Posted on 10/04/2007 1:52:15 PM PDT by Lorianne
flea markets - replaced by eBay
personal stock brokers - replaced by on-line stock trading
But what *should* be replaced by new technology and what *will* be replaced are different beasts altogether...
For instance:
car dealerships (manufacturers are prohibited by law from selling direct to bypass dealerships)
Casinos (internet gambling is illegal...not technically impossible)
Unions
Middle Management
Car inspections (On-Star self-diagnostics and email, anyone?!)
Phone numbers (remember back when we had internet numbers instead of names for email addresses?!)
Gay bars will remain. It isn’t about acceptance. They want to hook up with likeminded people, not drink with someone all night and no prospect of sex.
(((I think used book stores will outlive some of the other businesses.
I agree. It’s fun to browse through shelves and shelves of dusty old books. Much more fun that searching online!
The biggest reason to drop a technology is lack of support (parts, retailers, etc.).
Kodak getting out of darkroom photo paper may have done a lot to keep the other companies in business. Some people are already stocking their papers they use in refrigerators.
“USED BOOKSTORES: They’ve been closing fast, and those that are still open are relying on what’s making them obsolete: the internet... Now you just type that title in a search engine and order it within minutes.”
Not so fast. Still have to warehouse all that inventory someplace and THAT is the store. Bookfinder.com is a NETWORK of booklists. Book dealers more than many other resale merchants have long been networked to share inventory lists (they would run a booksearch for you, now you can do it yourself with www.bookfinder.com).
But those are still BOOK STORES that you are buying from. Not everything is in print and ebay isn’t the end all be all of resale.
A coworker recently bought a Sony Reader, which if you don’t know is a super-slick e-book viewer that doesn’t use any power to display a page - just to ‘turn’ pages. I held it and read a couple pages. It’s cool but there is a certain comforting je ne sais quoi about a paper book.
That's blasphemy! Flea markets are a cult religion...it's not what you buy, it is the experience...and PayPal sucks!
Daily newspapers are obsolete. They are 8-48 hours out of date when they go to press (except sports scores). Then they hit your doorstep (there is no other home delivery by private interests everyday anymore).
And ebay/monster.com/et al are eating their classified ad money.
Nightly News at 5:30pm is outmoded too. There are 24 hour news networks. You can get the news when you want it.
Those national news broadcasts only offered about 8 minutes of news anyway. They also gave focus stories and canned medical reports.
Movie Theaters won’t go away. Just because the home theater experience is available doesn’t mean that people who go to the movies can afford it. I still enjoy going to the movie theaters because my house isn’t big enough for theater quality.
If Hillary wins... Let’s see.... What would the list look like then?
To find something on ebay, you have to know what you are already searching for, or looking over a vendor’s list for a second thing to buy, or looking at a category.
At a flea market, it is all of “equal” weight. Something jumps out at you, it is a hunt.
Again, the people who sell on ebay will sell in both places, first buyer takes it.
I don’t know if casinos should disappear. Gambling is more fun when it’s social, and frankly no one should trust a computerized house, and way don’t trust computerized physics for games like craps or roulette. And car dealerships should never be replaced by online, not because they’re so awesome but because you should always test drive a car before buying it.
And I don’t think flea markets will be replaced by anything, flea markets are really an impulse shopping thing, E-Bay is a hard place to wander around in. Online shopping is geared towards you deciding what you want to look for then looking for it, flea markets are geared towards you not knowing what you want and seeing something that looks cool.
Private Practice Medical Care would be put on the same level as prostitution when it came to charging for services.
I'm not an expert photographer, but I'll bet that regular film will last a long time. I believe that vacuum-tube stereos are still available for those that want the very best.
#11 A Ron Paul Presidential Campaign
CAIR Spokesman...
And just as illegal in Hillary’s world
Piggy Banks are a business?
"Rubber roads that lead nowhere!
Watches that won't melt!
Cheap art, and compulsive education!
Digital beds!
Antproof casters!
Easy, affordable, efficient!
And all this by----Sixty-one!"
--From The Tail of the Giant Rat of Sumatra, The Firesign Theatre.
Yes and no. People aren't going to carry a computer around with them on their daily commute or hunker over one at breakfast unless they become as light and disposable as paper. You don't want to spill coffee on your laptop. I thought Babylon 5 had the right idea (their Universe Today paper): the newspaper is customized for the reader at the vending machine. You select your favorite topics, and a newspaper is printed on the spot customized to you. If we can get printing of disposable/recyclable paper very fast (<20 seconds) into a kiosk or vending size area, I think this idea could work. We have printers that are fast, but can they print on newspaper-grade paper? Anyone up to developing this with me?
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