“Every city wants to bring back businesses to rejuvenate the downtown. Then they put in parking meters in the already crowded parking. Why would you drive downtown to very dangerous (to you and your car) stores and then have to drive several blocks to the next store and park again when you can go to any strip mall and park once, for free, and do everything you need? Oh, and let’s not forget all the homeless between you and your car downtown which the stores can’t legally do anything about. But the mall and the strip mall are private so they can run them off and you’ll have a more enjoyable and safer shopping experience.”
Too many of today’s retailers are looking for 1980 solutions to a 2014 problem; why would I deal with meters, homeless, etc. if I can just buy more things every day online? I’m not a tech-savvy person, but even I have figured out that with the exception of groceries and clothing, I’d rather buy ANYTHING online.
Having Barnes & Noble and a local Army-Navy store both offer to order something for me a while back convinced me that I should just order them myself (without giving a counter-person their “cut”).
“convinced me that I should just order them myself (without giving a counter-person their “cut”).”
I have read that in a fairly short time the brick and mortar retailers will be gone. Even Wal-Mart. They’ll just have warehouse operations and deliver stuff to you. It’s already happening. Several years ago Amazon.com handled a significant percentage of the everything sold in the US. This trend is being driven by high minimum wages and more and more government interference with the employer. Warehouse operations will be largely automated.
When the meat cutters at Wal-Mart unionized Wal-Mart fired them and outsourced cutting. Now they outsource most of their stocking. (Ask the guy stocking the shelves where to find something and he’ll likely tell you he doesn’t work there.)
It is government regulation driving this trend, not greedy business.
Where are all these illegal aliens going to work? There are only so many lawn maintenance jobs. And, if nobody else is working I guarantee they’re not concerned with the state of their lawn.