Is Amazon Really Killing Brick-and-Mortar Retail?

"Well, no, but... Amazon, Wish, and all those other online-only businesses are killing brick-and-mortar retail."

"Well, no, but... Amazon, Wish, all those other online-only businesses, plus a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses themselves, like the online stores run by Best Buy, Walmart, JC Penney, etc. etc., all put together, are killing brick-and-mortar retail."

For years, we have been told the above.… To explain why shopping malls and other brick and mortar retail is suffering so much today. It’s all a lie.

Throughout the modern commercial age, healthy and vigorous competition between retailers has always been the norm, and has always been desirable.

It’s not a negative for there to be five or ten available restaurants, five or ten available hardware stores, five or ten available clothing stores, etc. Competition is a positive in the retail world - specifically because it inspires each competing store to specialize and improve, to strengthen their appeal to consumers.

The department store adds value in choices and convenience, while the small specialized boutiques boast special value in quality, price, style, fit, or other specialties one would never even think of outside the industry.

There are restaurants that specialize in cuisines, restaurants that specialize in price-point, restaurants that specialize in speed of service, even restaurants that specialize in a single course of the meal, such as soup only, or even dessert only. The fast food chain didn't put steakhouses out of business; the ice cream shop didn't put barbecue joints out of business. There's plenty of room.

Yes, there are certainly differences, and challenges, posed by the development of online retail. Online sites offer an ease of purchase and savings of time beneficial for the buyer who knows exactly what he wants and can trust the delivery method.

For most clothing purchases, you want to see it and feel it, and try it on in the store, before purchasing. Sometimes you don’t have time to wait for delivery, and you need to shop today, on your way home from work or during your lunch break. And there are tens of millions of us who cannot trust delivery at all, because of underserved areas or lack of a safe place for deliveries to be dropped off.

Besides all of the above, there is personal choice: some people like shopping online, and do so when they can... while others like to shop in person, and do so when they can.

In short, in a growing economy, there will always be plenty of business for both online merchants and brick and mortar retail.

Crime is nothing new. For as long as there has been human history, there has been a risk that criminals would make innocent victims' lives miserable. Robbery, rape, assault, murder, embezzlement… These have all been part of the fabric of human existence from the dawn of time.

And so too has crime affected retail, from the beginning. One only has to read Oliver Twist, Moll Flanders, or Les Miserables to be reminded that pickpockets have been an incurable cancer in retail for centuries.

Traditionally, the criminal justice system was on the side of the shopper and the retailer, pursuing, prosecuting, and punishing those criminals, to keep their numbers down.

Fear of arrest, trial, and imprisonment used to be sufficient deterrents, to dissuade most people from retail theft. While there will always be some small percentage of people who choose the criminal life, an effective criminal justice system can keep that number small and manageable.

In recent years, however, a combination of the general soft-on-crime policies of Democrat politicians, and the shocking, utter refusal of Soros-funded district attorneys to prosecute such crime, has completely upended that traditional balance.

We now have dozens of cities that are not even merely incapable of controlling their criminal elements; they are actually encouraging such behavior.

When do retail malls or local shopping districts shrink or close? Traditionally, it was only in response to drops in the general economic strength of the area. When a town lost a mill, a factory, a distribution center, then of course there would be fewer people who could afford to shop, so stores would suffer and close. But only then.

In recent decades, however, we have seen shopping malls shut down even while the surrounding areas were not suffering recession or depression. We have seen malls close, even in areas with growing standards of living. Why?

When you no longer dare work at a mall yourself, or allow your kids to hang out at the mall, or park in the mall's parking lot, or even do your Christmas shopping at the mall, then, that mall will die.

Just as retail crime has been around forever, the economy has had ways to combat it as well.

Stores lock their doors, limit access to just one or two entrances, keep their most expensive merchandise behind the counter, out of reach.

Police add foot patrols in shopping districts, and station policemen in or near malls, so they are close at hand if called upon.

Mall management installs security systems, from burglar alarms to video cameras, and they retain security guards to both watch the entrances and circulate throughout the wings.

Individual stores develop their own loss prevention strategies, retaining their own security personnel, using technology such as clothing sensors and doorway alarms, even adding staff so that, in addition to helping the customer and ringing up sales, there are enough sales clerks walking around to keep an eye on suspicious shoppers.

Several trends, however, in recent decades, have proven too much for these traditional approaches.

We allow crime gangs to grow and terrorize malls and shopping districts. "Open borders" policies and "sanctuary cities," that allow crime gangs to import foreign members to swell their ranks with Third World thugs, have been key to the growth of America’s crime gangs, such as MS-13 and its imitators.

We have changed the way that we punish juvenile criminals, in some states, refusing to prosecute at all, or keeping their criminal records secret for life, removing the tools that society has to deter children from adopting criminal behavior.

We have tolerated the growth of public demonstrations that quickly turn violent, at which point it becomes impossible to stop them from devolving into looting sprees. There is simply no formal criminal justice technique that can stop the absolute destruction of shopping districts once a looting spree begins. These demonstrations simply must be controlled before they go that far, as soon as violence begins, and yet, the city fathers of dozens of American cities have refused to allow steps to be taken.

The term "flash mob," once known as an entertaining pop-up dance experience, has been taking over as a description of sudden and shocking shoplifting events. Gangs of ten or twenty criminals at a time descend upon a single store, blatantly grabbing everything they can hold, as fast as they can, and charging out of a store before anything can be done about it. Such events can clean out a store of its stock in moments, destroying its season, potentially putting it out of business for good. Just from a single evil moment. Such crimes have filled the news in recent weeks, as high-end stores like Nordstrom‘s in California and Illinois have begun to suffer such attacks. This too has been going on for decades, but it is only now, finally, making the news reports and becoming impossible to hide.

Some areas are even suffering a new type of crime that has become known as follow-home robberies: criminals scout malls and other shopping areas, watching for people buying high-end goods and or driving high-end cars, then hang back and follow them to their homes, where they can steal not only the day's purchases, but also rob the person's home, steal the person's car, or even more.

The explosion of crime that has effectively served as a frontal assault on American retail is entirely a result of public policy choices.

America used to carefully control immigration. Today’s open borders policies allow thousands of gang members to enter the country every month. The cities, counties, and states that have proclaimed themselves “sanctuary” for illegal aliens unknowingly encouraging such criminals to go there. Is it any wonder that such "sanctuaries" are suffering the greatest increase in crime?

America used to punish property crimes in the same way that we punish other crimes: with guaranteed prison time. But we now have a host of county district attorneys and state attorneys general who were elected specifically through massive contributions from George Soros, entirely on the single issue of ending prosecution for most crime. There is a reason why shoplifting is no longer done in secret, with furtive glances and careful disguises. There is a reason why these flash mobs no longer fear security cameras and eyewitnesses. In county after county, state after state, they know they will not be prosecuted, no matter what they do.

Remember: all crime is recidivist (with only the very small exception of crime-of-passion homicide).

That is, while every criminal had to have a first time, of course, long ago, after committing dozens and dozens and dozens more, the number of crimes that are the result of a first-timer become statistically minuscule. Virtually every crime is committed because the person got away with it before.

Because of this fact, long jail terms for criminals are imperative if a society has a goal of ever becoming relatively crime-free. Keeping known criminals locked up is the job of government; in fact, it is arguably government’s primary job.

And yet, one political party, yes, the Democratic Party, continues to insist on open borders.… continues to insist on non-prosecution policies… continues to use the plea-bargain approach to mask the real danger posed by convicts.… and even continues to stage mass prison releases for any excuse they can think of, from alleged overcrowding, to Covid fears, to uncomfortable bedding conditions in the prison! Hundreds of thousands of criminals have been released before their sentences were up, without even consulting parole boards, by radical Democrat governors who just wanted to flood their cities with criminals. And they have all gotten away with it.

We don’t have to eliminate the crime problem. That’s impossible. But we can make it more manageable again.

Prosecute crime again. Lock up convicted criminals for their full sentences again. Close the border so that we don’t allow foreign gangs into our country again.

And we must again tamp down on demonstrations the second they get violent. Americans are capable of gathering in large numbers without committing crimes. We Americans have a history of gathering by the tens of thousands, at baseball games, football games, concerts, MAGA rallies, without devolving into criminal activity. We can demand the same from thugs like BLM and antifa. If they want to get a permit for a public rally, let them. Freedom of assembly is legal. But the second they stop acting like Americans and begin acting like bolshevik shock troops, we must remove them from society. We have no choice. We must take action. This cancer has been allowed to grow for too long.

There was a time when criminal justice was a concern of both Republican and Democrat candidates. This wasn’t always a strictly partisan issue.

But in recent decades, it has become undeniable: only one party is on the side of law-abiding citizens, and only one party is on the side of the criminals.

It is time we stopped using euphemisms, dancing around the issues, and giving individual Democrat candidates the benefit of the doubt.

As a block, as a party, the Democratic Party is a corrupt organization on the side of our growing American crime wave.

They need to be voted out of office, locally, county-wide, state-wide, and federally. Only when the Democratic Party has been removed from public office, root and branch, can America return to being a safe society again.

Retail is not, after all, the only sector that this crime wave is hurting. It’s only the most obvious.

But the same criminals who destroy the store you shop at or work at, the same criminals who break into your car in the mall parking lot or follow you home from the mall to break into your house, are the criminals who are denying you from a livelihood, denying you an American standard of living, denying you your rights as a free citizen of the United States of America.

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based trade compliance trainer and transportation manager, writer and actor. A one-time county chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, he has been writing regularly for Illinois Review since 2009.

A collection of John’s Illinois Review articles about vote fraud, The Tales of Little Pavel, and his 2021 political satires about current events, Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes One and Two, are available, in either paperback or eBook, only on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/EVENING-SOUP-BASEMENT-JOE-Months/dp/B09FS82JH9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28M5EYK47B2E5&keywords=evening+soup+with+basement+joe&qid=1639788982&sprefix=evening+soup+with+%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1

I still read lots, but Barns&Noble locally are gonners along with the aforementioned Borders. And I don’t read newspapers anymore, I read my news from all over the internet and on a screen rather than print. I still read my hunting, fishing and gun stuff from magazines and books, but they themselves continuously solicit dropping the print subscriptions in favor of the online version.

People don’t read like they used to, even to the point of having others read to them.

The only thing that stays the same is everything changes.

Nothing can actually replace reading actual books: they are permanent, fill my shelves and I will re-read them again at some point and it’s almost like reading them the first time. They don’t have batteries to run flat, nobody will take down their website and my children and their children will have them to read.

You won’t catch me arguing your point.

I’m just stating what’s happening.

It’s much healthier to eat right and exercise, but Americans, or perhaps those in western society as a whole, are obese.

When people think of a mall as being a crime center, that mall is done for.

When the mall gets its own police substation, then that's it.

Eastmont Mall, Oakland, California.

I was one of AMZ’s first customers when they only sold books out of Bezoz’s garage.. Lived in N. ID then and so did my (NOW, SADLY) DEAD) son, an early techie, the first to put color online. Tiny library there was insufficient, and we were so happy to have a source for books.

Fast forward to the seriously stupid, criminal lockdowns and I HAD TO buy a ton of stuff online, so much that I got free AMZ Prime. OMG, is that terrific. Here comes next year, and I hope my free AMZ prime continues.

Bezos may be a seriously stupid Dem SOB but he does indeed provide a wonderful service to customers.

Is Amazon Really Killing Brick-and-Mortar Retail?

Covid lockdowns, "Let's go Brandon" fossil fuels debacle, and the Buttgigger transportation slowdown are the elephants in the room.

No argument that the china virus, the war on oil, and the transportation nightmare are severe problems. No argument at all.

But I’m talking about a war on retail that goes back decades.

The Democrat-engineered crime wave predates the Biden regime.

"It’s much healthier to eat right and exercise, but Americans, or perhaps those in western society as a whole, are obese."

So let me get this straight - you're saying that reading books will somehow cause me not to exercise and therefore make me fat?

1. During reasonable weather (I hate cold) I bicycle 8-10 miles a day.

2. Abraham Lincoln and other great men read obsessively - were they fat?

3.Your handle includeds the word Christian - don't you ever read the Bible?

4. I suspect that many American are obese because they watch TV, fiddle with computers for hours while snacking and rarely read a good book.

It’s not just Amazon. It’s Ebay, it’s the Internet.

But they fill an important role.

An example - I needed Proto 88336 screwdrivers and some Klein 2100-7 snips.

I’m not getting these at the local Ace Hardware. Nor will they order for me. A local electrical supply house will order the Klein snips but needs a minimum order of Klein tools before they will place the order. I waited 5 weeks once for our tools. Never did that again.

So I go on the Internet, usually Ebay, and order. The tools are here in 3-7 days. And several times the seller is somewhat smart who has a brick and mortar operation and also has an online operation.

And yes, I would pay more to buy locally, and do when the opportunity arises. But many local sellers never learned how to compete with the big stores - which is many cases they can.

Another example. We use THHN copper 6 AWG green jacket cable for in our telecomm applications for bonding and grounding.

Neither local supply house had it in stock. Both said it would be 2-3 weeks to get. Home Depot had it in stock.

How can it take 2-3 weeks to get a reel of cable? I could order it online myself and get faster. And this was pre-pandemic.

Dude, cool your jets. How do you get I’m telling you that reading is making YOU, or anyone else, lazy and fat? I was making an analogy of healthy living to reading, most Westerners don’t read nor do they have healthy living habits. And I read the Bible more than anything else I indulge myself with.

You and me Chainmail, we are on the same page. We both ride bicycles even.

In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota the shopping mall Brookdale was closed due to crime approx 2010. I use to go there many times. The state / cities added a new bus route from downtown Minneapolis according to the comments I read when it was announced the mall was closing. The criminals now had easy access to a new area. The mall several years later was torn down and new stores built on site.

BTW the last “riot” was at and also nearby the former site.
A walmart and other stores were looted.

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IRWIN VISE-GRIP GrooveLock Pliers Set, V-Jaw, 2-Piece (2078709)

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