Amazon has cannibalized the brick and mortar business.
Why drive to the store when you can buy it online and receive it in two days?
No wonder physical stores are shutting down left and right.
With people increasingly accustomed to buying online, stores like Sports Authority have been left high and dry.
Its truly the end of an era.
“No wonder physical stores are shutting down left and right”
One of the issues at hand is the cost of commercial rents, local taxes, and local regulation.
If you are starting out with a unique retail idea/store, it is likely to cost you several thousand a month just for rent. Then there is licensing, utilities. Then there are employees. Then there is an overall litigious environment - such as the inevitable “lawsuit sting” by an LGBT-er looking to be offended by something.
Amazon offers a way for a person to go into business way before they would be able to open a brick-and-mortar store, avoiding all of those costs.
A modest storefront might have to generate $5k-$10k in margin - requiring maybe $30k in sales every month to pay all these bills and allow a modest income for the proprietor.
I think small business storefronts, with the owner living on the premises will be the new/old model for brick-and-mortar retail.
One thing is for sure - commercial real estate values and rent, and tax expectations must reset or brick-and-mortar will never come back.