Posted on 09/05/2017 7:56:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Yes, Amazon is great but we are basically held captive all day waiting for the delivery, so it doesn’t get stolen.
We never know when the delivery will be made (even which day on some items), and they don’t even bother to knock when they drop off your order.
I had to start putting a sign on the door asking them to knock loudly.
There are boxes you can buy (or probably make yourself) where the delivery guy can put your package and lock it in.
I would point out that people have gotten to be so incredibly rude and entitled any more that I can barely bring myself to go out of the house any more because I can’t stand to be around them. The concept of “being out in public” and perhaps acting a little more mannerly has disappeared from the American character. That, and the malls, in their endless search for more revenue, put in those G-D DAMN kiosks that make moving quickly and easily through their corridors almost impossible.
UDAG Urban Development Action Grants (by whatever name). In many years, Walmart has been the single biggest welfare queen due to its skill in extorting government grants.
Property tax waivers. Especially in municipalities that have sales tax, they will make the retailer tax free to bring in the sales tax revenue.... everybody wants to be a Schaumburg Illinois.
Every urban planner and public administrator is taught in college to maximize loopholes in your new development.
Subsidizing the new shopping center on the edge of town will hurt the older downtown shopping. That is the goal. Because then you as the urban planner and town manager can apply for federal money to revitalize down town.
It’s just like Alinsky taught. Out of every victory is the next fight created.
Of course, it is also necessary to have a corporate tax lawyer. Manage the business, not for the benefit of the customer, nor for the benefit of the employees. No! Manage the business for the tax loopholes and government regulation loopholes.
* More items ordered online, with retail jobs shifting to warehouse jobs.
* Malls killed themselves by considering security racist. When you have to worry about violent flash mobs in the food court and security won’t stop loitering teens harassing people for money or stealing, no one wants to go. Not all malls, but some.
I think that's exactly why there are 89,000 new retail employees on the market but my company can hardly find any worth hiring.
We have a central shopping district in the north part of town. It has the mall, big box stores, restaurants, car dealers, and etc. Traffic can be a real mess at times like after work and on the weekends. It brings the worst out in people. If I need to go to the grocery store during peak hours, I’ll go to one in a different part of town.
Come November they will rehire for Christmas-Jan returns, retail does this every year, now that summer/school rush is over. They downsize again after returns of unwanted Christmas gifts are over. It’s the way retail business works.
I don’t shop at retail stores, they don’t carry clothing fit for Seniors and quit carrying my shoe size 5.5. I don’t wear street walker ethnic trash at my age.And I’m not shopping for 7 grands and 6 g grands when a Amazon card lets them or parent do the shopping.
excellent points
I am seeing retailers cutting back on what they have in store and moving slower selling items to online only. Why keep something on the shelves in thousands of locations that will only gather dust until it expires when you can keep just enough of the same item in a central warehouse to meet online orders? I often have people show me pictures of items from their phones asking me if we have it in the store. My usual response is that it is an online item, which they probably expected since the picture is from our website. We are supposed to push ship to store in those cases, but most of those people want to order it themselves. Even when the item is in stock, often they just want to touch it or maybe try it on before going home and ordering it. This also is happening in the pharmacy business. Some insurance companies are pushing online mail order by not covering some basic drugs if you try to use a physical drug store.
My daughter works retail. She manages the children’s Department at a large chain bookstore. Lately, they’ve had trouble keeping employees and she keeps getting put in the café pouring coffee.
She’s a great bookseller with an infectious ability to get kids to read and absolutely despises pouring coffee.
I just sent her a paragraph from their annual report discussing the importance of clean, well organized shelves with intuitive navigation and plenty of in-store events to drive sales. Not a word about coffee.
I told her to show that to them and ask where her talents are best served.
The chain is down 6% in sales yet her department remained flat last year.
I recently was shopping for a new security system and an added surveillance system for our house. Wow! at the prices I got around town. For about $500 I found exactly what I wanted on Amazon. Couldn’t touch anything for that in stores.
Taking on Valjar was the last straw for me. I don’t do Amazon anymore.
Tax reform would solve the retail refugee crisis.
Something like a lawn mower I would never buy sight unseen off the web. I would go to the stores & look one over.
Ditto for furniture, computers, etc. I recently bought a queen-sized mattress -- one that I personally tested for firmness at the store (during a sale).
I find the internet (read: Amazon) good for generic purchases, when I know exactly what to expect. But certain shopping is a visceral experience, which involves hands-on.
I don't even find Amazon that much cheaper as far as deals. They'll sell in bulk (i.e. paper towels, toilet paper) but jack up the shipping costs. A certain brand of coconut oil which cost $21 locally was available on Amazon for $30.
I prefer to shop locally to support my community. And, I can just as easily go there & buy paper goods in bulk for the same price, or less, than Amazon/online. I limit Amazon to either emergencies or hard-to-find items.
I think it was comedian Chris Rock who said, "There are two kinds of malls: ones the whites go to and ones the whites used to go to."
Probably the only ones viable will be those with a communal feel -- particularly an affluent clientele. Malls have been overbuilt, anyway, and only a few will survive if they offer a larger experience than just shopping.
There were some I visited recently which catered to a mixed or lower-income crowd -- and boy, were they depressing. Shoddy merchandise, messy shelves. They gave off the impression of a dying retail culture.
I’m in a college town in flyover country. We have the regular stores, but they’re smaller. If I go to Penney’s in the mall, I might have 3-5 choices of an item. Or, maybe the item is sold out.
I can (and do) buy blouses thru Penney’s online. Of the same style, I have maybe 8-12 choices and I know my size will be available. I just don’t bother with the mall anymore because I want what I want. I’m not forced into buying something I don’t really want that much just because it’s the only thing available.
Same with me. I live in the boonies and it’s well over an hour drive to stores like Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards and the store itself has a limited selection compared to what is available on the store’s website and can be delivered to my home.
This almost hit me very personally. My father’s retail chain (that he works at, not owns) is going under due to Dilbertish management and he got out by the skin of his teeth - a low-level IT job opened up and he got it.
But if not for that I don’t know if he’d ever have been able to find work again between ageism and the still-crappy job market when his store inevitably closed.
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