I do shop online for a lot of things, but I’d rather buy clothes, fresh produce and fresh meats in person.
Buying fresh food online is a no-go for me. I’ll buy clothing and shoes if I know the size and fit of a particular brand already. If I take a size 8 in women’s nike shoes then I have no issue ordering a pair online that I can’t find in a store.
Yeah, I was hasty about my brick and mortar comments. I wasn’t including obvious stuff like haircuts and things that REQUIRE human contact.
But even stuff like clothing and food will almost certainly change. I envision a future where your cabinets and refridgerator (or the packages themselves) will re-order without human intervention. And either flying or self driving drones will deliver the food. And it will be even put into the home through an access area specifically designed for this purpose. Just like freestanding wardrobes were replaced with built in closets in homes, I predict the same thing will happen with refridgerators and freezers. They will be a part of the home and accessible from the outside by drone delivery vehicles.
And you won’t need to worry about the “I need to hand pick my meats and fruits/vegetables” because the convenience, coupled with standardized high quality will trump that. And it will be cheaper than today.
One advantage is that shrinkage (shoplifting and employee theft) will be almost non-existent, the cost of everything that humans used to do will be drastically reduced and the cost of dealing with human customers “at a store” will be eliminated.
When “virtually” every apple, every cut of meat, comes as though you hand picked it yourself, after a while, that need will disappear.
And this is all going to happen ridiculously fast.