlines - hate most of them, love Southwest’s.
I’m not particularly thrilled at the prospect of handing so much retail business over to Amazon, given the corporate leadership and their employment practices. Killing off bricks and mortar retail isn’t always the best thing, even if you do save money. Recall the rationale for all the Chinese imports: they’re cheap. Amazon’s cheap, too.
Guitar Center actually employs people that know something about guitars.
Same with the local hardware store.
I overheard a Best Buy blue shirt trying to explain the technology in a flat screen that was so wrong it made my head hurt.
Adam Smith was no fan of monopolies and it was not due to HOW they were formed in his day as much as it was their anti-competitive effects on markets.
In economic terms, it’s a classic example of Schumpeter’s “creative destruction”...
You have a point. You know, back in the day when I worked retail the cash registers did NOT calculate the change due the customer. You had to do the math in your head.
Sales people don’t have to shine my shoes, but a modicum of interest and politeness usually does nudge me across the purchase decision threshold.
All I’m wondering is why Amazon’s of Chick-Fil-A model can’t be exploited or at least imitated.
Sure, to all the “buggy-whip” posters, yeah, I know time and innovation marches on, but you miss the point. If even Wal*Mart with all their enormous resources cannot realistically challenge Amazon, what are others to do to compete?
As another poster noted, is our dystopian destiny that of warehouse robots and delivery drones?
Even clothes retailers are struggling (Penney’s, Macy’s, etc.). The one place Amazon should not be good at is selling clothes, because realistically you have to see and try on clothes before purchasing — or at least I do.
So, perhaps under Obama few were able or willing to step out an innovate, and maybe that will change under Trump, but Amazon has been growing by leaps and bounds since about 1996 and few have answered the bell as a challenge.
I was working at Sears HQ back in the 90s when Amazon first started. Talked with the people putting together the first ecommerce web site and they were stymied by internal politics at every turn.
That dinosaur Sears took a long time to die, but it’s about to roll over and sink
All the signs point in that direction.
I am taking a break to eat, etc., but this post deserves a prompt reply...
Most unengaged people who vote are blissfully unaware of 80% of what they should know to contribute to a meaningful discussion, including the following...
I am sure I did not imagine it, but at one point in the last 20 years, Amazon sold and delivered, in a huge truck-mounted crate an automobile.
At my age, my memory is not what it used to be, so I can't (for the sake of completeness) remember or add just what make and model automobile it was...
Care to repeat your contribution to the thread?
http://imgur.com/gallery/Th0nSiV
I want to go back to the good ole days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRviuL6vMY&t=0m56s
No the signs don’t point in that direction. Amazon has a ton of competition online. And their focus is horizontal expansion not vertical, so they generally aren’t growing individual market shares so they aren’t climbing towards 80%.
Shipping a car, or even a bunch of cars, doesn’t make them a monopoly.
Why repeat it, you quoted it, and it ain’t changing.
Agreed.
1,500 sq ft. what’s not to like?
Well, nothing/no one in the world is ever perfect.
After a couple of visits, I am sure there is something in the taste (not the textures) that doesn't sit well with me.
But that's just my family and me. Not intended as a criticism of everything else you stated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.