Posted on 09/05/2017 7:56:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The retail landscape looks like it's about to get rougher for everyone — especially those on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Retail is the largest employer in the US, employing an estimated 4.6 million people in full- or part-time jobs.
But estimates also say that the sector has shed more than 89,000 jobs in general merchandise stores alone between last October and May of this year. At last count, over 6,375 stores have been announced for across the country this year.
It's this shedding of jobs that's about to create what retail-industry consultant Doug Stephens is calling a "retail refugee crisis" in an article in Business of Fashion....
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Improvise. Overcome. Adapt.
How long do you suppose until Amazon is seen as a monopoly?
Where’s TR when you need him?
Let me see here, I live in rural area, should I drive 160 miles to the nearest big box store to buy a $40 item or order it online and have it delivered to my front porch? Decisions, Decisions.
Sorry, not getting the reference.
Sounds familiar.
Maybe when they become one, which they are not now. Amazon is not in charge of anything exclusively.
Teddy Roosevelt. He busted up monopolies, as President.
"...How long do you suppose until Amazon is seen as a monopoly..."
People like you could really put a dent in Amazon prime.
“Let me see here, I live in rural area, should I drive 160 miles to the nearest big box store to buy a $40 item or order it online and have it delivered to my front porch? Decisions, Decisions.”
Let me see here, I live in suburban area, should I drive 2.4 miles to the nearest big box store to buy a $40 item or order it online and have it delivered to my front porch? Decisions, Decisions. (...and I suspect my decision is no different from yours)
It wasn’t all that long ago that local merchants were moaning about Walmart moving in and “monopolizing” everything.
Now, it’s the internet...they’ve even go Walmart worried.
But here’s the deal; America is getting more violent, mall parking lots are almost empty after dark, and not as full as they used to be in broad daylight.
Thanks to muggings, holdups, carjacking, and just plain harassment, people just aren’t going to subject themselves to these danger.
Instead of blaming Amazon (no, I don’t work for them), blame your lawmakers and law enforcement to clean up the criminal element and make the streets safe again.
A whole lot of people would rather go into the stores, see the actual merchandise “in person” rather that a photo on the net. Try on clothes, etc.
After the law, there’s the stores themselves. Rash with political statements, transgender bathrooms, gay clothing, and CEO turning off half their customer base with stupid statements about race, gender, and political affiliation of their customers.
As one segment get’s more obnoxious, it makes the other source more appealing.
Getting what I want, delivered at my door, at a cheaper price means more to me that showing my “diversity” in being some liberal CEO’s “favorite kind of customer”.
The world has gone nuts. Either fight it, or live with it...there are no other choices.
Overcome: Overcome conservative/libertarian objections by getting majority of Americans used to sucking off the government teat
Adapt: Adapt laws to turn majority of Americans into welfare bums subsidized by an ever decreasing number of people with jobs
Brought to you by those fine defenders of the free market, i.e. corporate CEO's.
Gov’t subsidies supported excessive building of retail for last generation.
result ?
USA has 8 times the retail sq.ft. versus other developed countries
shopping center carnage will get much much worse
Some businesses may wish to start emphasizing the humanized areas of their service. Meaning, yes a restaurant can use robotized, computerized systems to display a menu, take your order and bring food to the table, but actual people are more complex than that. An actual person can provide eye contact, a friendly attitude, a professional appearance, a item recommendation, spoken with full intonation, vs the metallic robot’s response. A good waiter or waitress also knows when to leave their customer alone. A bad or detached waiter will hover, pester become too friendly or simply vanish for too long.
A customer would be more likely to tip an actual person vs a machine. There is something special about tipping, that I, a very stingy person discovered just a few years ago.
When I leave a tip to someone who has earned it, I feel good about making their shift a little bit better. Giving is a two way exercise, based on need.
There are several factors, intrinsic in the act of human communication, that are difficult if not impossible to replicate with machines. This goes beyond basic task and completion processes.
All these retails could have organized with an ecommerce guild web site of sort and survived but nope, they instead decided to do politics and seek illegal aliens as gov sponsored customers... They can go to hell
And even if you do get the package before they can steal it, if they see the kind of stuff you're buying then they know what's in your house. It makes your house a more likely target for them to break into when you're not home.
I would recommend staying in doors from now on out. You can have all your food and groceries delivered as well. That way you don't ever need to leave your home and face all that crime and societal decay.
But what are you buying? a 3" X 3" screen shot? At a store you can see what you're getting. ... and I'll drive 2.4 miles for next to no reason! You know what, my last fill-up was in Gardner IL on my way back home from the eclipse, a week ago yesterday, about fifty miles from home. I've still got three bars.
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